Bad Sports

 Going to a sports event should be a completely joyful experience. Booing and jeering at the players, while maybe part of the game, one is told, is not. If you're in the stands, you don't have to boo or cat call. It's ignorant anywhere, anytime. The whole idea behind a public sport is to go and have a good time watching a couple of teams, in most cases, vie against each other knowing all the important protocol and rules about what ought to and must be done. The players aren't sitting behind a desk in a nice corner office, fashionably mouthing off to make their money; no, they have to  put their whole bodies into their work. They are, in short, sacrificing themselves and possibly their future health, as well as the present one, into actual danger. The dangers are obvious and present: concussions, muscle and bone problems and perhaps when they are older, arthritis. Some even become paralysed or rarely and sadly, lose their lives doing what is supposed to be fun. What those watching games ought to appreciate is, that while the audience is maybe sitting in a seat with a drink, those they are  ranting rudely at, are putting out for them in a major sense. The players are entertainers. But not people on a stage with spotlights and no risk other than ego.  Sure athletes do it for money,  even if rarely, a lot of it, they aren't at play. They are serious about their jobs. First of all, they are very talented people who have been chosen to get out on a field or ice or sand or a mat or a gym floor for pay to give you a good time. They expose their bodies, their very lives for you, the fans. Personally, they want to win because that's what they grew up with when they were competing at school and university, on the courts, ice, floor and fields. They were god-given talent. Someone saw their superior ability and offered an opportunity to become stars if they worked hard enough and were lucky enough  to be with a team that has like values. Their coaches push them to the maximum, their team expects everything of them to make the whole team work as one, not just for the scoring stars. The audience or fans often have unreasonable expectations even though these athletes may not do as expected, but still put out their very best. Their friends, families, wives, husbands, partners and children do their bit, too, and it's not a light one, in having to see their parents and spouses and dear ones being away from homes that miss them very much. The men and women have to get out there pushing themselves to the limit while sometimes hearing terrible comments shouted at them while they are physically sweating it out, not for glory but to achieve their own personal goals. It can't be easy. When you hear how some coaches degrade their charges, because yes, they are under that blanket term, and say nasty and  hurtful criticism, it adds yet another layer of concern. How athletes in the professional realm can do it, I have no idea. The players say they love the game when I am sure there are many times,  they really don't, is a mystery. Long standing athletes are admirable not only for their stamina physically in the moment but also, over the long time, what has to do with their egos and their steadfastness in the face of all the stresses of what's expected of them by everyone around them: their owners, their teams, their private goals and those of the fans. No other kind of ordinary work demands that kind of strength. Yay, teams.