Classic country music singer, Hank Williams Jr. once wrote: 'Too many lawyers in football......baseball's got a few! At least that's what he sung as my roommate and boyhood friend, Wes Vance, and I smoked cigarettes (Wes) and chewed tobacco (me) on the back porch of our apartment while students at the University of Alabama. We'd laugh at his hillbilly lyrics, failing to understand how they'd relate to our adult psychology later in life. Like any person, I'm a dichotomy of contradictions. I can swoon over some pop culture people we all know and love like anyone else. And I get really disgusted when pop culture treads upon my means of escaping reality in the form of sports. I melt like a school girl every time I turn on old reruns of Miami Vice. I still think James Sonny Crockett (played by Don Johnson & Rico Tubbs (Played by Philip Michael Thomas) should run for president. I'll always man crush on most characters played by the late Patrick Swayze. Particularly his character 'Bodhisattva' in Point Break. Jaws & Jaws 2 make me gush. Don't get me started on Slash from Guns & Roses or the group Air Supply..............................................................Yet, then again they are just people..............................or it's all just a make believe world.
Being here in the deep South I loved college football. I grew up like most little boys loving the NFL. Something made me fall out of love with those popular past times, although, I still watch for entertainment purposes. The phantom of pop culture. With the advent of the 24 hour news cycle and idiot clickbait articles begging for attention, it is now hard to find an article about an NFL sports team I check in on without some meaningless mention about a football player's super model, singer or actress girlfriend or wife. Pro baseball and the NBA to some degree have the same problem, but just not as bad. The late John Lennon once sang, "I'm just a jealous guy." But that's not me......I've never really been that way. There are plenty of super models I think are gifts from God. There are plenty of pro athletes I want to pursue public office for to protect. Look at my Twitter and Facebook account and you quickly see I follow a whole lot of actresses. I like Hollywood.... a lot! Otherwise I'd not be trying to recruit film projects to my hometown. Here's the THING........I just don't want my escape into my past time (sports fandom is an escape that's why its so popular psychologically) to be intruded upon by the pop culture dynamic I'm trying to escape in the first place. In a episode of Seinfeld, George Costanza shouted......'two worlds collide'......................I don't want those worlds colliding! After talking to other sports fans............ I know I'm not alone!
The whole paradigm around the recently retired pro football player, Tom Brady, is a shining example of this issue. I actually wanted him to play until he was fifty. I loved his attention to perfecting his gift. I loved the fact he was overlooked coming out of college and stuck his middle finger up at all those who overlooked him out of college by being so great. I wish he was still playing. I also want to vomit each time grown men worship him because he is married to a supermodel. Sports talk radio constantly gushed about this. They worshiped the man and his wife for the most unimportant, superfluous reasons. Is Tom Brady a more physically capable football player than me?........ABSOLUTELY. Am I more capable than Tom Brady in certain other physical or mental endeavors.....YOU BET I AM! READER......is Tom Brady more physically capable in football than you are........ABSOLUTELY. READER................are there certain things you can do better than Tom Brady...............YOU BET YOU CAN!
Women........................are you as notable as Tom Brad's super model wife........................probably not! Female reader..................are you any less important than Tom Brady's super model wife......HELL NO!
Eight years ago I wrote for a sports blog. I wrote an article, I knew would get me in some hot water with some men and would get me a wink from some others. It was about that subculture of men who emasculated themselves through sports fandom. You know those grown men who show up in sports bars wearing a football jersey with another man's name on it. I did the same thing......WHEN I WAS 10. The same men who love to read articles about pro athlete's sexy super model, actress girlfriends and worship said athletes and girlfriends. It pricked a few of my readers. I remember one time, during one afternoon in particular, I critically commented on a click bait article about a list of NFL quarterbacks and their 'hot girlfriends.' What ensued next was some nut from Miami, FL picking a fight with me on Facebook. Like an idiot I responded and what started at my work desk only ended three hours later over my phone in my living room over a series of counter insulting DM messages on Messenger App. My girlfriend at the time asked me why in the hell I'd engage in such a thing..........I stated........because I'm a moron!
Reader......these reason all of that happened was because I hit upon a crucial nerve with the 'Miami nut,' and in return the click bait article hit a nerve with me. There are people in the world who love social hierarchies. Then there are those who bust 'em up. They love people they can idolize because it fits into their neat little world of 'they are up there and I'm down here, but I want some people below me.' Other than being motivated by racism and nationalism, this psychological dynamic was why 'Trumpism' came about. There will always be emasculated people in life looking for a hero they are too scared to risk becoming themselves. Those people go bat crap crazy when they run across people who love to bust up preconceived social hierarchies. Who believe that all people have a light to shine........that in some way all people are just as important as anyone else. This notion forces the 'hierarchy' people to perform in life and attempt to become their own superstar! That makes some people very insecure when they are faced with taking that risk. I just get disgusted each time I read an article that tries to tell me that men are not as important unless they are a star athlete married to a supermodel. I get pissed off when I read an article that tries to tell the world some women out there is not as important unless she is dating or married to a superstar athlete and is a supermodel.
I want to read an article that tells me about an honest man who comes home from work to his wife and loves her, for her and does it every damn day of his life......no matter who the hell knows. I want to read an article of a women who is a single mom or who is not even a mom at all because she decided to plot her own course and pursue a career with hard work, honesty and integrity. To me these are the everyday superstars I want to follow. I wish these types of people had their faces on cards I could trade like I did with pro baseball players when I was young. Playing two on two basketball against football players at the University of Alabama or once tutoring a student in Birmingham, AL. who is now the starting punter with the Los Angeles Chargers was what it took for me to demystify 'the athlete 'gaga' and see everyone as everyday people.
Dallas, Los Angeles, San Diego & in March, Seattle. These are the only cities I'm connected to in some way because I was either educated in or worked in them. These cities are represented by major league sports teams. Conventional wisdom would say you need to love the 'Cowboys' 'Rams/Chargers' Lakers etc. As time goes on I find myself saying I just can't do it anymore. Save for the Seattle Sounders, the LAFC or Angel City FC. Soccer is the last sport, at least here in America, where I can truly escape from pop culture bleeding into my sports fandom, telling me I have to be Tom Brady or else. Telling me my future wife is not as valuable as Gisele Bundchen. Because if it wasn't for soccer, I'd just feel like throwing my computer out the window each time I check sports scores. Major League Soccer, National Women's Soccer League, United Soccer League World Cup.........................I'm now yours!
-JCB
