Posted on 07/01/2005 11:24:46 AM PDT by CharlieOK1
I am not now, nor have I ever been, jealous of professional athletes.
Despite the massive amounts of money earned by today's modern pro athlete, I've never wasted a moment regretting the fact that my athletic career ended as a mediocre Division I offensive lineman.
Even when I was broke and living in a one-room, roach-infested efficiency in a small southern Indiana town, I never once felt a minute of envy as my old high school teammate, Jeff George, was selected No. 1 in the 1990 NFL draft and received a seven-figure signing bonus.
It must be tiring carrying the weight of the NHL and it's fans on your shoulders. |
Proud? Yes. Jealous? No.
I'm telling you this because I hope someone will pass this column along to Jeremy Roenick and every other professional athlete who believes that we meaning sports fans and sports writers live every day of our lives wishing we were them.
We don't.
Roenick, the NHL star, made news earlier this week when he exploded during an interview and told sports fans who are upset about hockey's work stoppage to kiss his grits.
"If people are going to sit and chastise pro athletes for being cocky, they need to look at one thing and that's the deal we're going to be signing in about three weeks,'' Roenick said. "Pro athletes are not cocky. Pro athletes care about the game. Everybody out there who calls us spoiled because we play a game, they can kiss my a**.''
Roenick's comments received national attention. He was roundly criticized and forced to backtrack on his statement. A millionaire athlete shouldn't tell fans to kiss his grits, particularly when his union is getting smoked at the negotiating table because sports fans have sided with the owners.
I've had far better than Jeremy Roenick tell me to kiss his grits for no good reason. Doesn't bother me.
What bothers me is the statement Roenick made immediately following his kiss-my-grits line.
"I will say personally, to everybody who calls us spoiled, you guys are just jealous," Roenick said.
That bothers me. It bothers me because that's the thinking of most professional athletes. They think we want to be them. And they think any criticism of their behavior can be directly attributed to our unquenched thirst to be them.
Well, nothing personal, but I don't want to be them. It isn't because I think I'm smarter than them or better than them. And it isn't because I've lost my love for the games. I still love games.
The reason I don't want to be a professional athlete is because I'm lazy. It's because I've matured beyond the point at which I'm comfortable having a man I don't really respect yelling at me in front of my peers.
Maybe it's just me, but I decided long ago that athletes don't live the best lives. Many of them feel pressured into taking performance-enhancement drugs that shrink other well, enhancements. They're in constant pain. Society wants them to be role models for kids they didn't father.
We place expectations on athletes, and when you get over the age of 30, you realize the last thing you want to deal with is somebody else's expectations. That's a responsibility, a burden, a guilt, and I want no part of it.
Because of society's screwed-up expectations, pro athletes get treated more harshly than the president of the United States. Look at your average newspaper and what a columnist is allowed to say about a pro athlete. They're things that could never be printed about a politician. Athletes get called punks and thugs and dogs on a daily basis. If they forget an assignment on a crucial play, they get hounded into seclusion. No one defends them.
No morals. No consequences. It must be the gang from Entourage. |
Me, jealous of professional athletes? I ain't that stupid.
I'm jealous of entertainers, the ones who appear to be free of societal expectations. I want to be Vincent Chase or Turtle or Johnny Drama or Eric. I wanna live the life HBO captures in the series "Entourage."
That's living. That's my fantasy, and the fantasy of every guy I know. The fact that Vince and his crew are cocky, spoiled and lazy doesn't enrage me at all. The fact that Ari is a greedy, unethical, grossly manipulative agent doesn't make the showbiz world seem less attractive at all.
Other than the societal expectations of moral behavior placed on athletic stars, there's little difference between the sports world and Hollywood. But that distinction makes a world of difference.
It makes us jealous of entertainers and disappointed with athletes at least, that's the way I see them. It separates "entourages" from "posses." Athletes have "posses," a group of low-lifes with a tendency to leave a loaded gun or a nickel bag of weed in the car they borrowed from their jock friend. "Entourages" are much cooler. Members don't carry guns, and they don't leave their weed lying around where police can find it during a routine traffic stop.
Jeremy Roenick probably wishes he was Vincent Chase, too. If Roenick was a movie star, his outlandish comments would be accurate and seen as nothing more than a well-executed publicity stunt. No different from Tom Cruise jumping around on Oprah's couch.
Jason can be reached by e-mail at ballstate68@aol.com
it may have been false information, NOW, but it was current and vetted THEN, therefore, not False.
all filthy libs must hang :)
Seems to be the trend in journalism today... to take a swipe at America or her leaders in a totally unrelated article. Check out this one from Reuters yesterday:
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch woman who swears by a daily helping of herring for a healthy life celebrated her 115th birthday on Wednesday as the oldest living person on record.Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, a former needlework teacher, was born in 1890, the year Sioux Indians were massacred by the U.S. military at the Battle of Wounded Knee.
The passionate soccer fan celebrated her birthday in a nursing home in the northern Dutch town of Hoogeveen.
"She eats a piece of herring every day because it's good for the health," said Johan Beijering, director of the Westerkim nursing home. "She is still mentally full of vitality."
The daughter of a headmaster, Van Andel-Schipper was born in the town of Smilde in the northern Netherlands on June 29, 1890....
ESPN is a big joke. In an average week, you'll probably find two or three anti-Bush jabs in their "Page 2" section. There may be an article speaking of how "empowering" women's sports are. There absolutely will be an article which somehow works in a comment about the bravery of gay athletes.
If FoxSports would get their act together, I think they could easily surpass ESPN, from what I've seen.
ESPN is like any MSM - biased to the left. They constantly are trying to elevate women's sports to equal status with men's ( Annika Sorenstam is as good as Tiger)! They do await breathlessly for a pro athlete to come out of the closet. To this day, they pillory John Rocker. Most sportwriters of any newspaper are like the rest of the paper.
I do like to read Bill Simmons.
Bill Simmons is awesome! Best read while sittin on the pot...
Well, THAT is remarkable. From Amsterdam to Wounded knee.
What a bunch of socialist slag.
I hope they have a rotten weekend.
Phew. Feel better now.
The real issue Jason Whitlock should be concentrating on is the homosexual agenda. Why just today Spain legalized same sex marriage. Just think what could have happened if a God fearing man like President Bush had not been elected. These Spaniards might have visited the District of Columbia or even tried to move here.
President Bush is trying to preserve our heartland values. Why bring up the mainstream media's laziness before the Iraq war in an article about how the bad behavior of potty mouthed sports gazillionaires is exposed regularly in the press nowadays? President Bush only has a potty mouth when he discusses liberals.
ESPN charges cable companies a fortune for their channels. I would like the ability to get all of the channels I want, without the MTV's and the ESPN's. I just don't like paying for what I don't want. If you want it, fine, you pay for it. I personally believe there would be a lot more family friendly programming if people were allowed to pick and choose what channels they wanted, because I believe most people would stop paying for trash.
I challenge you to give one example of President Bush's "potty mouth" when discussing liberals.
Scott Ritter told us that President Bush was lying but we the Congress chose to believe our beloved President instead
Scott Ritter is a pervert. President Bush didn't lie. Just because we didn't find WMD in Iraq doesn't mean they didn't exist. They haven't found Natalie Holloway's body in Aruba, does that mean she wasn't there? You wouldn't know a lie if Bill Clinton told you that you had great qualifications to be an intern.
The combination of not finding them plus nobody with first hand knowledge being able to say they ever existed means they never existed. You don't still believe Saddam hid his WMD's on an underground railroad or on ships in the Persian Gulf, do you?
We KNOW Saddam had WMD because he used them against Iran and he used them on his own people. How can you be so ignorant? We have satellite images showing large trucks crossing the border into Syria just before the war. They could be buried in the desert. Do you have any idea how easy it would be for a murderous dictator to bury a few 55 gallon drums in the sand, and then kill all of those with knowledge of the burial site? Are you really that naive?
We still haven't found Natalie Holloway on the tiny island of Aruba, does that mean she doesn't exist?
You never answered my previous challenge to provide one example of President Bush's "potty mouth" when discussing liberals. Be specific. I want a link to the article.
You need to open your eyes and stop drinking the kool-aide.
Some of your commie pals did; are they liars, too?
"The government allows the meat we consume to be injected with steroids without making the public aware of the risk factors. And President Bush wants me to get outraged because a bunch of jocks in pursuit of financial security and fame choose to inject themselves with 'roids. Not gonna happen."
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Oct 21, 1998 - 19:44 EDT) -- Jason Whitlock, sports columnist for The Kansas City Star, has been suspended pending an investigation into allegations he heckled fans during the Kansas City-New England NFL game on Oct. 11.
"We don't condone this type of behavior," Rick Vacek, the Star's assistant managing editor for sports, said in a statement Wednesday. "We deeply regret that this incident occurred, and Jason has been suspended pending further review."
snip
Eyewitnesses said Patriots fans seated just outside the enclosed pressbox began taunting the visiting media during the game and Whitlock responded by holding up handwritten signs, at least one of which insulted quarterback Drew Bledsoe and the team (Note: according to other sources, he wrote "Drew Bledsoe is gay"), according to Sports Illustrated.
After fans became agitated, stadium security guards entered the pressbox and stopped Whitlock.
Uh, if I recall correctly, Wounded Knee did not go so well for the U.S. miltary.
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