Despite another Cardinals loss, it felt like a win
The Arizona Cardinals dropped another game this past Sunday, this time against conference rival & one of the odds favorites to hoist the Lombardi Trophy at season’s end, the San Francisco 49ers. And once again, the media was quick to give credit to the Cardinals for “playing hard” as if that is something noteworthy from athletes being paid millions of dollars to live out their dream of professionally playing a sport most would (and do) play for free.
It was a rough weekend for Arizona sports inside the walls of “Wokeghanistan” aka the “Bay Area.” On Saturday, the Arizona State Sun Devils (under the new leadership of an aged-out, 30-year-old frat boy & Scottsdale/ASU alumni Kenny Dillingham) lost a nail-bitter to an average Cal-Berkeley team, with a gaggle of future ANTIFA activists in the crowd cheering their Golden Bears on.
For the AZ Cardinals, they traveled to Silicon Valley to play the San Francisco 49ers in the “Finance Capital of the Democrat Party” Stadium. The 49ers (cheered on by a Golden State Warriors fanbase who are bored & trying to stay active until Opening Night of the NBA) handily beat Arizona in a game that only stayed within a shooter’s chance for about 5 minutes of the 60 minutes played.
If it wasn’t already abundantly clear by my rhetoric in the previous paragraph, I have a severe distaste for Californians (specifically the ones who migrate to my state while endlessly bragging about how much better Cali is than AZ). I also have a grudge for the voters of that state for allowing it to become a cockwart on the penis of America.
I used to love visiting California. One of my “Life Goals” was to retire in Encinitas (a quiet, little beach town in the bottom half of the state), but now, that state is a dumpster fire of criminals, temper-tantrum-throwing adults, homelessness & shameful addiction encouragement, massive debt, & a congregation of citizens who do their daily devotions out of the Victimhood Bible. Basically, everything wrong with America in one, “Skid Row meets a Narcotic Flea Market” type place.
The harsh reality for this Arizona native is how much better California sports teams have been historically in comparison to my state’s. Usually, the national media has been eager to point out our failures, giving no credit in the process. But for whatever reason this season, both local & national media have been writing their articles with a sort of “moral victory” theme welded into their coverage. And while I very much appreciate them noticing the effort with which the Cardinals play, their thematic repetition is beginning to reach the point of “offense.”
Yes, I’m triggered by compliments. But are they compliments or more like adults pitying the slow kid with pats on the head?
The Cardinals are a football team full of grown men; grown men who are not willing to throw the season from Week 1 (as to put us in the best position to draft USC QB Caleb Williams). The NFL is a meritocracy. Well, unless you’re a coach. That’s a story for another time. The players in the league make money based on performance, and it does NOT benefit them, nor does it help lengthen their careers (which is an average of 3.3 years). I am all about positive reinforcement, being optimistic, & pointing out the positives more than the negatives………
With my students………
In middle school.
For real gamers, real competitors, & real winners, nothing is more offensive than being told “that was a good job! You did the best you could…” when you both fail, but believe to your core that you’re better than an L. One week of moral victories should be the limit. Maybe two, with rebuilding teams. But this is the third time the Cardinals have had compliments of a “great effort” languished upon them; as if their peak potential was on display. Should teams be as satisfied with “moral victories” as the writers that cover them?
The answer is no, and neither should their fans.
Maybe I’m old school; merely exposing the grumpy, old curmudgeon. Perhaps I absorbed too much of my old man & his generation, where pats on the back were earned, not given. I also recognize that subscribing to irrational “hard ass” type parenting can lead to problems of their own. But all this “Participation Ribbon”/”Every Kid Is A Special Little Sunflower” bullshit causes entitlement detrimental to the overall success of individuals.
Professional athletes tend to be the few types of individuals who take consistent negative feedback/criticism in order to better themselves. If the AZ Cardinals want to get better, awarding them points for effort is not the way to go. Now, I doubt the Cardinals coaching staff is going to throw a “Graduation from 3rd Grade” party for their players after briefly getting the score to the 49ers game within one possession. And yes, the Cardinals look better than most people thought (including myself) & they should be commended for their efforts from time to time; just not every week.
Getting a proverbial pat-on-the-head by the national media while STILL being the betting favorite to have the worst record in the NFL (+75000/BetMGM) is like that same media telling you Joe Biden isn’t a crook because he loves his family (everyone knows the MOST-LOVING fathers shower with their daughters well into their schooling years while using their other children as bagmen for corrupt politicians, seedy businessmen, the worst people this planet has to offer) as America’s world standing plummets worse than the Cardinals & Sun Devils records……combined.
That’s an obvious over-dramatization, and the ladder is an egregious worse situation, but the parallels in which the legacy media portray their stories is eerily similar. It’s like they all get the same email & share the same headlines. It’s called a hive-mind, and if you think it only exists within political news/media, you are mistaken. If anything, the entertainment media hive-mind is worse.
It is strange to see the national media be nice to the Cardinals. So, maybe I should, too.
Yeah. I’ll do that. Right after I book my ticket to Seattle.
