In today’s sports world, it seems all too common to perceive anything less than a title, championship or gold medal as a disappointment. But when did we alter our thought of success from the effort put in to simply wanting the hardware to show for it?
After the Baltimore Ravens defeated the New England Patriots in the 2013 AFC Championship game, I witnessed one Patriots fan say, “Well that season was a complete waste of time.” His friend to his right nodded in agreement and shrugged his shoulders as if to say “why do I even watch?”
This, of course, was the lowest of moments for these two fans. However, their attitude speaks volumes to what seems to be a growing trend in sports. These two fans expected their team to win the Super Bowl, and when that expectation failed to reach fruition, they looked not at how much their team had succeeded but how badly it had failed.
Meanwhile, in Buffalo, Bills fans would drop to their knees at the hint of a playoff game as their team hasn’t tasted a playoff appearance since before Y2K.
It’s simply the attitude that comes with the territory. Fans turn numb to the winning while becoming more negatively sensitized to the losing.
After LeBron James’ “decision” in 2010, the Miami Heat stormed through the playoffs, winning the Eastern Conference Championship before the Dallas Mavericks ended their season in Game Six of the NBA Finals.
Fans and analysts laughed at the Heat for failing to win the NBA title. Much of the animosity towards the Heat was directed towards the “Big Three” and the celebration they threw in which James stated they would win multiple championships during his tenure with the team.
However, the idea that the 2011 Heat team was a failure for not winning the NBA title is foolish. Furthermore, the fact that Heat fans, so frustrated with the thought of not winning consecutive titles in 2013, walked out of the arena when Game Six against the Spurs seemed out of reach furthers the conviction that there is something wrong with expectations.
Flash forward to this year and this same team is widely considered one of the most dominant of its era. However, if they fail to repeat as champions this season, as expected, they will again be considered as a failure and their legacy will be called into question.
The epitome of this “championship or failure”perspective reached full strength at the Sochi Olympic Games when snowboarder Shaun White failed to win a gold medal in the men’s halfpipe.
White was the two-time defending halfpipe champion but failed to medal in his quest for a threepeat, much to the dismay of fans.
An article on CBS Sports entitled, “Shaun White Fails to Medal,” began with the first sentence reading, “So much for history.”
White’s so called “failure” to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals are an unfair burden to put onto him and other athletes. It seems as sports fans we jump on the train of success and cheer wholeheartedly on the way to the top. But when it falls we jump off and laugh at the wreckage.
Derrick Rose was one of the best players in the NBA with a MVP award at age 23 and years of fantastic basketball ahead of him. But now, after numerous injuries, his failure to stay healthy is reaching Grant Hill status as a punch line for disappointment.
We wanted to cheer for Rose when he was great, but now that it’s over we just want to poke fun.
White didn’t guarantee he would threepeat, and he didn’t say he was the best snowboarder in the world.
Nevertheless, we call him a failure for not achieving our expected levels of greatness, and in the meantime we seem to be missing out on his Olympic success.
Nathan Krohn can be reached at nathan.krohn@spartans.ut.edu.