The national media have been swirling around the incident that involves a professional football player named Richie Incognito of the Miami Dolphins using racial comments and hazing on another teammate.

Professional athletes are viewed as role models for today’s youth and teenagers involved in athletic programs.  Greene County head football coach Dean Lansman says when these professional athletes make poor judgements like what Incognito did, the entire nation is aware of it.  He believes that what needs to happen in these situations is to let our youth see the stiff punishment that these high-profile athletes get so that our youth can understand how making bad choices can reflect negatively on yourself as well as your team.

As far as his football program goes, Lansman notes that even though there isn’t a team policy in place for hazing or anything like that, the coaching staff doesn’t tolerate it.  Unfortunately, he points out that in today’s society, other kids think it’s normal and funny to bully other kids without realizing the harm they are doing to someone else.  Lansman states that he instills in his players that they are a team and teammates don’t treat each other like that.

Lansman believes that it’s more important to build leaders for tomorrow rather than allow them to put each other down and make them feel belittled.