填空题

Screaming headlines about stars arrested for everything from spousal abuse to firearms violations make it painfully clear that athletic talent isn’t enough to deal with the rigors of being a pro.
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A team that finds itself in serious behavioral straits will often hire a famous person to help defuse the situation and help polish a tarnished franchise images -- witness the Dallas Cowboys naming extremely-clean former All-Pro running back Calvin Hill, a Yale Divinity School graduate, as a special consultant. There is an accompanying commandment, handed down from on high by the czars of prosports: If you’re an elite athlete, the role of role model is mandatory, not optional.
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"We’re running a business where players are our products. It’s a business with very visible and prominent young men in the forefront," says Pat Williams, senior executive vice president of the NBA’s Orlando Magic, a franchise that has hired "Doctor J", Julius Erving, as a broad-ranging am- bassador to the community, and the locker room. "Sure, we’re protecting the business, but we’re also protecting the sport, too. And having a bunch of lawbreakers playing your sport doesn’t make it attractive -- to fans or to sponsors. It’s also the right thing to do for these young men."
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Hill, who has held executive positions with the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Orioles since ending his playing days, says the pressure and scrutiny faced by his son, Detriot Pistons star Grant Hill, are far more intense than what he endured during his days in the 1960s and 1970s with the Cow- boys, Redskins and Browns.
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"What scares me about free agency is the same thing that scares me about society -- there is no longer stability or a sense of community," says Hill. "and that’s helped break down a sense of team culture and tradition."
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Not only are today’s new pros younger than ever, they have a healthy disrespect for their athletic elders and the traditions of the leagues they are entering, according to Gary Sailes, a sports sociologist at Indiana University.

• [A] But ask yourself: Does Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, hire Hill because he is genuinely concerned about the psychological effects of fame on Michael Irvin, a married man, who was found in a hotel room full of cocaine and exotic dancers Or does Jones. want to expropriate Hill’s upright image as whitewash for the damage done to his cash flow and corporate relations by Irvin and other members of "America’s Team"
• [B] "The value system are different," says Sailes, "The boundaries of their mainstream don’t intersect with the boundaries of mainstream America. And if you’re not finding some way to bridge the gap between mainstream America and where these kids come from, you’re wasting your time."
• [C] At the heart of all this counseling and concern is the day-to-day pressure on a pro athlete. "There is a lot of money and fame involved when you sign a NBA contract," says Lamont Winston, who handles player programmes for the Kansas City Chiefs. "Yet there is nowhere in that contract that says you will feel tremendous stress, you will feel tremendous anxiety and pressure."
• [D] In basketball, Williams sees a more devastating version of the maturity problem affecting pro sports, cause by the influx of younger and younger players who have decided to abandon the final two years of college, or ditch college altogether.
• [E] And this touches on a key problem that a generic mentoring programme may not address: there are crucial cultural differences between the athletes and the world they are about to enter.
• [F] He also points to a destructive consequence of free agency -- the end of a natural clubhouse system of veteran players who served as mentors to young rookies, passing on the traditions and expectations of a particular club, be it the Detriot Tigers or the Washington Redskins.
• [G] Coaches, owners and managers acknowledge the increasing need to teach their talents how to act, what and whom to avoid and what burdens accompany the money and the fame. The players need to be taught about everything from finances and career choices outside the game to emotional counseling and substance abuse.

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