You are right that not every sports person is a hero.  Some of them are wonderful because they do a great job at their particular sports, and others also give a lot of their resources (money and time) to charity.  Not all of them do.  However, they are often worshipped by people because they are amazed by the stardom and such.

What really pisses me off is when one of these wonderful sports figures does do something wrong whether it be illegal, or just immoral like having affairs, we seem to just let it go.  Maybe a slap on the wrist, or we are disappointed for awhile until they make a clearly spun statement, that isn't even how they probably feel, and it's okay again.  If the regular citizens like us did bad things, we would be looked down on for life and judged no matter how many good things we may have done.  Clearly a double standard.