For those that don't understand...
Do you understand what it's like, when lying defeated in a locker room, to be grabbed by the elbow by a reporter, in your own misery, and shoved in a box, like a criminal in a Nazi interrogation room, and answer questions about how you cost your team and fan base the biggest game of their lives? They do this immediately after the game to make sure they get every ounce of genuine misery and suffering of you on tape to show the whole world because this makes somebody a lot of money.
Do you understand what it's like to have your wife harrassed by a bunch of idiotic football fans because you lost a football game?
Do you understand what it's like to be a football player who is asked to parade in front of the country and put on a show above and beyond what should be expected of an athlete?
Do you understand what it's like to have your every word, every curse word, every move, every vacation, weighed in public or national TV and judged by a bunch of strangers?
Do you understand what it's like to go back to work and humilated by a coach in front of 50 other men for how bad you sucked on the field in front of a film of you making a mistake that may have cost your team the game? Does your boss do this to you? Do you do this to your employees? Would you not sue the crap out of them if this actually happened at your work place?
Do you understand what it's like to be expected to put on an image of perfection, when you are just another man, with all of this other crap going on 24/7?
Do you understand what it's like to have millions of strangers call you the worst names, insults, and obscenities in public, internet, and everywhere you go because you lost a football game? Sometimes even if you win. And if not, it's bound to come from the other fan base.
Do you understand what it's like to deal with fanatics who write death threats for missing FG's or fumbling a ball and scaring your entire family?
Do you understand your governor, senator and president gets away with more crap? They're just better shielded.
No. You probably don't. And neither do I. It might look bad. But I can at least be thoughtful of all of the above.
And I would imagine it's kind of like getting out of prison after a 40 year sentence with 1 day left to live. That's probably what they feel. "Screw what anyone else thinks. I just want to feel a little bit of happiness for an hour or two because all of this completely drained me and makes me feel like crap, completely useless, like a failure and I need to recharge."
