Posted on 07/15/2011 10:50:36 PM PDT by Route797
LOUDON, N.H. — Jimmie Johnson has two titles he is especially proud to have linked to his name. Five-time NASCAR champion. AP Male Athlete of the Year.
Johnson was swept into a brief Twitter feud this week because of his inclusion as a nominee for male athlete of the year at the ESPY Awards.
Seahawks receiver Golden Tate posted on his account, @ShowtimeTate, "Jimmy johnson up for best athlete???? Um nooo .. Driving a car does not show athleticism."
Tate, 22, angered NASCAR fans and posted, "12th man get these rednecks off me."
More Tate tweets:
• "I've driven a car on unknown roads at night at 90mph no big deal. No sign of athletism."
• "Guarantee he couldn't in million year play any SPORT."
• "give me 6 months of training and I bet I could compete."
NASCAR defenders got Tate's attention.
"Apologies for my offensive comment to NASCAR fans. I actually read up on it and NO I couldn't race a car 150 mph," he wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
Well, there is no danger of this ever happening because it really isn't up to NASCAR officials.
NO true enthusiast would ever adopt any of those things you mentioned. The reason we race IS the feedback, the G's, the mud, the smell of burning methanol, the dirt... and of course, the risk. Take them away, and you take away that insane and addictive rush, the high... may as well hop in the Volvo, turn on the air and go on a 3 hour trip on the interstate.
Racing generates the one drug that can't be bought outright with cash. It's the dirty little secret that non-racing folks don't quite grasp. If you do it even once, you will forever want more of it and you will spend your fortunes trying to get it.
I guess you missed the Seahawks victory over the Saints in the playoff last season. Tate may not be able to race a car, But I’m sure Johnson wouldn’t be able to return a punt.
“Well, there is no danger of this ever happening because it really isn’t up to NASCAR officials.”
So a driver could have air conditioning, really good power assisted steering, better g-force minimization etc. (and it somehow didn’t cut down on performance by weight or power train drain) if he wanted to and the technology was available? But he would reject all those things, even if it would help get better finishes?
I guess my point is that at some point the cars technology will do away with a lot of the things that make racing so extreme, if it is allowed to. They will always have driver skill and strategy, but I’m not sure about exhaustion/endurance being as high a factor. I mean do the drivers have it better now or in the 50’s and 60’s as far as risk and endurance go? The cars are faster now, safety is better though, I assume. The same thing with other sports. The players are in better shape in general than ever, but also wear better helmets, pitch from lowered mounds, warned more often and so on.
Freegards
Exactly. It would be a lot easier ride with AC. Cooling your car with 100+ F air doesn’t work, no matter how fast you’re going.
Didn’t he “attend” at Notre DUMB?
Some baseball players? I’d say 99%. Baseball players have to use bursts of strength and speed, but half of the game is spent sitting in a shaded dugout. The other 48% is spent standing around waiting for a ball to come your way. I’m NOT saying there’s no athleticism involved, but it doesn’t require much stamina. The stamina is required from the fans who have to sit and wait and wait and wait for something interesting to happen.
Yeah, I’m sure there was a front-office intervention there. Something to the effect of, “There’s plenty of pie for everybody, don’t go screwing it up.”
Good post.
Jimmie started racing motocross motorcycles when he was 5 years old.
Anybody who knows what that is appreciates his physical ability.
Yes, another sad example of how far things have fallen for ND.
I do that stuff! I have a class 1 car but I don’t race. Just Desert and Glamis Sand Dunes.
There are probably dogs that have better catch percentages than Golden Tate.. and have a lot more sense to just keep their tongues in their mouths when it is wiser to do so.. woof!
The most that a crop or spurs can do is act as a reminder. I know, I had the slowest Thoroughbred on record, and I always wore Prince of Wales (blunt) spurs and carried a jumping bat. But they were simply to put her up in the bit and remind her that a big fence was coming, not to beat her or cut her sides bloody (not that you could with blunt spurs - they're about the diameter of your thumb and rounded on the ends). If she hadn't wanted to hunt or run three-day, there is no way she would have. And she kept on wanting to even after arthritis put an end to her career at age 27 -- jumping fallen logs in the pasture and galloping for fun.
And believe me, riding seriously requires that you be in excellent physical condition and have good balance, body awareness, flexibility, and strength. And that's quite apart from the specific skills needed to guide and control a horse.
I could convince you of this in less than thirty minutes on my mare at the end of a longe line.
Look at sprints, quarter midgets, your local stock cars, WoO, Silver Crown... it's all the same as it was 40-50 years ago. The only difference is more HP, better tires/suspension and yes, better safety equipment... but that's about it. Those things were implemented to make the experience faster, not more comfortable.
Power steering was invented decades ago... so was air conditioning. Airbags have been around now for 20 years. We know how to make a cushy foam-filled seat and have for many years. We have computer assisted suspension that automatically adjusts to conditions and electronic traction control.
This is only a small mention of the technologies and comforts available today that weren't in say.. 1950. Yet, there are VERY few examples of any classes, organizations or leagues who utilize any of these things. The equipment remains fundamentally just like it was back then. Go look at the seat in a sprint. It’s hard, molded fiberglass with no padding and it’s like that for a reason. Sounds funny, but I wouldn’t even wear underwear when I raced. I needed to be in close contact with the ground and get all the feedback possible. Comforts like power steering insulate you from that critical data… as a driver “reads” the inputs he is getting from his machine. You can even tell if you are running hot in a lot of cases without need for a flashing light… you can feel it. That’s what racing is ALL about… sensory input and reacting to it. There is nothing else.
Like I said, it also takes away the basics of thrill and competition. Racing is very rarely about who has the best car or the most money (on purpose at least). Every single sanction does everything it can to keep emphasis on one thing: driver and human skill. Equipment does matter unfortunately, but racing is still 99% skill and determination and 1% about who has the biggest wallet. People are continually looking for ways to change that 1% to zero, not the other way around.
One last thing; If a driver "could have air conditioning, really good power assisted steering, better g-force minimization etc. (and it somehow didn’t cut down on performance by weight or power train drain)" , then racing would cease to exist for the real enthusiast. It would be overrun with the same group of wannabe metro tools who have just enough credit to buy one of these marvel machines, enter it into a race along with thousands of others who can't drive or compete and the purity of racing would be lost forever. Who the hell would want to go watch that and who among the truly skilled would want to compete along side of them?
Fact is, this exists in a form this very day. Just go to your local track (if you are near one of the larger ones) on the weekends when there is no sanctioned event going on. All you will see are a bunch of guys with money trying to run their bone-stock M5's around the track to see how fast they can get their lap times up to.
sure, it's fun... and if I had the money I'd do it too (I'm way too old for open-wheel these days)...but how many people do you see interested in watching it? There is no competition. It only exists for the enjoyment of the guy doing it as a hobby or for an extra bit of thrill that he can't get on the public roads.
So Nascar would allow the things that would make it much easier for the racers, if it was possible to do so? I don’t doubt that you are right as far as true race enthusiasts loving the viceral nature of racing, and that never changing. I was just wondering if nascar drivers would cease to be considered atheletes if the endurance/grueling factors were minimized.
Freegards
And,,, you have to race on the very edge of traction, or you won’t be fast enough to win, or even compete! Kinda like us driving on black ice! But for 500 miles!
Yeah, that certainly describes players who graduated from West Point, Annapolis and the Air Force Academy. /sarc
ND pretty much hit rock bottom two years ago with its Obama commencement love-fest and then ordering the arrest of Alan Keyes.
I was just replying to another poster who didn’t seem to think NASCAR was a sport, because the car does all the work, or something.
I am 100% positive you know what you’re talkin about when it comes to horses. I will even admit to being wrong about making a horse do what it doesn’t want, with spurs and whips.
I still don’t believe a horse is an athlete. I reserve athlete status for people. I’m sure you disagree but my standards are my standards.
I do wish you could convince me with your mare though, because I am the only person in Texas over the age of 2 who has never ridden a horse. :-/
One point that Tate may have is some things aren’t athletic at all, but are considered sports. Bobby Fischer was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. For playing CHESS.
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