Does anyone else watch professional sports on television and think of the players as nothing but dumb-trained animals, or is it just me? I am tired of how spectators get so invested in the players, beyond what is going on in the game - Who are they dating, are they in jail, who did they rape this time, are they getting paid too much, did they cheat, are they on steroids, etc. Who cares!? They are dumb beasts who have been trained, at a very early age, to do incredible athletic things - for the purpose of entertaining the masses. They are no different than the horses we breed for racing. When I watch any sport on TV, I see the competitors as no different than if I were watching horses racing each other. Sports broadcasters and announcers facilitate my frame of thought by constantly analyzing the physical attributes of individual athletes - as opposed to their ability to win. They tell you about height, weight, wing span, vertical leap, fastest run times, and so on - the same things a gambler would want to know before betting on a horse at the track. That's what its all about if you think about it - gambling. As a former spectator of sports, who wasted a great deal of time watching ESPN, reading Yahoo sports, and scanning the internet for information about my favorite players and teams - I can say I am tired of all the "off the court" gossip and news. Its much more fun as a fan, to just think of these athletes as not people, but as thoroughbreds. All the analysis that goes on about these thoroughbreds is for the benefit of the gambler - fantasy football managers included. Thinking of professional sports in this way makes it much easier and fun to watch - for me at least. If they get caught with steroids, its expected, because that's what we do to all animals. If they get put in Jail - who cares, another horse will replace them. And if they act "dumb" in public or "arrogant" in the media, I can't blame them. These are not smart people, they are bred athletes, who have been babied their whole lives, so long as they maintained their physicality - Should I expect them to act like civilized adults? They are not civilized - they are animals. They are placed in society, to keep the masses entertained and distracted, just as the "athletes" of the coliseum did in Rome. That is their function.
I look at how well executed plays are done for any game. Every time I watch hockey I am amazed by how well they can pass and have the vision of seeing where they're teammate is going. All the of the game is played by outsmarting your opponents, so no I do not see athletes as mindless animals.
But they are highly skilled at a physical activity. A skill they have honed since a very early age in their life - including the skills of team work and reaction time - even sled dogs have those skills. I enjoy sports too, and analyzing the game. I love the "game". Its the obsession with the individual athletes that I don't see eye to eye with my other, fellow sports fans. I could care less about the individual players. I know of college athletes personally that are as dumb as rocks. I have even had a professor of mine - and dean - explain that she failed a Student Athlete, but somehow mysteriously when she checked her grade books over the summer, the kid passed with a B+. They are a whole class of people - who we raise as a society to be that dumb, so long as they do incredible athletic things for our entertainment.
I will agree that the obsession over these players is quite ridiculous, but meh, they are the best in the world at their sport, I can't blame myself for wanting to know more about them as the human beings that they are, instead of watching them only for sports as if they were animals. As for attacking their intelligence, I hope you're just really angry and ranting here, because that's just absolutely stupid, as well as a mass generalization, as there are plenty of professional athletes who graduated from college. I know personally of collegiate athletes who are some of the brightest minds in their year. Not only do athletes perform for our entertainment, they perform for themselves. You said it yourself, you love the game. So do they, so much that they committed their life to it. They train their entire lives because they want to be the best, to be able to perform at the highest capacity so they can play their game at an elite level. A professional level. There are many players who are extremely grateful they are professional athletes, to get paid for doing what they love, because that's WHY THEY DO IT, because they love the game, or at least at one time they did, you are right some of these athletes have let the money and fame gone to their head or sold out or whatever we call it, but not all. Ask every professional athlete why they do what they do and the majority will tell you because that's what they love.
Heh and bro it sounds like you are just really jealous that you aren't a pro athlete not accusing, just sounds like
Its the media that blows every thing up to a grand scale. i agree with you it is ridiculous how they do that, but they are just as human as you or me. they live lives with their wife and kids just like you, they eat, sleep, think, and breathe just like you, but they just had that leg up in athletic competition. I am emotionally invested in teams from my city because they represent me and my town. I get to talk trash to other people who's teams from their cities are inferior to mine, and it becomes a little competition between the fans. We grow to love our favorite players whether its because they scored the game winner, or they are just a stand up class act person in your community. I grew up playing everything, you name it and I played, but unfortunately as time goes on we just are incapable of doing the things these athletes go out to do day in and day out, all for our entertainment. Embrace it, and if you don't have pro teams in your city, I feel truly bad for you because it is something else to watch NHL, MLB, and NFL games in person. This wasn't supposed to be a mean post, btw, sorry if I've offended...
I agree with the not caring about athletes lives out of sports, as long as they aren't getting arrested or doing horrible shit (michael vick...) I dont care. But I disagree with you saying how sports announcers only talk about physical attributes. They do talk about physical attributes plenty, but they also talk about, and what matters more is the persons drive. Their performance under pressure, the ability to rise to the occasion and overcome. That extra something that makes a small little running back like Matt Forte so good. Sure Matt Forte is in great shape, sure he's talented, but it also takes that little extra drive to make a player special. I think sports announcers make it pretty clear it's not just about physical attributes.
and why is every athlete dumb? because they train for and compete in athletic competition? that makes sense.
Maybe "dumb" was a harsh use of words on my part. I was reinforcing, the animalistic qualities that I see in professional athletes, and how as a society, we make it ok for them to be no smarter than animals that we breed for our entertainment. What I was saying in my second post - about the flunked college student who miraculously passed, is a true story. If you think of that one example alone, you have to imagine that, that kid, never had to do anything academic his whole life. It also explains why 99% of the time you engage in a conversation with a pro athlete, they sound uneducated (this includes interviews on/off the field.) To me its fine for us to treat our athletes this way; baby them from responsibilities, so they can focus on the one thing they are being bred for. Let's treat them that way, as opposed to putting them on a pedestal. I am not going to act like the ones who have college degrees have any sort of education at all.
we dont breed athletes. their parents had sex and they were born and just happened to be athletically gifted. they are not trained to be athletes from birth. they play sports for fun and if they end up being good at it, the training starts. its no different than training for a job. if you see that you can be good at something and make money at it, you train for it. thats how life works.
Clearly a very sports ignorant poster. Aren't most people a bunch of trained monkeys? Wake up, go to work, come home, go to sleep. Wake up, go to work, come home, go to sleep. 5 days a week. Weekend comes... Play. Rinse and repeat.
Ya that is true, in the fairy tale, Disney version of how the world works, as taught to us when we were younger. Look at Tiger Woods - he is a professional golfer, because his father bred him to be so at an extremely young age. Mike Tyson became a boxer only after his mother passed away, and boxing trainer, Cus D'amato took him under his wing - and bred Mike to be a boxer. Andre Aggasi, published in his book that he didn't even like tennis - Is it possible for a world champion to not "have fun" at the sport they naturally came to love and pursue? As a financial advisor between 2005-2007, I can name two specific occasions, when parent/clients have told me that they have no care to invest for their child's college future, because they are on-track for their sports scholarship - which they have been preparing for since a very early age. An age, at which, no one should know exactly what they want to do with their lives. That's their financial plan for their children. These athletes are created at a young age, to be athletes - whether directly by their parents, the school system, or by society itself.
when i think about it, i agree with you. im not a big sports guy. but i think your right only in a small amount. you see more idiots in the more popular sports with larger salaries like football baseball and basketball mainly. these people gain much more money and that adds to their stupidity. you dont hear much about hockey players and lower waged sports that arent as popular or arent made as such a big deal
Yeah, I don't really care what these guys do off the field. But good football players are not dumb. Football is the most complex game ever invented. Football makes chess look like checkers. You've gotta be smart as fuck to play QB in the NFL. Offensive linemen run crazy schemes every play. Linebackers and safeties have it rough too. All these guys have to understand every aspect of the most complex game ever and do so with split-second decision making. You will not succeed in the NFL without intelligence. Basketball and Soccer can get pretty complex too... and those guys basically gotta be telepathic to execute plays properly. Everyone on the field/court needs to know what's going on at the same time. Baseball is simple as fuck though. Once you understand the game, a trained monkey could execute to perfection.
......no. While I agree that obsessing over someone's personal life is stupid, that's a product of the media, not the sport itself. The same obsession happens with actors, politicians, etc.; really any public figure. I don't see how it is bad to be raised for performance in sports from a young age either. I have been in 'gifted' education for my entire life, does that mean I was bred solely for my brain? And even if I was, how would that be any better then an athlete?
lol at every athlete being really stupid and callign them "dumb trained animals"....i bet there's many, many professional athletes who are smarter than you. shit, look at myron rolle, peyton manning, etc. i'd love to see you try and memorize an entire playbook and play qb in the nfl, smart guy
Lmao check out the OP. He's probably got his reading glasses on right now analyzing market trends and catching up on some Dostoyevsky. This argument fails because you assume "all pro athletes are stoopid", which is incorrect. I agree with the first part about media surrounding these people too much, but that's primarily because sports=$ for most media outlets.
I disagree there. If you're a gifted athlete, you can be a dominant RB or WR. If LeBron/Wade/Rose/Westbrook, and all the other freak athletes from the NBA were to play in the NFL tomorrow, I have no doubt they'd dominate just off their sheer athletic ability. There's a lot more skill involved in basketball, I don't think the freak athletes of the NFL would dominate in the NBA.
Look - I was sharing an opinion and asking a question, if anyone else felt the same way I did. No need to be rude if you disagree. We could debate on the Intelligence of these players forever and never come to an agreeance, which is fine with me if you want to have some sort of constructive conversation about it. I've already cited 3 instances (Tyson, Agaassi, Woods) from mainstream/pop culture sports, that show clearly they were highly talented and successful athletes that were trained to be so - ever since an early age. I also made mention of two instances in which parents have told me they are training their children to only focus on their athletics as an only option for success in their future. Lastly, I mentioned a story coming from a University dean, who claims that the athletic department alters grades to essentially let these dumb athletes play. If you want to give some examples of these players that you "bet...are smarter than [me]", then please go ahead - not trying to be rude, just trying to welcome you into a normal conversation that most people have when they aren't cowarding behind a keyboard to talk smack. If you consider memorizing a playbook, even a vast one, a sign of high intelligence, then it is safe to say you and I have very different definitions and/or standards of what, dumb, smart, intelligent, etc. is. Like I was saying earlier, we could debate forever about what we think is or is not intelligent. Just so I am clear, I do think that these athletes are extremely talented and gifted. I also believe they are physically superhuman. In my experience however, these incredible athletes have been given a free ride, especially in regards to education. From what I have seen, they are babied away from responsibility in the name of their eventual athletic prowess. Ever wonder why so often these grown adults, act like children off the field? Have you ever met or talked to some of these pro-athletes in person, ever wonder why they rarely speak with clear diction or have anything intelligent to say? <-My answers to that is because I think they were bred that way, to be athletes - not thinkers or anything else. I am sorry I used the word dumb, I didn't think it would offend so many people - I guess it hit close to home for a lot of the grasscitiers. I am also sorry I refuse to idolize such a class of people. I know it sounds pompous and snotty, but to me, they are just animals - trained and pumped full of steroids for my entertainment - Just like race horses are. That is their role in society, in my opinion. "all pro athletes are stoopid" - never said that, but your enthusiasm for punctuation is encouraging, so i'll bite. You have a valid point against my stance on pro athletes - and I would like to correct myself. Not all athletes are as dumb as I claim. The few that are not, are a very small percentage in my opinion. The ratio of Eskimos to the world population is higher. <- Again, that is my opinion, you are entitled to your own. Also, I know it was meant as a put down, but stock/investment speculation and reading are actually things I enjoy - sorry if that seems lame to you all, no need to judge. We are on a forum for stoners - I'm sure you have some weird quirks too - as far as I can tell, you jerk off to Michael Phelps pics in your spare time.