This got me thinking about a question sports fans often face: How do we want our favorite athletes and coaches to react after a loss? While Thomas can rightfully (in my opinion) be criticized for his happy-go-lucky attitude, other players who have acted much more negatively have received equal amounts of (if not more) flack. It's hard to forget Adam Morrison's crying fit after his Gonzaga Bulldogs were bounced from the NCAA tournament, and Dennis Green's angry meltdown (now one of the most famous postgame tirades in sports history) that ultimately helped him get fired from his post as head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. While these three reactions marked dramatically different points on the postgame reaction spectrum (from relieved to heartbroken to enraged), all three subjects were ripped apart by fans and the media alike.
Thomas and Morrison's reactions were polar opposites, but both were criticized.
So what do we expect from our heroes in defeat? It seems like most fans want some perhaps unattainable combination of humility, frustration, professionalism and disappointment. When athletes are too upset or angry, we label them as loose cannons, hot heads or crybabies. When they accept a loss with a positive attitude as Thomas did on Monday, it comes across as arrogant, nonchalant or uncompetitive. While it's hard to remember an athlete who accepted defeat "the right way," we can all think of countless examples of stars who were too giddy / angry / [insert polarizing adjective] after a game. Personally, I'd rather have athletes err on the side of angry; I want to feel like they gave the game everything they had and are completely unwilling to accept defeat, but I admit that it's a tough line to walk. The border between too dismissive and too passioniate is quite blurry, and it's tough to figure out where the Oregon QB's "time-to-move-on" attitude fits in.
2 comments:
One of the more thought-provoking topics on this blog. I went back and forth a lot -- it's a timely topic for me because I'm coaching a sixth-grade basketball team and, despite being at mid-season, we've only had one loss, so I've been thinking a lot about how to act if and when we lose our next game.
The best example of this I can think of is at about the 1:10 mark of this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaulQivPSaM I was reasonably devastated after this loss (despite being 22 when it happened), and seeing that Hines was more emotional than I was, that he wanted it so badly, I think that was nice. He wasn't whining about not getting the job done or about the refs, he was just expressing his emotionalness and his frustration, something that we as fans can relate to all too well.
The rejoinder to all this would be the idea that crying like Hines did would detract from the machismo of the modern pro athlete, and maybe that has merit. But if you compare it to any of the three examples you site, or, maybe the worst one that comes to mind, Bill Belichick's monotone non-answers at his post-game press conference following Sunday's playoff defeat, well, this one left me with the best taste in my mouth. As a fan I think you're looking for, either directly or subliminally, the message that you tried your best, that you were invested, and that you're disappointed, all without putting down your teammates, opponents, coaches, or officials. Not easy to do, I realize, but I think that's the kind of role model I'll try to be the next time my team invariably loses a game.
Well said, JBull. Tough line to walk, but I agree that's the "goal." I think it's hard to balance class with seeming like you give a crap - it's usually either classy-but-not-invested, or emotional-yet-immature. Glad you enjoyed the post.
Post a Comment