Preface: I’m a sports fan who watches the NBA, NFL, and (occasionally) NCAA competition. In general, I think most professional athletes are entitled and exhibit off-the-field conduct that leaves much to be desired but this post is directed at their fans.
I’ve heard sports fans utter a lot of nonsense over the years. Uninformed sports fans are a common breed. Like a bird in the woods or an amphibian in the forest, they can be identified by the sounds they make or behaviors they display.
They root hard for their teams and are always ready to challenge the strategies or transactions undertaken by their team’s management and ownership groups.
However, many fans have a problem accurately assessing the many subtleties and conventions of the sports they so ardently support. Many fans don’t even bother to question their own knowledge of a sport and are notorious for using subjective analysis.
Below, you will find some of their most commonly repeated statements. Each is succeeded by an appropriate rebuttal.
“Athletes make way too much money.”
They generate billions (yes, billions) of dollars through merchandising (video games, apparel etc), advertising and ticket sales. Their images are plastered on all sorts of collectibles and memorabilia, and help generate millions in tax revenue for the cities which they. play in. They are one of the most profitable broadcast programs for both cable and network television stations. Professional athletes must endure seemingly endless waves of interviews, public appearances and charity work players (which they often are contractually obligated to participate in), all of which generate even more money for their team owners and home cities. Professional athletes more than earn their keep.
“Those lazy athletes are always dogging it. If you paid me XYZ, I’d never dog it.”
Again, being a professional athlete is a job (albeit an extremely lucrative one). People don’t exert maximum effort every moment on the job.
In fact, If you work for an office where you are largely anonymous, ‘so-so’ effort may be the norm. Professional athletes have bad days and turn in lackluster performances from time to time just like everyone else in society. I’m not condoning this kind of behavior from athletes–I’m just being frank.