which current sports players do you consider classiest?

[yankees24]

which current players from all sports would you consider are the classiest, and worthy to view as a role model? thanks!

[tigerdale]

Curtis Granderson

[eisenreich8]

Andy Pettitte
Mike Lowell

[Manram]

Milton Bradley

[LastingsMilledge85]

Lastings Milledge . Anyone on the Nationals, Willingham and Nieves in particular. I really don't think there is anyone nicer than Wil Nieves.

[legaleagle92481]

Nobody. Athletes are not role models nor should they be. They were blessed. Yes they worked hard but if they were not a certain size or had certain natural skills most would not be where they are today. If Shaq was a foot shorter would he be an NBA star? If Favre did not have the ability to accurately throw a football 70 yards would he be in the NFL? If Clemens could not throw 95 mph would he have been a pitcher? This does not make a person qualified to be a role model. On top of it most of them do not have college degrees, many commit multiple acts of adultery a year or father childern out of wedlock and many others cheat at their sport i.e. use performance enhancing drugs. These are people most of us have never even met and if we did meet them it was for a second while they signed an autograph for us or some of us have had a business relationship with some of them. So how can someone determine who is classy and who is not? Yes many have done great deeds but that does not make them an allaround classy person or a role model. Look at Tiger Woods he has done alot for the community, always had a squeaky clean public image and was the first african american man to dominate or even be competitive in his sport. On the surface he seemed like a classy, great role model. This lasted for over a decade and then wham it turns out he has a sex addiction that caused him to have reems of women despite being married with young kids and his connection to that doctor means he very well may have used performance enhancing drugs. Anyone still think he is a classy, role model?

Athletes, celebrities and politicans should not be role models. Parents, grandparents, older siblings, aunts and uncles should be.

[kellsox]

Andy Pettitte
Mike Lowell

Admitted HGH user, but at least he did it classy....

[eisenreich8]

Admitted HGH user, but at least he did it classy....

Yeah, I weighed the HGH use into my decision to list him, but who among us is squeaky clean? The classy part to me does not get trumped by the HGH indiscretion.

I find it painfully difficult to populate the classy list from those I consider.......anyone posting for the "assiest" list will get a lot more traffic.

[allstarsplus]

[quote=LastingsMilledge85;193308]Lastings Milledge . Anyone on the Nationals, Willingham and Nieves in particular. I really don't think there is anyone nicer than Wil Nieves.[/quote]

Cal Ripken of the icons. For an everyday player, Wil Nieves is amazing. Brian Schneider (now of the Phillies) is another amazing guy.

Retired players, Frank Howard will sign and inscribe anything you want and take pictures with you and probably mow your grass if you asked him.

In hockey, Robert Lang has always been so gracious and nice and that goes back many years.

In football, anybody not named Deion Sanders.

In basketball, I definitely enjoyed Darryl Strawberry's son DJ Strawberry. So nice to my kids and a well mannered young man.

There are so many others but those guys really have stood out for me.

[sportscentury]

Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Grant Hill, and Steve Nash come to mind in the NBA. Until his recent nude photo debacle, I would have had Greg Oden on this list, as well. Still seems like a very polite, nice, mannerly young (old?) man, but it's a little harder to list him next to guys like Duncan and Hill now.