There are few things about the sporting world that truly drive me mad. Barry Bonds, Red Sox-Yankees and the “This Time it Counts” MLB All-Star game make that list. Above all, however, it’s sports cliches that really cut to my core.
The word “respect” is thrown around a lot these days.
Individual players, entire teams and journalists alike demand that we give so-and-so team the respect they deserve, apparently because they are more apt than other teams to win a game.
While watching ESPN recently, a SportsCenter anchor decried the lack of respect for the Milwaukee Brewers, who have recently become one of the hottest teams in the league. Never mind the fact that the team was gaining national media attention at that very moment.
The Brewers were obviously being disrespected by Joe Fan, who clearly didn’t understand just how good this team was.
Here’s the thing about respecting sports figures and teams: What does this even entail?
Do we as fans heap lavish praise on any player demanding it? Should opposing teams shudder in fear as they take on any “respected” team? These players are paid gross sums of money to play a game and, as such, have already been endowed with respect from management, as well as the expectation that they will perform up to their potential.
A team that underperforms for much of a season, as the Brewers did to start the year, only to turn it around and perform up to their abilities is not to be respected by opponents and media, but expected.
With a new college football season approaching, I’ll use an example from our very own West Coast.
For years, the Pac-10 Conference has been a hot-point of discussion.
The perception is that it, as a conference, plays a more offensive-oriented, “soft” brand of a hard-nosed game.
This (wrongful) perception has led to many cries by supporters and teams to respect the Pac-10. Yet before we grant any player, team or entire conference this claim, it is important to consider the facts.
In the Bowl Championship Series era, only one Pac-10 school has won the BCS National Championship ““ USC.
The Pac-10’s recent bowl appearances are littered with embarrassing losses: BYU over Oregon in 2006 and UCLA in 2007. Texas Tech dismantling a Cal team many thought was BCS-worthy in 2004.
Few teams have challenged the Trojan’s perch on the Pac-10 throne, and no team has usurped it to this point.
In terms of respect, this can only be given when it is earned, and the Pac-10 as a conference does not appear to have done so. If we were to base our “respect-giving” off just these facts, we would have to wait until someone unseats USC.
Here’s another thing that drives me mad:
With college football approaching, Americans will no doubt be presented with close games, upsets and a myriad of classic endings. Yet the same is true that countless games will be greeted in journalistic circles with hyperbolic effusions.
In a 2007 season that saw many surprising games, this characteristic was never more apparent. I can remember many times when sports news Web sites such as ESPN.com or SI.com would hail various games as stunning upsets and shockers, though few of the results actually fit the bill.
I distinctly remember when Rutgers, which was playing at home, defeated No. 2 South Florida and it was hailed as a stunner that night.
What this trend shows is a lack of perspective. In that instance, South Florida was a relatively new team on the college football stage, playing in a road environment with the burden of their highest-ever national ranking. Many teams would stumble under these circumstances, and that is exactly what the Bulls did. A loss seemed perfectly reasonable, and it is possible many had called an upset before the contest had even begun. Therefore to hail Rutgers’ win as a stunner seems excessive.
Sports cliches will not cease to be used because they draw in readers. Hyperbole and wordplay have as much a place in sports journalism as cereal has in milk.
Yet fans need to approach these written words with caution and not fall into the trap of hailing every surprising result with an overly effusive moniker, lest the world of sports journalism become drab and uniform.
And we all know that would be pretty stunning.
E-mail Salter at ksalter@media.ucla.edu.