Originally published in Commercial Appeal

By Michael Kuh

A friend asked the other day when sports would finally resume play. I don’t know the answer — it will certainly be much later than we wish it to be. But whatever the case, we should take a step back and acknowledge the public service that sports have played in addressing the health crisis. It wasn’t until the leagues canceled games and other events that most Americans truly took the coronavirus threat seriously.

That is an overlooked fact.

Charles Barkley had it slightly wrong when he famously said that athletes were not role models. “Just because I can dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids,” he said in an iconic Nike ad campaign from 1993. There may be something to this, but that doesn’t mean that sports don’t play a huge role in society at large — and it’s not just about the games.

Players like Barkley may not wish to be role models, but, like it or not, we pattern our behavior, consciously or subconsciously, to some degree on what we see influencers, like athletes, do. Kids do aspire to be like them, and whether buying products or on the issues of the day, millions of people take their cues from them.

Read the full article at Commercial Appeal. 

Michael Kuh is a partner in Hogan Lovells’ Sports and Entertainment Practice in New York City.