Sport's 10 Most Perplexing Questions, Plus Some Answers

Please allow me to cynical and analytical so that I can demonstrate how the sports world is often illogical and silly:

Issue No. 1: The Use of "We"

Why is that when sports fans talk about their favorite teams, they say “we," as in, “We need to start playing some defense if we are going to win this game?”

Since when does rooting for a particular team magically make you a player, coach, or owner?

Issue No. 2: Apologize for What?

Why do sports commentators say that "we all owe (insert player/team name here) an apology" just because that player or team overachieved (i.e., did better than we thought they would) on a particular occasion?

After all, usually the positive result is because they played better than normal or their opponent had an off day; so, what's there to be sorry about?

Issue No. 3: Everyone's Always Better Than Their Seed

Why is it that sports commentators and opposing coaches say that all those teams seeded 10th-16th in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament are "better than their seeds?"

Based on the results of the games, it seems that at least half the 10th-16th seeds are seeded properly, hence, at most, only a quarter of the teams could be "better than their seeds."

Issue No. 4: Empty Guarantees

Shouldn’t there be some kind of punishment when an athlete guarantees a victory and he or she (or their team) loses? Should the press even publish the guarantee without there being some risk for not following through?

I mean, with no consequence for being wrong, doesn't that make their guarantees meaningless?

Issue No. 5: Everyone's a Critic, No One's a Good Evaluator

Why is it that all of your favorite players and teams are "underrated" and all of the players and teams that you don’t like are "overrated?"

Issue No. 6: It's Easy to Dismiss

Why is it that anyone that disagrees with you in a sports debate does not know what they are talking about? Do you have some pipeline to the sports gods that no one else has that allows you to know all the answers in the sport’s world?

Please, share it with the rest of us ignorant folk.

Issue No. 7: Monday-Morning Quarterbacking Every Day of the Week

How is it that sports fans, extremely few of whom have played or coached professionally and half of whom are of below-average intelligence (assuming sports fans as a whole are of "average" intelligence), always know the right moves or decisions that a coach or manager should make during a game?

Not that the questioning stops there; players, GMs, and owners all also get second-guessed.

Issue No. 8: There's Not Necessarily a "Right" Answer

Why is it that all play calls that work are the "right call" and all the ones that don’t work the "wrong call?"

After all, isn’t execution (or lack thereof of), by either competitor, at least as important to the play’s success as the play's design?

Issue No. 9: That's a Little Biased

Why is it that the "best athletes in the world" just so happen to play in sports that you like and follow?

Issue No. 10: Think You Can Do My Job Better Than Me?

Since apparently every fan is a great predictor of events and knows everything, why are bookies and Las Vegas still in business?