COHS and the "Player Millionaires Sympathy" Fund

An article on todays FoxSports.net highlights a tongue in cheek look at the whining and entitlement that is so very glaringly evident amongst the sports stars of today. Here is the article, followed by my comment. Enjoy!

"They’re models of fitness and perseverance, but top-tier collegiate and professional athletes are still susceptible to suffering the most contagious modern-day disease in sports.

On Sunday in Philadelphia, speedy Washington receiver DeSean Jackson returned to Lincoln Financial Field to face his former team in an NFC East showdown . . . with a chip on his shoulder.

After a 81-yard touchdown catch from quarterback Kirk Cousins, Jackson seized the opportunity to taunt the team that cut him two years after signing him to a lucrative five-year deal.

Jackson's Rockettes-style celebration kicks in the end zone made it clear that he was not looking to get chummy.Jackson is but one of thousands of athletes across the sports world with a chip on his shoulder — a ubiquitous and frequently diagnosed, but little-understood condition.

DEFINITION

“Chip on his shoulder” disease (COHS) refers to an emotional disorder afflicting athletes with the feeling that he or she has been overlooked, underestimated, slighted, marginalized, unduly criticized or even underappreciated.
Doctors and researchers do not know whether environmental or genetic factors — both established causes of COHS — have triggered the recent outbreak of chips.
While thousands of athletes indeed suffer from COHS, writers, reporters and analysts misdiagnose thousands more during the course of their work.
COHS causes an array of symptoms. Each athlete experiences and displays the affliction differently. Some symptoms result in improved play. Other players with a chip may spin into a warped sense of reality and perceive slights where they do not exist, allowing the chip to drag down their performance.
Common symptoms include:

• Feeling diminished, marginalized, disrespected

• Holding a grudge

• Enhanced energy beyond what a reasonable athlete not afflicted with COHS would possess

• Increased motivation and focus

• Desire for revenge

• Anger and resentment

• Playing harder

• Sense of entitlement

• Overinflated sense of value and grandiose visions of greatness

• Scrappiness

• Desire for increased playing time or higher salary

• Feeling a need to “prove” oneself

CAUSES OF COHS

Most commonly, the COHS sufferer holds a grudge against the perpetrator(s) who caused the chip, although many athletes report simply being born with a chip on their shoulder.
The most common causes:
•  Falling in the draft beyond where player thinks a team should have selected him. An estimated 73 percent of COHS cases in the NBA occur when players get drafted lower — even a couple picks lower — than they believe or their agents advise a team will draft them.

• Getting released by a team. Particularly when the player anticipated a lucrative contract (re-negotiated or otherwise) from the team that originally drafted him.

•  Getting traded.

•  Criticisms about consistency.

•  Speculation that the player can no longer perform at a high level.

•  Being undersized. "He plays with that chip on his shoulder . . . in practice, in games," UCLA head football coach Jim Mora said of 5-foot-8 cornerback Ishmael Adams. "He's a fighter, a scrapper."

•  Getting overlooked during recruiting, or during a draft, often the result of playing at a smaller school.

•  Losing or failing to win a starting job, getting benched or demoted, falling into a back-up role.

• Not getting selected for an All-Star game

 

RISK FACTORS

Leading scientists believe that certain athletes are genetically predisposed to developing a chip. Some athletes believe they are just born that way

Some coaches actually encourage player to develop a chip on his shoulder. It follows that a person may actually have the mental faciility to cultivate a chip until it manifests in a full-blown shoulder chip.

COMPLICATIONS

The size and impact of the chip may vary, sometimes causing adverse consequences. Dangerous chip growth may pose a problem for the athlete and/or his opponents, depending on how a chip's enlargement impacts his mental composition. But doctors have yet to determine what causes abnormally large rock-sized chips.

Shoulder chips may come and go, only manifesting during certain games or competitions when facing an opponent that causes or contributed to the chip.

“I’ve seen a little article today where [Bill Belichick], I think he said he didn’t want me,” Vikings receiver and returner Cordarrelle Patterson told the Pioneer Press about the Patriots passing on him in the 2013 NFL Draft. “So that’s the kind of things that stick in the back of a player’s head. And you get out there, you just want to beat the defense up since people say things like that.”

TESTS AND DIAGNOSIS

Introspection usually works. If a player perceives a chip, it’s probably there.
Writers and analysts will let athletes and readers know if they believe a player has a chip.

TREATMENTS, COPING AND RECOVERY

Unfortunately, there is no vaccine or cure for COHS.
Keys to recovery are positive reinforcement and acceptance. Early detection can often give sufferers time to adapt and overcome.
Faux-chips misattributed to players can often be rooted out by asking the athlete if he has a chip on his shoulder, and listening to what he says.

Also, just being oneself has worked for some players.

PREVENTION

For athletes: not being so sensitive.
For writers, reporters and analysts: coming up with different words to describe the state of feeling slighted."

 

 

 

 

You know a player--who was previously undiagnosed--has a very bad case of COHS when he is making millions of dollars per year, then begins complaining to the press that he can't afford to feed his family. Poor guy; you gotta feel for him. After all, how is a player supposed to get by in life when he is making a paltry eight or ten million per year? Unfortunately, such cases of COHS rarely end up with the player receiving help for his condition. Instead, the team owners unwittingly make his COHS even worse by actually feeling sorry for the guy, and upping the total per year payout, thereby intensifying the signs and symptoms of this terrible condition. Please, help these poor athletes by donating to the COHS "Player Millionaires Sympathy" fund; or, PMS for short. Let's all band together to get these players the help they deserve. Contribute today!
Call 800-WWA-AAAH, and give generously!

Whining Pro Golfers

This morning the British Open [Golf] Tournament opened at Muirfield, a R & A (Royal and Ancient) course just outside of Edinburgh, Scotland. Like and R & A course on the British Open circuit, Muirfield is extremely challenging in many aspects of its layout and overall course conditions.

After completing his opening round of golf, Phil Mickelson, the media hog that he is, began complaining to the press corps about what he felt were unfair course conditions for any professional golfer to have to deal with. He stated that the directors of the tournament need to "let go of their egos and just set up the course so that the best players can win.;" inferring that the R & A had unfairly made the course harder--I don't see how they can do that--in an effort to penalize the players.
Here was my response:

"These professional golfers need to just keep their opinions to themselves and play golf to the best of their ability. After all, they're supposedly the best golfers in the world, right? So start playing like a pro and stop expecting the perfect course every time they tee off. There are hundreds of regular R & A members who play this course every week who likely have no problem whatsoever with the hole setups. What makes the pros so special that they need to have an easier course to play on?

I used to work at a course that was a stop on the Senior PGA Tour. The course was very difficult under normal conditions. Without exception, every year a majority of the players would whine that the setup wasn't easy enough, as if they expected the easiest pin placements, optimum watering conditions, etc. I played that course hundreds of times, and rather than whine about it, I worked on bettering my game to try and beat the layout.

Why pros like Mickelson think they have the right to complain about a course rather than improve their game is mystifying. These guys just need to suck it up and perform their job better. To do otherwise only decreases my respect for these supposed professionals."

Seattle-- A "Loser" Sports Town?

In conversations this afternoon about possible Super Bowl teams, a comment from one respondent caught my attention when he called Seattle a "...wet, soggy loser" of a sports town; followed by general denigrations of the pro teams in Seattle. I absolutely HAD to defend my hometown, so I wrote up the following response...

"(Respondent), You need to get your history straight. Seattle had a hugely successful minor league club for decades called the Rainiers who played at Sicks Stadium. They were replaced by the Seattle Pilots, a MLB club whose owners moved them after one and a half seasons to become the Milwaukee Brewers. The Mariners came to be from the litigation that followed the sudden departure of the Pilots. The Mariners struggled, to be sure. But they fostered future HoFers Griffey, Jr, Randy Johnson, Ichiro Suzuki, HoF Deserving Edgar Martinez and possibly, depending on steroid use, Alex Rodriguez.
In 2001 the Mariners won 116 games to tie the record for most wins in a season. For three years they led the leauge in attendance, topping three million each year.
Sure the team has struggled. So what? They are far from losers, as you claim.

The Seattle Supersonics played for the NBA Championship in back to back years in the late 70's , winning the league title in 1978. They were coached for years by Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkins. They competed at the top of the league for years, and their last attempt at the NBA title was stopped by Chicago. Then, Clay Bennett, the college buddy of Commish Stern came riding into town with grandiose promises of winning, all while secretly working to move the team from the then 13th largest market to the dead-last smallest market in ALL of pro sports. So tell me just how the Sonics are "losers."

The Seattle Seahawks, like every other NFL team in existence, has had their ups and downs. For a "loser" of a team, they sure have passionate, loud and emphatic fans. They came within a few bad officiating calls of winning the Super Bowl--calls which league officials would later admit shouldn't have been made. They consistently are amongst the league leaders in attendance, and have one of the most exciting young QB's in the NFL. As for Hofers, let's only start with Steve Largent and Cortez Kennedy.

And you forgot their other teams... the Seattle Sounders, league leaders in attendance for every year they've existed as a pro-level team, and who played in a bygone era for the NASL Cup twice in the early 80's. No, they haven't won the MLS Cup...yet. But hey, they've only existed in their current form for four seasons.

Then, there's the Seattle Storm of the WNBA. They are consistently amongst the top teams in the league and have won the WNBA title in 2004 and 2010 and have fostered Hofers Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird. But...they're losers, too...right?

Finally, time for a history lesson. In 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first US-based team to win the Holy Grail of hockey, Lord Stanley's Cup. But they were also losers, weren't they?

You never know which team from any sports league will win the championship. So please, get off your rocking horse and give the fans--and their teams--in Seattle a little respect. Have an awesome day!"

Accountability vs. College Athletics

Yesterday, BYU suspended its starting Center of the men's basketball team for the remainder of the season citing an unspecified Honor Code violation. With just two conference games remaining before the conference tourney and then the NCAA Tournament, the 3rd ranked Cougars could not have had this happen at a worse time. Without their starting Center, many observers doubt BYU's ability to go deep into the NCAA's.

When news of the suspension broke the sports message boards became inflammed with hatred towards BYU and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The intolerance, misinformation and pure, disgusting hatred being written simply turned my stomach. To say I was appalled or aghast doesn't even come close. Instead of commenting on the basketball ramifications for BYU, this was turned into an anti-Mormon rant that thousands of people fell into.Well, I didn't read too many posts because of the vitriol being vomited by these supposed sports fans.

I wrote the following response to the Deseret News:

"No one should judge Davies about his Honor Code violation. These athletes are under intense pressure and scrutiny. Non-athletic students would likely fold under the same circumstances.
Also, no one should jump all over BYU for this development. Brandon Davies agreed to abide by the rules when he accepted his scholarship. He infracted the rules, and is being held accountable. It's a tough lesson to learn; but an incredibly valuable one.
Too bad most basketball fans [clearly] have no grasp on the concept of personal accountability. Otherwise, the sports boards yesterday wouldn't have been filled with ridicule and hostility towards BYU and the LDS Church for the decision to suspend Davies just before the start of the NCAA Touney."

There is a lot of money, national prestige and recruiting power on the line for BYU. This move could very well damage their ability to draw national recruits and national TV exposure in the coming years. In enforcing the University Honor Code, BYU has risen above the detritus of the naysayers and is standing by its commitment to prepare its students for a life of success on every level. Sometimes, that preparation comes in terms of mistakes and lessons learned.

We all make mistakes; but no one is above reproach, nor below the ability to learn from a mistake and then rise above that mistake and become a better person for what they have learned. Davies will, if he learns properly, rise out of this dark hour and become a better man not just for his potential career, but for the rest of his life, in all its various aspects.

Duhhhhh!

A personal gripe of mine here, but when will sports interviewers start asking intelligent questions of sports figures (coaches, players, etc)? You know, questions that don't illicit a "Duh" response from the person being interviewed.

For instance, last week the University of Kentucky released its basketball coach after a few dismal seasons. A reported actually asked what his biggest regret was. The response? "That we didn't win more games."

Well DUH!!

If UK had actually won more games, the coach wouldn't be out of a job. A real no brainer.

In every sport you hear stupid questions followed by even dumber responses. In basketball you'll hear the question, "Why didn't you win tonight?" A typical response, "We just didn't make the shots."

DUH!

In football you'd hear a running back asked "What was the difference in your poor game today?" You'll hear "I just didn't run well."

DUH!

In baseball a reporter will ask a losing pitcher why he didn't win after giving up say five or six runs. The response, "I wasn't pitching well."

DUH!

My point is that sports media, so rampantly hungry for any kind of a story will go to ridiculouness in order to attempt to have something new and resfreshing for fans to read, only to regurgitate obviousness ad infinitum.

It would really be nice to read a sports interview that wasn't chock full of "Duh's." But then, maybe the untalented sports writers wouldn't be able to actually ask intelligent questions that don't have unintelligent answers.

One can only dream...

Bored of the Super Bowl

Well folks, the week of the Super Bore is here once again. Time for the literally endless prognostications regarding the "possible" outcomes, the "sure-fire impact players," how this team or that team is "destined" to win it all, blah, blah, blah, blah, blabber, drone, yawn, yawn,.....zzzzzzzzz...

This one game is the most hyped, most watched, most commerically expensive, and most boring of any pro sporting event of the entire year.

Very rarely does any Super Bore actually deliver the excitement. It's usually a blowout. As I was passing by a bank of display TV's the other day, there were three separate shows on offering whatever "unique" perspectives they had about the big game. Analysts wearily droned on and on about this factor, or that outcome, etc.

As Sunday approaches, I am trying to figure out what I'll be doing that DOESN'T involve watching that game. Probably plug in a DVD or watch old reruns of the Twilight Zone...it'll definitely be more entertaining that being bored with another "Super" game.

And the Winner Is...

Today, I read an asotonishing headline on MSN. It read, "Who'll win the NFL's most volatile division?"

What?!!! The teams are barely in training camp, and here's a sportswriter remunerating over the winners of the NFC North...for the 2008 season.

Excuse me? Have any teams played a single down? Has there been any win-loss records for the new season? I'm sorry...what was that? The season hasn't even started?

Any sports fan with half a brain knows that anything can happen over the course of a season. Nobody would have guessed that the up and coming Seattle Mariners would win a record-tying 116 games in 2001; or that the Red Sox would overcome a 3-0 deficit to advance to, and then go on to win the World Series.

My point here is that no one can predict who will win a division more than 6 months from now. There are too many variables such as injuries, the schedule, player enthusiasm (or extreme ego), weather, etc, etc.

This goes for any sport. A month or so before this years' baseball All-Star Game, I began to see who was in what position for the 'wild-card' spot in both leagues. Excuse me?!!
There were more than 82 games yet to play, and 4 more months to go. But the sportscasters, perhaps desperate to increase viewership, are talking about pennant winners in late May!! What's wrong with this picture?

How many times have we seen teams do the August bull-rush, and others do the September-swoon? Again...too many variables.

My personal approach is to just watch it all unfold. The excitement will naturally be there. In mid-September things are pretty much set--unless of course a swoon occurs...a make-it or break-it time for players and fans alike...and damned exciting, too!

I only wish the sportswriters and broadcasters would swoon, and all their hot-air predictions get carried away like the dreams of so many professional sports teams when they fail to live up to all the pre-season hype heaped upon them by the salf-same sports writers and broadcasters who months before predicted their teams' path to glory.