The United States produces some of the greatest athletes on the planet. It’s always interesting when someone talks about a soccer player who is standing at 6’5 and running fast down the line, because that’s literally 84% of NBA Players and nobody even thinks twice about it.
We have some great athletes and great teams who bring some great entertainment to all of us sports fans.
But something caught my attention when the Head Coach for the USMNT said: “America Rewards Losers..”
I got to thinking about this myself… And sure enough, if you think about it, we truly do.
Rather than having our sports punish the ‘losing’ mentality, we incentivize losers. We provide them with the best draft pick and allow them to bring in the best players at that time in an attempt to ‘re-build’ their organizations. But isn’t that backwards of how it’s supposed to be?
I mean, you lose and lose and lose.. yet you still ‘win’ somehow?
And honestly, that mentality is trickling down to the youth. The whole system is messed up.
Why do we allow people to be rewarded for losing?
If your business you work for, does not move the needle and begin making revenue, then you might find yourself without a job. But I guess that’s part of the problem, because in American sports, they’re still making the money and generating revenue, even when they’re losing.
So to them, they don’t find it to be a problem.
I do though. I think we really need to take a hard look at this. Why are we teaching young athletes and people that you can just keep losing, be content with it, and just keep moving forward?
I would love to see a relegation / promotion style format for American sports (not just soccer). But I would ALSO love to see us reward the WINNERS rather than the losers.
Imagine a scenario where the NBA Finals Champion or Super Bowl Champion, got the pick for the #1 player in the draft the following year? Yes I know that’s a little strange and in theory, it would allow for the ‘best teams to keep winning and the lower-tiered organizations wouldn’t have a chance’ but it would sure as heck make things a lot more exciting.
Would love to know your thoughts and see what anyone else has to say about this.
Regardless, I will say I agree with Coach Mauricio Pochettino’s words. We do reward losers, and I would love to see it change.
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