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Above the fray Racing remains outside the lines when it comes to scandalsPosted: Tuesday July 22, 2003 11:49 AM
While Kobe Bryant maintains he's disgusted with himself for "making a mistake of adultery," many are quick to theorize that it probably wasn't the first time Kobe did the deed outside the vows of marriage -- just the first time he got caught. Others counter with the argument that the alleged victim should have known better than to go to the room; call it the Mike Tyson defense. In any case, recent transgressions by athletic heros have done little to dim the glow fans cast upon the players. Iron Mike? Pony up the bucks for his next pay-per-view. Michael Jordan? Kids still want to be like Mike. O.J.? He's still looking for Nicole's killer, who, judging by the Juice's stakeout techniques, must be lurking in the rough of a swank country club fairway. For all of its faults -- real or perceived -- NASCAR has managed to steal a page from John Gotti's playbook: nothing sticks in this sport. Aside from Tim Richmond dying of AIDS, the France family empire has been devoid of tabloid-type stories -- especially now that Brooke Gordon has taken her money and run. There is no talk of drivers walking out on strike for a bigger piece of the pie. There is no drug testing. Rarely is there an incident where a driver is cited for driving under the influence, arrested for drug possession or testing positive for steroids. "We do have a responsibility," says Ken Schrader. "I mean, we look at ourselves as plain ol' everyday folks but there are others who watch what we do pretty closely. We have a responsibility to that. As a parent myself, I wish everyone -- drivers, other professional athletes, entertainers, politicians, whoever -- would live up to that too. "It really boils down to what kind of role model you are going to be. You are either going to be someone people, especially kids, can look up to, or you are going to be someone their parents like to point at and say, 'Don't be like him!' I'd much rather be on the front page of the paper for winning a race than being arrested for something." Those quick to dismiss NASCAR as a bunch of rednecks the general public doesn't really care about should consider many of these guys have the same perks -- and temptations -- at their disposal as the athletes in more mainstream sports. Dale Earnhardt Jr. has money to burn, as does Busch driver Brian Vickers or even the Truck series' Jason Leffler. NASCAR drivers are subjected to the same tempations as Kirby Puckett, Darrell Russell or Mark Chmura, yet never seem to stumble. At least publicly. And the women in sports are also in the spotlight and feel the pressure to live up to expectations. Says Christi Passmore, a rookie ARCA driver: "Somebody is always watching what you are doing, and as an adult, you have a responsibility to those who look up to you. Whether it's your own kids or somebody else's, or just somebody who you influence, you have that responsibility. "I don't see myself being a role model for young girls necessarily as much as a role model for girls and boys. I want kids or young people of any age to be able to look at me and think, 'Hey, she is doing things the right way.' ... No, I'm not in the public eye anywhere near someone like Jeff Gordon or someone like that is, but if just one person is influenced in a very positive way because of me, then I'm really happy about that." ARCA driver Andy Belmont adds, "We've avoided a lot of the problems for the most part because the sport's organizers don't offer flexibility to those who act up. It's pretty simple. If you want to be a NASCAR driver, being a cowboy just isn't acceptable in today's times. "Sometimes it gets to be too much, and I do think we need more personality and less homogenization of the drivers. But when you see what has happened in so many other sports so many times, you become more grateful for what the sport is." B. Duane Cross is a senior producer for SI.com.
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