QUESTION: Why Athletes and Not Actors, Singers, Etc

Baseball is different because the fans are not subjected to having to watch the young players who are not ready to compete. They have a minor league system to develop the young players until they are ready for show. In the NBA you have to put them on your pro 12 man roster from the beginning.

It obviously was hurting the quality of the NBA game and I understand this completly. In baseball if we had to watch Kobe Clemens for 5 years on the bench until he's ready to play I would object also.

Tennis and golf are different because they are individual sports, and not team sports. If a young kid plays like crap in tennis would you care? If a young player played like crap for Rockets, Astros, or Texans it may effect you more personally.

 

I bet back in the day there were tons of kids who wanted to be John Wayne, Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris. The badass actors have a similar following to that of athletes.

 

If that was the case, wouldn't people be up in arms about how much Denzel Washington, Eddie Murphy, or Janet Jackson make? How about Tiger Woods? Wouldn't they let is slide when we keep throwing good money after bad at Ryan Bowen? I think it has more to do with people identifying more with a team than with a movie studio. If the Rockets give a rediculous contract to Moochie Norris that will affect the mood of a lot of posters here. If Fox wants to pay an idiot like Keanu reeves to be in a PoS like A Walk in the Clounds, well I for one couldn't care less.

 

It is only certain people who care more about the other. I don't. It only matters to the Hank Hills out there.

To the simple majority, athletes are supposed to be brave, manly leaders etc. Football is like the army. You are supposed to be tough and strong.

Actors are more like artists, poets etc. who are weird by nature.

 

I don't know about people b****ing and moaning about athletes getting paid unless they clearly are overpaid compared to other athletes who play better. The not going to college thing seems to only apply to basketball players and it's not like people made a big deal about LeBron because you knew he was going to make it. It's those other guys who are seriously questionable and are more likelly to struggle since they are going right to the pros instead of the NBDL or a minor league like in baseball. So it's not just about an education as much as it is about a maturation of character and skills. Education should be on the minds of said players because what are they going to do when they don't make it? Fire shots outside the White House??? (actually, he went to college, but you get the idea).

 

Regarding many athletes, I think many people get upset to see a black man making millions of $$$ but has a hard time putting together a "gramtically" correct statement.

Athletes also often arn't sex objects and certainly not comedians ...so they don't get that automatic "likability" free pass like many actors get. If the actor wasn't likable, they wouldn't be a movie star, right? How many people pay to see somebody they don't like?

Inherently, if said athlete doesn't play for YOUR team, then you hate them anyway, right? You don't need much motivation to start bashing them.

Eddie Murphy is a comedian ...everybody likes comedians.
Denzel Washington speaks very well, by white standards, and is considered very good looking by women.

Now the Jackson's, it's been said MANY times that they were pushed too hard too young. But it wasn't their fault ...their father is responsible ...so we can't blame the kids for that. But America fell in love with the kids at a young age so just like Eddie and Denzel, you don't criticize cute people.

 

What about musicians? Some kids look up to some musicans as much as athletes. I think the results in this forum is skewed based on that this is a sports forum. Some kids still want to play guitar like their idols (Stevie Ray, Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, etc) or sing like some stars (Whitney Houston, Christina, etc). And I think people DO emotionally invest in these people as much as they do in sports.

 

The funny part about sports is their salaries are published for everybody to see in black and white. Musicians don't report their earnings. SOMETIMES you'll see a movie star got paid x $$ but not often.

Furthermore, athletes in teams sports can be easily compared to other athletes that play the same position for other teams. How many times did we hear that Cato isn't earning his contract because his production isn't similar to other centers making a similar amount of $? You can't as easily compare acting performences.

 

LOL... sorry, don't mean to be the spellcheck police but you mentioned grammatically correct and I thought it was funny.

 

I guess I should have run that one through the spellcheck, huh?

Microsoft Word has ruined people!

 

Man you need to go to England for a bit. I have yet to come across other brits who dont know how much each player on their fav. football(soccer) team is earning. To make matters worse the tabloids report their earnings as weekly wages rather than yearly, so imagine hearing in the sports page all the time how much ryan bowen for example earns in a week, it would make u go beserk and thats whats happened in England. So much BAM about how much players earn.

Thank you so much Rocket River for bringing up this topic cos its been a pet peeve of mine for ages.
Everyone thinks they can play pro sports but i think it would be easier for any of us here to act than to play a pro sport( except we were hotshots in our sport in college).
people forget the work that goes into playing professional sports, all for a maybe a 5-10 yr career if you are lucky, and smart enough to get an agent who can squeeze out every last dollar to set you and your family up for life.
I'm not talking bout Sprewell smart cos that b*stard was just greedy.

also, someone mentioned NFL playbooks, those things are monstrous, has anyone actually seen those things, about the size of the yellow pages-but with less pages- each team has so many plays its crazy, i highly doubt i would be able to remember all those plays, i gotta commend nfl players on that, granted its their job to memorize the plays and go out and make them so it shouldnt be anything special.

 

Just another way for the white man to keep the black (brown, pink, blue, caucasianally challenged) man down!!

 

Well, as far as the college thing. We find out about these talented players when they are in highschool, they become instant celebs and are closely watched. The whole country doesn't usually read about Joe Actor or John Musician when they are in highschool unless they are already on tv or in movies or signed to a record deal. Since we know about athletes before they become pros, we are aware of them if they fail. We don't have that exposure from actors and musicians.

 

Many big sports are fun things to be played.

Do you prefer play ball all day, or act a role all day. But they pay the same.