love/hate relationship with sports and athletes
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Here is a fact. There are no statistics to back it up but it is just as true as anyone's batting average or who leads the NFL in touchdown passes. You are a fan. You do not own athletes and they do not owe anything to you. I do not care if you are season ticket holder (1st year or 31st season). I do not care how many jerseys you buy for you or your kids.
It annoys me to hear that so-and-so is the property of this NFL team or that NBA team. Do you have any clue how offensive that is? Are you the property of GM/Ford? How about Wal-Mart? Does your employer own you? Yeah, thats what I thought.
Fans love their sports but hate their pro-athletes. The professional athlete is adored in America and hated simultaneously. We love when they do things for our favorite team. But then hate them when they leave. I have news for you rust-belt cities you don't even want to live there. Why should you expect LeBron James to stay. Team owners like Dan Gilbert dehumanize their players by writing a smug letter to appease fans with displaced anger about their own lives.
You think you know athletes or even the talking heads on ESPN; just because you see them on TV daily or weekly. Remember when fans thought more kids should look up to Marvin Harrison? How did that turn out?
I'd take Chad Johnson/Ochocinco or Randy Moss him any day. But Moss is referred to as thug because frankly he is funny and entertaining.
In our society athletes are nothing more than gladiators trotted out for our entertainment. The glory is short lived; they are dehumanized and thrown away. We feel ok about it because they are paid large sums of money. All that does is buy us the ability to treat them as less than human. Because: "what do they care; they are rich".
It would be one thing if fans were principled in how they view athletes when in trouble with the law. But, fans rationalize certain crimes or players and crucify others. Fans want to control players because they don't "act a certain way". You know them boys gotta be kept it line. It doesn't matter if its professional or major college there is absolutely a racial component in this love hate dynamic.
There was outrage when it was learned that P-Diddy's son earned a football scholarship to UCLA. Interesting I never heard anyone complain about Andrew Luck's scholarship (his dad is the AD at West Virginia and played/worked in NFL).
It's sports enjoy the best athletes in the world competing.
Don't be mad that you weren't good at anything.
It annoys me to hear that so-and-so is the property of this NFL team or that NBA team. Do you have any clue how offensive that is? Are you the property of GM/Ford? How about Wal-Mart? Does your employer own you? Yeah, thats what I thought.
Fans love their sports but hate their pro-athletes. The professional athlete is adored in America and hated simultaneously. We love when they do things for our favorite team. But then hate them when they leave. I have news for you rust-belt cities you don't even want to live there. Why should you expect LeBron James to stay. Team owners like Dan Gilbert dehumanize their players by writing a smug letter to appease fans with displaced anger about their own lives.
You think you know athletes or even the talking heads on ESPN; just because you see them on TV daily or weekly. Remember when fans thought more kids should look up to Marvin Harrison? How did that turn out?
I'd take Chad Johnson/Ochocinco or Randy Moss him any day. But Moss is referred to as thug because frankly he is funny and entertaining.
In our society athletes are nothing more than gladiators trotted out for our entertainment. The glory is short lived; they are dehumanized and thrown away. We feel ok about it because they are paid large sums of money. All that does is buy us the ability to treat them as less than human. Because: "what do they care; they are rich".
It would be one thing if fans were principled in how they view athletes when in trouble with the law. But, fans rationalize certain crimes or players and crucify others. Fans want to control players because they don't "act a certain way". You know them boys gotta be kept it line. It doesn't matter if its professional or major college there is absolutely a racial component in this love hate dynamic.
There was outrage when it was learned that P-Diddy's son earned a football scholarship to UCLA. Interesting I never heard anyone complain about Andrew Luck's scholarship (his dad is the AD at West Virginia and played/worked in NFL).
It's sports enjoy the best athletes in the world competing.
Don't be mad that you weren't good at anything.
