Lovable Jock

"It's gonna be okay, man. Just tell me who they were...so I can go beat the crap out of them."

The Jerk Jock's answer to the Lovable Alpha Bitch or the Class Princess. It is typical in most high school settings to have the jock as the bad guy but this trope is a method of portraying jocks in a positive light. After all, people don't automatically turn into sociopaths the moment they join a sports team.

The Lovable Jock differs from the Lovable Alpha Bitch in that while the Alpha Bitch can still be a bully to everyone except the main character to count, the Lovable Jock will be a Nice Guy by default. Though sometimes connected to one, he is rarely the main man of the high school and will usually be in contrast to an actual Jerk Jock. If the Jerk Jock is blond, the Lovable Jock may be brunet(te) or redheaded, though blond(e) Lovable Jocks are common too. But that isn't a license to try anything funny on him or anyone he cares about; remember, being a jock means lots of exercise and quite often a lot of muscle. If anyone dares to try Bullying a Dragon or attacking his Protectorate, he will wipe the grass with them.

In many a sports setting, a Lovable Jock is The Hero (and The Leader if he has a team) of these stories by default. If not, expect him to be The Lancer or even a friendly sidekick. Both the Lovable Jock and his team will also be countered by an Opposing Sports Team in some scenarios. A Face in Professional Wrestling is usually this, although he's not immune to using harder methods as aforementioned if someone messes him off.

A variation can come where the Jock is merely too stupid to be genuinely spiteful, in which case compare Kindhearted Simpleton. At other points, the Jock is a Genius Bruiser and Academic Athlete, and gets on with nerds and other sorts because he's capable of holding a conversation with them, and may himself be geeky about the sport he plays. Doubly so if the sport he plays is Baseball, in which case see Game of Nerds.

Female cheerleaders or athletes who are not the Alpha Bitch can go here instead of Lovable Alpha Bitch since that trope is reserved for the actual Alpha Bitches. Speaking of female characters, a Lesbian Jock can be an example too. The Jock need not be on the football team, but on any other sports team in any setting. Both are Truth in Television.

Compare and often overlaps with The Quarterback, Big Man on Campus, and Gentle Giant.

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Examples:

Male examples:

Anime & Manga

• The new Subterra brawler in Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders is a football player, with the same football team as cheerleader and previous Subterra brawler Juli.
• Blue Flag has Touma Mita, the Big Man on Campus. He is the star of the school's baseball team with many women fawning over him. He is also a complete sweetheart who is nice even to the people that others seem to ostracize.
• Tsubasa Ohzora from Captain Tsubasa is possibly the Trope Codifier in anime and manga. He's a handsome and popular Child Prodigy in regards to soccer, but he works very hard for his success, truly loves the sport, and cares very much for his teammates and his friends.
• Touya and Yukito from Cardcaptor Sakura are sports stars at their high school. Both are very nice people overall, but Yukito is a Nice Guy while Touya is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• Eyeshield 21 is basically what happens when you take the most socially challenged kids in Japan and make them play team sports. Kurita is probably the most prominent, though there's also Sakuraba, Mizumachi, and Yamato.
• The majority cast of Haikyuu!! are technically all jocks, with some——particularly our two main characters, being more passionate than others. And it is an absolute joy to watch these characters interact and play the game that they all love.
• Kuroko's Basketball:
  • Subverted with Kuroko, who is a very nice and polite individual, but lacks the athleticism to fit this trope. Even with all his improvements, he's still below the level of the average player (for the most part).
  • Kagami falls into this from time to time after he becoming a full-fleshed member of Seirin. He's respectful to his coach and senpai, he's nice to his fellow first-year teammates and supportive to Kuroko. He's still a very aggressive player with a hot temperament though.
  • Kiyoshi, one of the Five Uncrowned Kings, is always friendly and cheerful (unless he's pissed) and very supportive towards his teammates, and puts the safety of his team above his own.
  • Kise, while occasionally very arrogant, becomes this soon after his debut and losing to Seirin. Even when the members of Generation of Miracles started to become Jerk Jocks, Kise never became a full jerk and he was always nice to Kuroko.
  • Aomine, the Ace of the Generation of Miracles, was originally this, encouraging Kuroko to continue practicing and he was overall a very friendly and happy individual. Then he felt Lonely at the Top and descended into a Jerk Jock. Even after mellowing out, he has never fully returned to being a Lovable Jock.
• Mashin Hero Wataru Series: Wataru is an academically average kid whose talents lie in sports. One of the reasons the Dragon God chose Wataru to be their world's savior was by checking the number of awards he received from sports competitions that were laid out in his bedroom. On top of that, he is an All-Loving Hero.
• Basketball player Wakamatsu in Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun is friendly to everyone he meets, even Loving Bully Seo. His way of trying to express his annoyance is to glare at her, but since he doesn't want to be rude he also greets her at the same time.
• Slam Dunk has Akira Sendoh and Kenji Fujima. Both are high-ranked aces in their school teams and very popular among girls, but remain polite and relatively down-to-earth.

Comic Books

• Archie Comics:
  • "Moose" Mason. Originally he was batshit insane and was universally feared by the entire school (even some teachers) since he would savagely beat anyone who even looked in Midge's general direction. He's mellowed considerably as the comics moved on, so long as no one is trying to steal his girl.
  • Archie himself, who is portrayed as playing baseball, football, and basketball, although he's significantly less talented at it than Moose. He's still known as one of the nicest guys in Riverdale, walking disaster or not.
• Astro City: The story "Wish I May..." has Chet Markham, quarterback of the high school football team, and the only non-Jerk Jock who tries repeatedly to befriend Teen Genius Evil Nerd Simon Siezmanski.
• Dynamo5: While Gage shows signs of being a Jerk Jock in the first issue, he's actually a nice enough guy, and is the first of the five siblings to start bonding with another, namely Hector, the geeky one in the group. In issue 2, they talk about girls while doing surveillance, and later Gage is very supportive of Hector's performance in the fight against Whiptail.
• Ben Grimm, a.k.a. The Thing, from the Fantastic Four, who used to be a star football player in high school. He became fast friends with the intellectual Reed Richards, a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic, once the two of them met in college.
• Ronnie Raymond, one half of Firestorm, as well as his teammate Jefferson Jackson. Gerry Conway wanted to invert the Spider-Man set-up, so he made the protagonist a likable but aloof jock, who is hassled by a Nerdy Bully. Modern adaptations like the New 52 tend to make Ronnie a lot less lovable.
• Kyle Mizoguchi of Gotham Academy is a popular tennis star who is also caring, respectful and kind and willing to make an embarrassment of himself in front of the entire school to help his sister and her friends get away with escaping from the school chaperones to go looking for answers to one of their family mystery.
• In Robin Tim finds his burgeoning relationship with Zoanne threatened by a really kind tennis player and his own frequent absences. Tim can't even be mad at the guy since he goes out of his way to help Tim improve his tennis game without ever being condescending about Tim's shortcomings in the sport and the fact that he doesn't actually ask Zo out since he's aware there's something undecided going on between her and Tim.
• Spider-Man: While Flash Thompson is arguably the Trope Codifier of the Jerk Jock, he actually transitioned into becoming this after he and Peter started attending college. Even his high-school self, though often cruel and petty, had his moments. For all his bullying of Peter, Flash's admiration for Spider-Man was genuine and went deep enough that he remained a vocal Spidey supporter even when the rest of New York was convinced that Spidey was a murderer.
• In contrast to most of the character's history, John Byrne retconned Superman's alter ego Clark Kent to have been a football star in high school. Being Clark, he was still a nice guy, of course, but in the late '80s and into the '90s, he was depicted as actually having been both popular and visibly athletic in his teen years.
• X-Men: Gentle Giant Beast was an athlete in high school before he grew his fur.

Comic Strips

• During his football-playing days, BD from Doonesbury tended to oscillate between this and Jerk Jock.
• Minor character Ox from Luann is a good-hearted simple big guy who protects would-be bullying victims by threatening the bully.

Fan Works

• The Bolt Chronicles: Nice guy Bolt goes on daily conditioning runs, is able to do full backflips, and remains in top shape well into old age. In "The Wedding Reception," Mittens refers to Bolt as "the closest thing I've ever seen to Bo Jackson in the dog world." Specific examples:
  • In "The Ski Trip," Bolt is able to downhill ski by standing on all fours on a pair of skis (with Mittens and Rhino in tow) despite never having attempted this before. His somewhat awkwardly executed success is attributed to "his crouched stance and decent sense of balance."
  • In "The Baseball Game," Bolt is pressed into playing duty while serving as honorary team Mascot mascot. He scores the winning run as a pinch-runner for an injured player (demonstrating significant speed and leaping ability), and later clinches victory when he pulls off a triple play manning second base despite lacking a glove and the ability to throw a baseball properly (showing alertness and quick reflexes in addition to the qualities mentioned above).
• A Dance on the Mats: Anon is a tough fighter and throws some shade, but he is a decent guy who refuses to hurt someone severely and gives honest praise to his opponents.
• Equestria Girls: A Fairly Odd Friendship has Rumble, is the captain of Canterlot's youth track team. Despite Timmy's fears that he would be a mean snob, he's quite friendly and generous to Timmy.
• Glee Reprise has Tony, who's on the football team, is a pretty down-to-earth guy, and tries to keep the disparate club members from destroying each other near the fic's beginning.
• Skyhold Academy Yearbook gives this role to Krem Aclassi, who is also The Quarterback and the Big Man on Campus.
• Total Drama Legacy:
  • Storm. In contrast to the Total Drama series' previous tomboyish and athletic girls Eva and Jo, Storm is a Nice Girl with a heart as big as her muscles.
  • Wayne. He may be a Dumb Jock, but he means well in spite of his stupidity.
  • Due to the Adaptational Nice Guy treatment he receives in this fic, Lightning is this.
• In Under the Northern Lights, Prince Vigg can be an immature brat but is usually quite a nice guy. His greatest interest seems to be winter sports, mostly skiing both cross-country and downhill. He and his friends have apparently invented the snowboard as well.
• In the X-Men: Evolution fanfic XXY:Evolution, where most of the characters are genderbent, John Grey (male Jean Grey) is captain of the football team and a Nice Guy. He never uses his powers to cheat in the games, prefers playing fair. Kit Pryde (male Shadowcat) even sees him as a Cool Big Bro-figure, since he's not like the Jerk Jocks who bully him at his old school. There's also John's friend and teammate Tyron (male Taryn Fujioka), who's also a nice jock and was even sympathetic towards Bulk (female Blob) while his female counterpart shunned Blob in the show. To Kit's surprise, Tyron is also into science fiction and fantasy, giving the two something to talk about.
• Arcadia:
  • Averted with Jaune. Despite fitting the typical profile and being incredibly fit, Jaune shuns all organised sports outside his gym habit for three reasons: 1. lack of interest. 2. He doesn't have the time due to his job after school, and 3. He fears that with his exaggerated strength, he could accidentally hurt somebody.
  • Played straight with Yang and Pyrrha. Yang is a member of Beacon's martial arts team, a Boisterous Bruiser and kind to a fault, whilst Pyrrha is a champion triathlete and celebrity who has not let fame make her jaded.

Films — Animation

• In Bee Movie, these are the Pollen Jocks (i.e., the bees who leave the hive to collect pollen). When Barry and Adam are pretending to be Pollen Jocks to impress some girls, a pair of real Pollen Jocks come over and, while not revealing the truth, decide to mess with them by challenging them to come along on their next mission. When Barry actually shows up, they talk their superior into letting him come along.
• Mitch from ParaNorman is of the Dumb Jock variety. He a nice guy who has a strong Big Brother Instinct towards his younger brother Neil; despite this Mitch shares the low opinion the rest of the town has toward Norman. Even telling Neil, he should not hang around Norman because of his reputation. However, Mitch was never mean to Norman directly, agrees to drive everyone to look for Norman when he was missing, became a believer in his gift to see ghosts, and finally stands up to the townsfolk when they want to hurt Norman.

Films — Live-Action

• 22 Jump Street has Zook. Zook is a college football player whose also a very Nice Guy to everyone he meets. He also welcomes Jenko to the football team with open arms, while also being the only one amongst his football team to vouch for Schmidt because of his loyalties to Jenko.
• Flash Thompson of The Amazing Spider-Man initially started out as the resident Jerk Jock, but when Peter's uncle was killed, Flash goes to console Peter, and continues to do so, even when Peter shoves him against the lockers, telling him calmly to "let it all out". By the end of the film, the two have become good friends.
• Oz from American Pie becomes this as he joins the glee club and gets in touch with his sensitive side. This is Played for Drama when he tries to convince Heather that he's not just a jerk jock. Subverted in the beginning in that he joins the Glee Club just to get Heather into bed, though later he does develop feelings for her.
• The Breakfast Club: Andrew, a wrestler who gets no attention from his father and resorts to bullying a nerd once (which is what lands him in detention) and feels awful about it.
• Dazed and Confused: Main protagonist Randy "Pink" Floyd is the school's star football player, but unlike most of his teammates, he is friendly to all of the cliques - his fellow jocks, the stoners, even the nerds. In fact, it's his insistence to hang out with "losers" like the stoner kids that proves to be a main point of contention between himself and his coach and some teammates, especially Jerk Jock Benny.
• Wes from The Duff. Despite being introduced as a stereotypical football jock in his first scenes, he is actually one of the few people who try to help Bianca in the movie.
• Paul from Election, while not too bright, is a genuine Nice Guy who votes for his opponent in the titular school election because he thinks it wouldn't be fair if he voted for himself.
• Shawn Hatosy's Stan from The Faculty is a five-star athlete who wants to work hard to better his grades and is probably the nicest in the main cast.
• Forrest Gump's eponymous character is a kind and gentle (if very simple) young man and played football in college. He later becomes known for table tennis.
• The jocks in Grease are like this, although they still don't get the girl because they're too dumb and boring.
• Paul in The Half of It isn't the brightest guy and is essentially Ellie's romantic rival, he's a genuinely kind person and becomes her best friend.
• Troy from High School Musical is the star player of the school's basketball team, and the most popular guy in the school, and he's genuinely a lovely guy to everyone, with a willingness to look out for everybody. His teammates are also pretty nice guys, even Chad, who can be snarky.
• Johnny Be Good: As the protagonist, Johnny's main problem is an inflated ego caused by all the praise he's getting from recruiters.
• Cappie from Lucas used to bully the titular character, but did a Heel–Face Turn after Lucas helped him keep up with his studies when he fell ill and became Lucas's friend and protector, and it's not really his fault that the girl Lucas liked had a crush on him instead.
• Aaron from Mean Girls is seen playing football and is also on the swim team - and he's quite possibly the only wholly decent person in the cast.
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master: Dan Jordan, the popular sports jock whom Alice crushes on, is an all-around nice guy who avoids the mean behavior of the trope's counterpart.
• A Night at the Roxbury: Craig, Doug and Steve's friend and personal trainer. His introduction scene has him gently scolding the brothers about their wrong technique on a tricep exercise and then immediately apologising for his remark.
• Not Another Teen Movie: While Jake is certainly the Big Man on Campus, he's really not a bad guy. Spoofed however when he tries to be the "sensitive guy" by protecting his Love Interest's little brother from being bullied, only to receive an accidental punch to the face in return. Jake kicks the shit out of him in response.
• Most of the guys from Remember the Titans, but Gerry sticks out the most. So does Julius — once they get over their mutual prejudice and become Fire-Forged Friends, they're the ones most committed to keeping the team from falling apart.
• Summer School gives us Kevin, all-around Dumb Jock and Nice Guy.
• Tea and Sympathy has Al - an offscreen character in the original play. He's roommates with the Camp Straight Tom and tries to defend him from being bullied by the other boys.
• Varsity Blues has Mox first and foremost, but also the likes of Billy Bob and Wendell Brown.
• Jonathon from Were the World Mine is the only one on his school's rugby team who is not a Jerk Jock, and the only one who consoles the bullied protagonist Timothy, who has a crush on him. Turns out that Jonathon is a Straight Gay and Timothy is his Closet Key.

Literature

• 100 Cupboards has Zeke Johnson, the heroes' neighbour and family friend. General Nice Guy, local baseball star, eventual badass.
• Jake from Animorphs is introduced this way (his best friend Marco teasingly refers to him as "a Dumb Jock trying to be General Patton"). He tries and fails to get on the basketball team, but it's stated right away his build and strengths are suited more for football.
• Tommy Ross from Carrie. It's written that none of his classmates ( well, the surviving ones anyway, who tended to be some of the least popular kids in school) had anything bad to say about him. Unfortunately, he's usually considered a Jerk Jock by those who didn't know him but are writing about the incident at the prom.
• Also by Stephen King, Dennis Guilder from Christine is a high school football star and generally nice person who sticks up for his often-bullied nerdy friend Arnie Cunningham.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid Big Shot: Preet Patel is the only good player on Greg's team (at least until he's injured early on) and is surprisingly nice for a jock in the series. He happily goofs around with Greg and the other un-athletic kids in one scene. He later shows up to cheer for them during the final game after their humiliating season, while happily agreeing to play while wearing an orthopedic boot.
• Mike Peterefsky in Dinoverse is friends to shy, bumbling geek Bertram and doesn't seem to have a mean bone in his body — he's actually worried that Bertram will think less of him when they're thrust into a chaotic unfamiliar situation. For all that, though, he was more or less going along with it when Sean was making plans to cripple a slower-moving player on their team, until the adventure happens. When he returns he finds his courage and denounces Sean.
• Frank Merriwell, hero of the book series of the same name is an exemplary athlete both in skill and sportsmanship, and an all-around decent chap. Other athletes in the story, not always so decent.
• Fun Jungle: Basketball stars Ethan and Dash, who befriend Teddy in the second book, save him from a bully's attack, and are sometimes willing to help him out in later books.
• Harry Potter:
  • Harry is an example, along with most Quidditch players who don't play for Slytherin.
  • Cedric Diggory is another prominent example, even though his house (Hufflepuff) isn't usually considered a "jock" house. He's such a Nice Guy that he once tried to forfeit a match immediately after winning. (Harry ended up passing out due to the presence of the Dementors while the two were racing for the Golden Snitch, and Cedric didn't notice until after he caught it.) His request was denied on the grounds that he hadn't actually broken any rules, so his win was totally fair.
  • Ron became a Quidditch Keeper in book 5 (But not in the movies until 6) and is a still pretty decent, if occasionally very insensitive, guy.
  • James Potter is overall this with elements of Jerk Jock (however, the only time he was a jerk was mainly beyond his complex and mutual hatred with Severus Snape and beyond that were his pranks.) After he 'deflates his head,' he is much more readily seen as one. However, it's difficult to guise this since the only perspective we've seen this of him were the Marauders (his long time friends), Snape (mutual hatred), and Lily (she initially thought little of him though a large part may have stemmed from his and Snape's animosity with one another since Snape was her friend until 5th year. Interestingly enough, after that point, she goes from supposedly not liking him in 5th year to dating him in 7th year and marriage soon after. This prompts some to assume Lily's dislike was actually her being a form of Tsundere.
• Just Juliet: Scott is a football player, though also a kind, sensitive guy. Also he's openly gay and doting on his boyfriend, breaking with the aggressively heterosexual stereotypes of male jocks.
• Jason Farley-Shaw in Loveless is a member of the university's rowing team and the tallest member of the main cast, yet he's gentle and understanding towards Georgia.
• P. G. Wodehouse's schoolboy hero Mike Jackson, best-known as Sidekick to Psmith in the Psmith series. He's terrible in school but an exceedingly skilled cricket player, and he suffers from a severe case of Chronic Hero Syndrome.
• Josh Newman from The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series is stated to be on the football team though the books are set in the summer.
• Calvin from A Wrinkle in Time, who's said to be a popular athlete at Meg's school but has no problems hanging out with geeky, bespectacled Meg and going on a multidimensional space quest with her and her brother Charles Wallace.

Live-Action TV

• 8 Simple Rules: Kyle is said to have shoved nerds in lockers but we've never actually seen him bully someone and he seems like a nice enough guy.
• 13 Reasons Why:
  • Jeff is the lone Nice Guy among the jocks, who get ridiculous privilege because of their athletic success. When Clay helps him with his schoolwork, he responds by trying to set him up with girls. Making it all the more heartbreaking when it's revealed he died in a car accident months ago.
  • Zach seems to also be slightly nicer than his meathead teammates. He makes something of a Heel–Face Turn in the finale.
• All American: Both the Beverly Hills and Crenshaw team are full of them, but Spencer stands out as he cares for his family and friends, sometimes above his own needs. And while Jordan and Asher started out as the opposite of this trope, after Character Development they become a lot nicer.
• American Vandal: Deconstructed in the second season with Demarcus, the school's star basketball player. He's a charming, back-slapping, hail-and-well-met-fellow sort, always joking around with the other students. But those interactions often have something of an insulting edge, and Demarcus is certainly not above manipulating the school's devotion to athletics for his own benefit. For his part, Demarcus admits that he doesn't know if anyone in the school actually likes him, and his smiling persona is often an attempt to paper over the awkwardness of being a prominent black student in a heavily white school (one of his white friends assumed he had N-Word Privileges with Demarcus, for example).
• The Big Bang Theory: Penny's ex-boyfriend Zack has all the hallmarks of a big Dumb Jock mentally stuck in his late teens, but is also genuinely good-natured and kind and views the nerds as friends, especially Leonard. It helps that he shares a lot of their interests like comic books and video games, and finds their work in science cool even if he doesn't understand it. In his first appearance, the gang are visibly confused at having someone like him being so nice to them rather than bullying them. If anything, they are often the ones making fun of him, taking advantage of the fact that he is too stupid to realise they are insulting him.
• Big Wolf on Campus: Tommy Dawkins, the titular werewolf is a good-natured guy (if a little ditzy at times) and goes on to be good friends with the local weird goth guy, Merton. He also does what he can to help out the Monster of the Week, if said monster isn't actively trying to hurt someone.
• The professional UFC fighters on Bully Beatdown often come across as this since the whole premise of the show has them defending and avenging the little guy. This is particularly true of the host Jason Miller, who started the show partly because he was bullied as a child.
• Chuck: Devon "Captain Awesome" Woodcomb is a hyper-athletic, ridiculously good-looking surgeon who is genuinely just the nicest guy on the planet.
• Community: Troy might be a little insensitive sometimes, but he's probably the sweetest person on the show, and is The Heart of the group. Case in point? He's more turned on by girls in pajamas than lingerie because he just wants to know they're comfortable.
• Dead Gorgeous: David is affable and good-natured, he is not bright enough to be the Big Man on Campus. However, when he finds out that a nerd is being bullied into doing his homework for him (he was initially told the nerd was doing it voluntarily) he quickly forces the bully doing it to stop.
• Degrassi: Riley is also a Big Man on Campus and genuinely is not stupid. He starts off as a Jerk Jock but to him being in the closet about his sexuality but later opens up and becomes a lot more vulnerable and friendly.
• Freaks and Geeks: Todd, despite dating shallow and vapid Cindy Sanders and being Sam's unaware rival, is a super nice guy who thinks Sam is cool and doesn't try to battle him for Cindy.
• Friday Night Lights: Most of the cast, but especially Matt Saracen and Luke Cafferty. Taken further by Matt explicitly being stated as more of an art kid than a quarterback, he just happens to have the brains to back himself up on the field.
• Glee: Several examples
  • Mike and Matt are probably the only ones to have never bullied anyone and are immediately True Companions with the glee kids. The same goes for Sam, who was initially the target of bullying and so is more of a glee kid who happens to be a jock than the other way around (which probably is also Artie, too, though he is in a wheelchair).
  • Finn and Puck (after some Character Development) also count. Finn was more immediately kind and is the Quarterback, whilst Puck took longer and more realisation that high school bullying is fickle. And the same goes for Karofsky, who is a nice guy and even dates Blaine for a short while after coming to terms with his sexuality.
  • Out of the cheerleaders, Brittany probably counts as this since though she is part of the Power Trio, she is too sweet and dumb to be a Lovable Alpha Bitch, compared with the others.
• House of Anubis: Mick Campbell is a jock, yes, but also thought to be one of the sweetest and funniest people in the house. His close friendship with the nerdy, unathletic Fabian proves he's a good guy.
• Kamen Rider Fourze: Shun Daimonji, the school's star quarterback. He starts off as a Jerk Jock taken to such an extreme that he even interferes with Fourze defeating the Monster of the Week because of a grudge with the titular Kamen Rider. Later, though, he owns up to his father) and works toward becoming a better person. He even joins the Kamen Rider Club and assists Fourze in battle by piloting the Power Dizer.
• One Tree Hill: Lucas, Skills, Jake, and (after Character Development) Nathan are players of the Tree Hill High basketball team and nice guys.
• Our Miss Brooks: Stretch Snodgrass, Madison High's star athlete is dimwitted, but good-natured to the point where he's willing to transfer schools if it'll get his best friend Walter Denton on the Madison football team ("Two Way Stretch Snodgrass"). Stretch is apparently very popular; when he accidentally vandalizes the school in "Stuffed Gopher", Miss Brooks and Walter get a crew of students to fix the damage and cover for him.
• The Outer Limits (1995):
  • In "Stranded", Kevin Buchanan's elder brother Josh is a jock and a genuinely Nice Guy.
  • In "Abduction", the former Eden Park High School running back Ray seems to be a Jerk Jock since he taunts both Cody Phillips and Jason but he turns out to be a Nice Guy.
• Party of Five: Will. Bailey does blur the lines as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold though the Jerk part usually cancels out the Heart of Gold.
• Power Rangers:
  • Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers:
    • Jason Lee Scott participates in a number of athletic activities, with martial arts being his main focus. His outgoing, athletic nature makes him a natural leader of the Power Rangers, and he functions as a Big Brother Mentor to geeky Billy Cranston, building Billy's self-confidence by teaching him martial arts.
    • Jason's Friendly Rival Tommy and Jason's successor Rocky also qualify. They love martial arts as much as Jason and are among the nicest, friendliest people you will ever meet. and
  • Power Rangers Turbo: T.J. is charming, friendly and served on his high school baseball team. Carlos is a soccer player and has something of an edge, but hues closer to this trope than Jerk Jock.
  • Power Rangers Ninja Storm: Shane and Dustin are into skateboarding and dirt biking respectively. They are also pretty friendly, goofy and outgoing.
  • Power Rangers: Dino Thunder: Conner McKnight a star soccer player at Reefside High. While he starts off closer to a Jerk Jock, he quickly bonds with Ethan and Kira, and he grows kinder over time. He retains some of his rougher edges for much of the show, but is firmly a Lovable Jock by the end.
• Running Man: Kim Jong-Kook is a workout fanatic whose muscular physique gives him a distinct advantage in strength-based challenges. But his sense of humor, supportive attitude, and shyness towards women gives him an endearing quality that elevates him above the level of a stereotypical muscle-head.
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Harvey. His friends on the football team also seem nice enough.
• Saved by the Bell: AC Slater is a star wrestler and basketball player and, while a bit of a hothead, he's ultimately good-natured.
• School Spirits: Wally Clark, who is described by Rhonda as "part-boy, part-Golden Retriever", was a football star at Split River High when he died in 1983. While Simon immediately assumes that Wally is a stereotypical Jerk Jock, Wally is kind, patient, and compassionate towards Maddie, even comforting her when she cries.
• Scream Queens (2015): Chad Radwell. While initially appearing to be a straight-up Jerk Jock, it's revealed that his best friend is gay and he's completely accepting of it - even warning his Alpha Bitch of a girlfriend not to spread rumours about it in case he gets bullied. More Hidden Depths to Chad are revealed as the series goes on - to the point where he walks out on his family after they're rude to Chanel and Hester. By the end of the first season, he's one of only two people in the main cast who has not yet tried to murder someone.
• Scrubs: Turk played basketball and football in high school and in college took JD under his wing. They've been Heterosexual Life-Partners ever since.
• Super Human Samurai Syber Squad: Tanker is a football star but isn't mean to anyone other than Jerkass Malcolm Frink and even then he's quite mild in comparison to a regular Jerk Jock. Also, Tanker dates the resident genius.
• Most of the footballers in Ted Lasso, especially Sam and Dani. Roy is very rough around the edges but ultimately good hearted. Jamie, Isaac and Colin form a trio of Jerk Jocks at the start of Season One, but they have all face turned by Season Two.
• Teen Wolf: Danny. Ironically, he is best friends with Jackson, the Jerk Jock.
• The Vampire Diaries: Matt Donovan. On the other hand, Matt's best friend Tyler Lockwood is a Jerk Jock (at first).
• Veronica Mars:
  • The series notably has this in one episode where a girl cheats on her football-playing boyfriend with an artist. The "star athlete" turns out to be genuinely decent and caring, the artist... not so much.
  • Wallace, the star basketball player who is, with the possible exception of Meg (Alpha Bitch aversion cheerleader popular girl who is the nicest person around), the best person in the entire series.
• Wishbone: Wishbone's owner Joe is a basketball jock (his late father was a star player), but is invariably a Nice Guy and is a good friend to Black and Nerdy David, barring some episodes where he Took a Level in Jerkass (which are invariably reset by the end). This plays into the rivalry between him and Jerk Jock Damont Jones, who is the Power Trio's Sitcom Arch-Nemesis.

Podcasts

• Ethan Wright from the Cool Kids Table game Creepy Town. He's not too bright, but he's polite to everyone he interacts with. Shannon liked him enough that she brought him back for Sequinox.
  • JT from Bloody Mooney is an average jock (his claim to fame is a single catch in middle school, though it was a pretty good one). As such he's nicer than others. He also gets bullied by Keri.
  • Ethan returns for Sequinox and is just as nice a guy.

Pro Wrestling

• This is essentially Dwayne Johnson's gimmick when he's a face, especially post Rock & Sock Connection. He already was this to everyone in The Nation of Domination not named Farooq, buying them all expensive gifts so they could look the part like him.
• Alex Riley had a Jerk Jock gimmick on NXT so after his Heel–Face Turn he may qualify.
• Jesse Sorensen of U Know Pro, TNA, Ring of Honor, and many others. His gimmick is that of a former high school quarterback who still carries around a football from his glory days. Despite that, he's a very nice guy.

Tabletop Games

• Exalted: The Mast constellation in Exalted rules those journeys defined by the physical strength and exertion of those undertaking it. Sidereals who take on this archetype bear the trappings of wearing drab clothes, being honest and ignorant, being silent, and being strong. In its positive aspect, the Mast turns its strength to vital tasks that support the efforts and endeavors of others. In its negative aspect, the Mast strength is used without question and the mighty are unwilling to question their orders.
• Greyhawk: Kord is the Chaotic Good god of athletics and strength, and is quite a nice deity in general.
• Pathfinder: Kurgess is the Neutral Good god of bravery, sports, and competition. Born a mortal, he died saving the other competitors in a race from a trap set by his jealous rivals, and he's carried on that good nature into godhood. His itinerant priests often take up carpentry and make wooden toys to give to kids at sporting events, and they're known to provide minor healing for free to adventurers who regale them with tales of their bravery or best them in a test of strength.

Video Games

• The Jock villagers of the Animal Crossing series are basically this by design.
• Chandlo Funkbun from Bugsnax, who despite not being the brightest bulb is also surprisingly wise and a Nice Guy.
• In Dicey Dungeons Reunion, the Warrior reveals that he's making a fitness regimen and is writing a fitness manual. He also applies this in battle by using single-use workout cards to deal extra damage or give himself some permanent stat boosts to compensate not being able to get them by leveling up.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Jules from Final Fantasy VII Remake is very much this, being nothing but supportive and encouraging to Cloud, Tifa, and everyone else in his gym, he also shares his brother Andrea's open-mindedness and appreciatively commends Cloud's dance performance at the Honeybee Inn. In fact, going one step beyond, he even chastises Ronnie, one of his bodybuilding buddies, for being a Jerk Jock, pitting him in a squat-off against the considerably skinnier Cloud for the sole reason of serving Ronnie a helping of humble pie and teaching him not to be so superficial and full of himself.
  • Tidus and Wakka from Final Fantasy X. Really most of the Besaid Aurochs count. The Kilika Beasts are also shown to be nice enough.
• Roy from Harvest Moon: Animal Parade. Roy is a fun, outgoing jockey (i.e., the literal sort of jock as in he likes riding animals) and is fun-loving.
• In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, Kom loves playing sportsball with the kids and is willing to bend a few rules for them because he believes that having fun is the most important thing in sports.
• Filipe Hasse from Papers, Please, a cheery football player of the Arstotzkan Arskickers who's nice to the Inspector, and whenever he gets angry at you, it is well-deserved.
• Persona:
  • Akihiko Sanada from Persona 3 is a talented boxer with a laid-back personality.
  • Daisuke and Kou from Persona 4. They're dubbed the "Fellow Athletes", and they're outgoing, friendly people.
• Rave Heart: Prince Chad is well-known in his school for his athletic prowess, and he's very approachable and willing to help complete strangers. He's also one of the few people in Sector 1 who wants the give the Rave family the benefit of doubt when they're framed.
• From Rival Schools we have Roy Bromwell: star quarterback of Pacific High. In the first game, he was a Jerk with a Heart of Gold bordering on Jerkass and with a serious hate for Japanese people due to his grandfather's bad experiences in World War II. He loses much of his jerkassery in the sequel, recognizes it was wrong for him to hate on others, and becomes an all-around nice guy.
• Sonic the Hedgehog, usually characterized as cocky and somewhat aloof, yet friendly and laidback. He's also a Big Brother Mentor of sorts to Tails and is always supportive of him. This helped Tails overcome his timidness and insecurities, after this one was bullied during his early childhood by his peers for his twin tails and dorkiness.
• Alex from Stardew Valley is a shallow seeming athlete at first, but as the player raises their friendship level with him, a far more earnest side of his personality is revealed.
• Beat from The World Ends with You is a pro skateboarder who tries to act tough but is mostly goofy and kind, something he is embarrassed by when it's pointed out

Visual Novels

• The protagonist of Double Homework starts out as a Jerk Jock, but with everything he goes through, he learns how he's mistreated others, and he eventually becomes this.
• Extracurricular Activities features an entire cast of huge and lovable jocks who all play tennis together and you can date them.
• If My Heart Had Wings: The protagonist Aoi was a cyclist Speed Demon until a leg injury prior to the story, and is quite kind, albeit quite willing to smack Kotori for her bad attitude.
• Monster Prom: The werewolf Scott is a football player and also by far the nicest character among the main romanceable characters, being a sweet Kindhearted Simpleton and self-proclaimed "good boy".
• Kurt from Nicole is a blond jock, although he's also a Chivalrous Pervert.

Web Animation

• Everybody loves the Homestar Runner. He is a terrific athlete.
• Every member of the football team on The Most Popular Girls in School is nice, reasonable and open-minded, and they all serve as the Good Counterpart to the cheer squad.

Webcomics

• Academia has Jack Fortinbras, The Ace. Also a Genius Bruiser. See below for a female example.
• Most of the hockey bros in Check, Please!, overlapping with Academic Athlete in Shitty and Ransom's cases, although the two main characters don't play it quite straight. Bitty, the protagonist, is much more In Touch with His Feminine Side than the stereotypical male student athlete, and Jack is an emotionally inept perfectionist with anxiety issues, but they're both very sympathetic characters.
• Dear Children, a comic about a band of misfit high school teens who chase ghosts, surprisingly has several likeable athletes, including:
  • Cailin Carver, one of the main characters, is a ghost-obsessed girl one of whose ambitions is to join in girls' sports at her school. She is a Nice Girl who is friendly and kind to others.
  • Leo Fitzgerald, a side character, is a huge handsome hairy guy who is one of the highest-status students in the school, captain of the football team, and incredibly good to everyone with whom he deals, ranging from his equally high-status girlfriend Paige (whom he deeply loves) to Gabe, whom he had just met.
• Forestdale Gives us Adam Summers, a rabbit with a massive sport obsession who cares a whole lot about his friends and will go out of his way to protect each and every one of them.
• Mob Psycho 100 has the Body Improvement Club, a school club consisting of a group of fitness freaks that the hilariously scrawny Mob joins in hopes of improving himself. Even though he can’t remotely keep up with their strenuous fitness regimen, they respect that he tries his hardest and legitimately care for him as a friend rather than as a powerful esper like most others in his life. When Mob is threatened, the whole club doesn’t hesitate to go out and protect him.
• Jock from Nerd & Jock. His wholesome and encouraging friendship with Nerd is the driving force of the comic, and a Running Gag in the comic's earlier days is making him seem like a Jerk Jock (such as the classic "Give me your lunch money" line), and spinning them into something much friendlier (such as using said lunch money to actually buy lunch and saying next time, lunch is on him).
• This is the normal personality of Brother America in Scandinavia and the World, presented as a big, sorta dumb and obnoxious but always well-meaning jock. This changed in the period when he was possessed by the Trump skin blob when he became horrible to everyone, and America's nicer personality traits were taken up by Sister America. Eventually, the blob fissioned off to become an independent character, and Brother America returned to normal (the author has admitted he just missed the big lug too much to leave him possessed).

Web Original

• Caleb from The Bright Sessions might come off as a Jerk Jock at first due to his anger issues, but he's a genuinely sweet kid who tries his best to handle those issues, is friendly to just about everyone, loves his family and his boyfriend, Adam, and wants to use his empathy to help people.
• Jammer from the "Misfits and Magic" campaign of Dimension 20 was the Big Man on Campus at his old school and a gifted basketball player, and his first priority upon arriving at Gowpenny Academy is to start playing whatever sports they have. He's also the Team Mom, encouraging his friends at every step and helping keep Evan calm when his powers start acting up, and has no problem being friends with students who some would consider "uncool."

Web Video

• Dr Glaucomflecken: The Orthopedic Surgeon ("Ortho") is an enthusiastic jock who loves weight training and exercise, and calls everyone "bro." He's also by far the nicest of all the surgeons.

Western Animation

• Lee from The Amazing Spiez! is great at sports and quite popular around school, but he's friendly to everyone and a great big brother to his three siblings. He occasionally has a moment of arrogance or chauvinism, but he's set straight pretty quickly and usually learns his lesson.
• Angela Anaconda's brothers tease her a bit, but are more lovable than anything and genuinely do care about her. Very dumb, but lovable.
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Wheeler loves basketball and windsurfing (though his job means he's not part of a sports team during the show). While he can be insensitive, it tends to be unintentional. Anyone genuinely malicious messing with someone in front of him is asking for trouble, and multiple times during the show, he shows a soft side when one of the others is having a bad day.
• Kwan from Danny Phantom, though this was more of a case of Characterization Marches On since in his first few appearances, he was a bit of a Jerkass, albeit one pushed into being one by his peers.
• On Daria, pretty much all the jocks (but especially Kevin) fall into the "too-dumb-to-be-mean" category. An exception is Mack, who is smart but still nice.
• Chalky Studebaker from Doug. Unless he lets his competitiveness get the better of him, he's really nice.
• Wilt from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is very tall and enjoys sports and, as a result, is an excellent basketball player. Even his creator was Jordan Michaels. Yet even so, he's very kind to his friends, enemies, and even to total strangers, and will help anyone whenever possible.
• Naïve Newcomer Brett Hand from Inside Job (2021) was a Washington, D.C. Yes-Man who was hired by the Evil, Inc. despite having no experience whatsoever purely because of how charismatic he is and the fact that his face is so generic facial recognition software can't track it. He has a muscular build and joined 38 fraternities in college before being brought on to help Reagan manage team morale, with everyone immediately taking to him including Reagan herself by the end of the first episode.
• Happy Hogan in Iron Man: Armored Adventures was the Dumb Muscle comic relief. He's more of an acquaintance of Tony's than one of his inner circle but is a friendly Cloud Cuckoolander and a fan of Iron Man.
• Kim Possible:
  • Brick Flagg might be the boyfriend to Bonnie Rockwaller, but he's actually pretty decent (if a bit dim) judging from what few appearances he gets. He later goes off to college in the fourth season and dumps Bonnie.
  • Ron Stoppable later becomes this in the final season where all the experience running from danger and supervillains allowed him to become a very good running back.
• King of the Hill: In the episode "Peggy Makes the Big Leagues", Peggy meets a talented football player named David who is allowed to stay on the team in spite of his poor grades. When Peggy flunks him, therefore suspending him from the team because of the school's "no pass, no play" policy, it's the teachers and booster club who come after her and practically ostracize her, not David. In fact, throughout the episode, David was never seen as anything other than somewhat oblivious and entitled yet ultimately good-natured. When the booster club made a plan to make him look like he had a learning disability, he was furious and embarrassed to realize how easy it was for them to portray him this way because of how lazy he's been with academics. He comes to Peggy for help, admitting that he knows he's not that smart and hates feeling stupid, so he usually doesn't even bother trying with schoolwork since the other teachers will let him. When he shows he's willing to work hard to learn, Peggy ultimately decided to let him play.
• Bolin from The Legend of Korra has his Establishing Character Moment when he meets Korra and helps her avoid getting caught by the gym's owner. Mako has a Sugar-and-Ice Personality, but still qualifies.
• Miraculous Ladybug:
  • Lê Chiến Kim from is a hyper-competitive jock who has his jerkish moments but is generally a nice enough dude. He ultimately becomes one of the reserve superheroes, King Monkey.
  • Adrien Agreste fences and plays basketball, but he's a Nice Guy.
• Rico from Moville Mysteries is a jock so skilled he plays in adult teams despite being in high school, is skilled in basically any sport he plays, has talent hunters constantly hounding him, and is dumb as a sack of bricks. He is also the nicest guy at school and always tries to help people in need. And in the episode he accidentally became a supergenius, he wanted to use his talents in order to help the world instead of wasting them in sports.
• The appropriately named Bulk Biceps from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is a massive musclebound over-excitable and completely adorable example of this. He also must have one heck of a gentle and sensitive side, if he's able to be friends with Fluttershy of all ponies.
• Vince from Recess happily hangs out with a group of friends with various niches, and worships his "cool" older brother, unaware that he's actually a massive Geek.
• On The Spectacular Spider-Man Flash Thompson starts out as a Jerk Jock but eventually evolves into this.
• Larry the Lobster is easily the strongest character in SpongeBob SquarePants but he's also the friendliest after Spongebob himself. However, in a case of Early-Installment Weirdness, the season one episode "Ripped Pants" features a song with lyrics about how "big Larry came around just to put [Spongebob] down". This is especially odd because even in this episode, Larry is portrayed as friendly.
• Chet from Star vs. the Forces of Evil is as tall and muscular as an adult and walks around in his swim team uniform 24/7, but is also laid back and friendly. When Marco bumps into him in the lunchroom and spills food on his letter jacket, his response is "No worries, it's just a material possession."
• Meat from Sym-Bionic Titan also falls under the "too dumb to be spiteful" category, but he's actually quite nice to Newton/Octus.
• Cyborg used to be an athlete before he turned into what he is today in Teen Titans (2003).
• Total Drama
  • Tyler. While his sports skills aren't as good as he'd like them to be, he's still defined primarily by his sports playing — and he's also a devoted, patient boyfriend who's willing to befriend geeks and nerds and is adamantly against infidelity.
  • DJ and Geoff. While sports isn't as much of a defining characteristic for them compared to Tyler, they're both described by their official bios as being star players on their high schools' football team and are very much Nice Guys who get along with everyone.
  • Brick as a foil to Jerk Jock Jo. Although he's really a military cadet, he has a lot of traits associated with Lovable Jocks - strength, athleticism, loyalty, bravery, and a firm adherence to teamwork and good sportsmanship.
  • Wayne and Raj, while competitive and with dreams of becoming professional hockey players, are some of the nicest people on the show, always willing to lend their teammates a hand at all times. In particular, Wayne is very supportive of Raj after the latter realizes that he is gay and actively ships him with Bowie, whom Raj mutually develops feelings for.
• Evan/Spyke from X-Men: Evolution, though this is mostly in-universe since he's The Scrappy to most people.

Female examples:

Anime & Manga

• Natsuki Hayami from Amakusa 1637 was this, the Kendo Team Captain and the Student Council President before the Time Travel action took place.
• Kagura from Azumanga Daioh is a Hot-Blooded Boisterous Bruiser, who is overly energetic and often Book Dumb, yet she is kind and well-intentioned and deeply caring for her friends.
• Sakura Kinomoto from Cardcaptor Sakura is a top track & field athlete, a cheerleader, and the sweetest girl around. By extension, so are her cheerleader friends Chiharu and Naoko.
• The cheerleaders from Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Misa Kakizaki, Sakurako Shiina, and Madoka Kugimiya. Also the "sports girls": Akira Ookochi, Ako Izumi, and Makie Sasaki. Misora Kasuga and even Ayaka Yukihiro would count, but Misora can get very snarky and Ayaka takes a while to get there.
• Yotsuba Nakano of The Quintessential Quintuplets is the most athletic amongst her sisters (the school's basketball and track teams wish to recruit her full time) and she's also the nicest out of her sisters, being always bright and full of energy and with a penchant for never saying no whenever someone asks her for help.
• Utena Tenjou (the titular character of Revolutionary Girl Utena is a clear example from the first episode, where she's shown dominating at basketball to the delight of her female fanbase. She plays basketball frequently in the series, and occasionally baseball, among other athletic activities. Generally she's a sweet and well-intentioned girl, if a bit oblivious at times.
• Minako Aino from Sailor Moon was previously a star volleyball player on her school's team. She is also a hyperactive, outgoing Bully Hunter.

Comic Books

• More from Archie Comics: especially in modern-day stories, Betty is portrayed as an Academic Athlete who also does about a million different volunteer jobs around town and is well-liked.
• The New 52 version of Harley Quinn loves full contact sports such a boxing and roller derby, mainly due to the raw physicality involved. And while she's not a straight-up good guy, she still has enough redeeming qualities to count as "lovable".
• In Spider-Girl Mayday Parker started out as belonging both to the jocks and the nerds of Midtown High. Her good friend Davida Kirby is a straighter example of this trope.

Comic Strips

• Peanuts: Peppermint Patty. Flanderization, combined with the Comedic Sociopathy that characterized the strip, moved her into Jerk Jock territory occasionally, but at heart she was a dim but loyal tomboy harboring a crush on Charlie Brown.

Films — Animation

• In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, the human version of Rainbow Dash is a soccer player, and is explicitly stated to be the captain of every sports team at Canterlot High. Like her pony counterpart, she's a loyal friend and good with children.

Films — Live-Action

• The leads (and other teammates) from Bend It Like Beckham - all kind, fun-loving girls who play as a team.
• Bring It On was one of the first mainstream films to show cheerleading as a legitimate athletic pursuit, and subvert a lot of the negative stereotypes surrounding cheerleaders. Torrance for example just wants to help her team win, and she shows Tomboy Missy that there's more to the sport than what she expects.
• Amber from DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story is a cheerleader but is kind and sweet, in contrast to her rather nasty boyfriend.
• Casey from The Duff may count, being a soccer player. She may be tough, but she's not mean.
• Lynda of Halloween (1978) is a cheerleader and the Final Girl's best friend, considerably nicer than the other, non-cheerleader, friend.
• The jock girls in Mean Girls are competitive but still shown as good people. Regina joins them at the end. This is said to be a good thing, as they're not afraid of her and so she doesn't bully them.

Literature

• The girls on the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Quidditch teams in the Harry Potter books. Both Harry's girlfriends Cho Chang and Ginny Weasley played the same position as him, although Ginny only substituted for him in three games, the first two because of Umbridge's hostile takeover of Hogwarts, and third due to detention. She otherwise played as a goal-scorer. It's worth noting that there are no girls playing for Slytherin and Hufflepuff, the two teams shown with more Jerk Jock players than the others.
• I Am Jazz: Jazz is a very patient, mild-mannered kid, and she also plays soccer.
• Reign of the Seven Spellblades: Nanao Hibiya, The Lancer of the series, is a middling student academically but excels at the athletic sides of Kimberly's curriculum: born into a samurai family, she's been swinging a sword since she was big enough to pick one up, and her experience as a cavalrywoman turns out to be very useful in riding flying broomsticks. She loves her friends as passionately as she loves swordplay, and has a lot of empathy for antagonistic students that is prone to inducing Heel Face Turns.
• In the Sabrina the Teenage Witch novelisations, the (all female) gymnastics team are said to be popular and nice as well.

Live-Action TV

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy herself might count, as she was a cheerleader in her last school and she attempts to join them again. Back in her old school she just appeared to be a bit ditzy as opposed to actually mean.
• In Sabrina the Teenage Witch Valerie joins the second-string cheerleader squad.
• Kelly and Lisa were on the cheerleading squad in Saved by the Bell. Jessie also joins as well. The girls are also said to play volleyball.

Pro Wrestling

• Naomi Knight from NXT season 3 is another example. The other girls were mostly talked up as being in fitness and power lifting but Naomi came from a dancing and basketball background and her athletic prowess was always referenced.
• Michelle McCool in her face persona was created around this trope, with the announcers talking up her athletic ability and vignettes also promoting it.

Video Games

• Vivian Bergman (Ravian Merii) from Cherry Tree High Comedy Club is good at several sports, including hockey. Talking to her about sports makes it much easier for Miley to recruit her into the comedy club, as it's one of Vivian's favorite conversation subjects.
• Audrey from Dicey Dungeons: She's very physically fit, is dressed in sweat-stained gym-wear, and before each boss battle against her, she will encourage the player. She'll even team up with the player in the game's Backstage chapter if they find her and defeat her.
• Lucy from Harvest Moon: Animal Parade loves a number of sports, including running and dance, and she's also very friendly. Bonus points: Both she and Roy are small children; about six years old. Sort of.
• Rival Schools: Tiffany, Roy's girlfriend, is a cheerleader and is mentioned to be outgoing and friendly from the very start, unlike Roy who first had to get Character Development.

Visual Novels

• Emi Ibarazaki and Miki Miura from Katawa Shoujo. Both are talented track runners despite their physical handicaps (Emi had her legs amputated and runs with prosthetics, Miki lost a hand and had only her stump), as well as very lovable persons. And Emi is one of the five possible love interests as well! Getting her route, however, will show the player that while Emi is a genuinely kind girl, she's got far more issues than you'd think.

Webcomics

• Academia: Ida Portinari, training to be an Olympic figure skater, tries to be an example of this, but can be a little bitchy now and then.

Western Animation

• Francine from Arthur is either this or a Jerk Jock. She loves playing sports and is generally rough-and-tumble with a Jerk Witha Heart Of Gold personality. Whether the "Jerk" or the "Heart of Gold" is being emphasized depends on the writer.
• Kim Possible: Kim is a cheerleader who is constantly helping others, and whose best friend (later boyfriend) is a total ditz.
• Lynn Loud Jr. The Loud House, Even though she does veer into the Jerk Jock and Big Sister Bully categories at times, she is still a friendly and outgoing girl and her heart is in the right place.
• Martha Speaks: Alice Boxwood is very good at baseball, soccer, and ice hockey and she's very active (if a bit clumsy). She's also a very good friend to the other children. Helen, Truman and T.D., her friends, are also very friendly. They're athletic too and sometimes play sports, but they're not as sporty as Alice.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Rainbow Dash is somewhat rude and insensitive, but will always stay true to her friends. Unlike most female examples, she's not a cheerleader, but a racer. Not to mention she is very good with children, especially Scootaloo. She has an interest in sports outside of racing, if a few episodes are to be believed, making her a good example of this trope.
  • Applejack is a less boisterous example, mostly. On a few occasions, Rainbow Dash can show shades of Jerk Jock, while Applejack is more unambiguously this trope.
• Skara from The Owl House is, for the most part, shown to be friendly to just about everyone when Boscha's Toxic Friend Influence isn't at play. She's also a member of both Hexside's Grudgby and Flyer Derby teams.
• On Total Drama: Sky makes some questionable choices, but is never malicious, always dedicated to teamwork, and despises cheaters.
• Lor from The Weekenders fits the Dumb Jock stereotype, but shows loyalty to her friends.
• Jean Grey is this herself in X-Men: Evolution as the school's soccer star. Although referred to as 'Miss Perfect', she's considerate and gracious to everyone.

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