Over the summer, I noticed that the sports media and sports fans seemed to be paying attention to certain players. It didn't bother me at first, but sometimes I could pretty much bet my life savings that each morning for two weeks, SportsCenter was going to say something inane and recycled about whichever athlete they have deemed to replace God this time around.
Below are the top five most exhausted headline athletes since the start of the calendar year.
5. Michael Phelps
This one would be higher if he wasn't as freaking good as he is. He actually lives up to the hype. But given the way he was talked about this summer and four years ago in Athens (for a total of about five grueling weeks), you'd think he would just give up on swimming and sprint across the surface of lane four at the water cube.
Phelps is great, probably the greatest swimmer of all time. But let's face it: no one will care about him in October. Heck, it's September and you probably forgot about him until now.
4. Kevin Garnett
Kevin Garnett garnered a lot of attention for not playing on the Olympic team, but somehow managing to whoop up on the Eastern Conference alongside Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. This guy is a good basketball player, but why do we pay so much attention to him?
It's a nice story that he finally won the NBA title. But really, he went from a team with no one else on it to a team with two perennial all-stars. He didn't accomplish that much. When Kobe and Shaq were teamed up, they did it three times in a row, almost four. But when Garnett did it, he was so joyous it was almost as though he had it planned since he was six years old.
"I LOVE CLICHES!!!" Garnett screamed after winning the championship. I think. He said something like that. Anyway, when I said "almost as though he had planned it since he was six," I of course meant "he definitely had been planning it since he realized six years into his career that he was a failure to that point."
3. Tiger Woods
He's greatest golfer of all time. But he doesn't do much when he's sitting in his armchair after surgery, watching the British Open. It's been said that golf is useless to watch now because Tiger isn't competing. As though he was a lock to win the other two majors this year.
I mean, certainly Padraig Harrington wouldn't have taken the Open Championship if Tiger were in the field. Harrington was totally unproven up to that point… Oh wait. He won the same tournament in 2007, just barely edging out… Sergio Garcia. Not Tiger.
The fact is, golf can do fine without Tiger.
That's why golf is fun to watch for golfers. Not because this one guy wins a lot - we like it because every individual on the course does all the stuff we wish we could do, can't do, and go insane trying to figure out.
2. Rafael Nadal
I've always been a Federer fan, but before I dig into this I want to say that Rafael Nadal deserves the No. 1 seed at the U.S. Open. He won the last two grand slams and the Olympic gold, so he's playing the best right now on multiple surfaces. He's No. 1,
but the media is definitely on his side. They like his charisma; they love his bizarre swing styles; they absolutely melt for his little gimmicky trademark habits before every serve.
Roger Federer? No personality. No charisma. No stupid superstitions before the point. Which is why the media can't stand him after seven grand slam victories, it was just more of the same out of this guy.
But Nadal has basically grabbed the attention of the tennis world by winning a few big tournaments in a row. I just think people need to stop saying that he has passed Federer as the greatest of all time (until Nadal wins seven more grand slams).
1. Brett Favre
This guy has turned out to be an absolute idiot. I liked his style as a risky quarterback, and I liked his on-the-field antics. However, what he did to the Green Bay Packers organization was atrocious, and I applaud the team for responding the way they did.
Brett: I demand a release from my contract.
Packers: It's a contract. The reason you signed it was so that you could stay here.
Brett: Well sure, but you already named Aaron the starter. I'm not just going to sit on the bench.
Packers: Wanna bet? You're the one that un-retired. Sit down.
Brett: Can you at least trade me to a terrible team in the AFC that will get beat down annually by the Patriots, who we would have played in the Super Bowl if I hadn't telegraphed a pass at one of the most important moments of my career?
Packers: (sigh) fine…
Brett Favre sadly took up most of the headlines this summer while baseball trudged on. It was pathetic. ESPN shamelessly took advantage of the Brett Favre situation to fill space in their programs for which they had no other content. Favre knew that would happen, and of course he jumped at the opportunity for more attention. After all, if he wasn't still playing, who would treat him like a deity? I contend that he craves - he needs - that attention and praise.
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