Do Players Have To Love The Game?

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Do you love your job?  Do you wake up every morning and think, "I am so lucky to have the career I have and wouldn't change it for anything in the world?"

Probably not.  Very few of us have that perfect dream job that even if we had to work for free we would do so.  I think for many of us, being a professional athlete would be one of those dream jobs though.

Wouldn't being a professional athlete be great?  You'd have fame and fortune; fans wanting your autograph; women wanting to get with you.  You'd get to travel around the country and experience so much on other peoples' expenses.  You would have the opportunity to become acquaintances with other celebrities and get to attend events all around the world.  Furthermore, you would have a voice in society.  You would get to the chance to help out the causes that are meaningful to you and get to express your opinion to all of your fans.  Doesn't that sound like the perfect life?  Oh I forgot, you'd get to play a game for a living too.

So what if a professional athlete doesn't love the game?  Doesn't love their job?  Doesn't love all the perks that we think compile into the perfect career?  Should they be chastised for feeling this way?

This is what we saw at the Pro Bowl.  Some players thoroughly enjoyed their time there; others could really care less.  We had players who tried to showcase their skills on a somewhat national stage, while others galloped through the motions, waiting for the game to end so they could go party in South Beach.  We even saw Bryant McKinnie earlier in the week get kicked out of the Pro Bowl for lack of attendance to practice and meetings.  If the job is so perfect then why don't players care about everything that is involved with being a professional athlete?

I think part of the problem is our society.  We're a passionate nation.  We're supposed to love our country, love thy neighbor, love our family, friends, colleagues, jobs, pets, cuisine, and sports teams; basically anything we can be associated with, we should love.  That's not life though.  We can't always give 100% and shouldn't always care about everything we're associated with.

I guess a lot of people are fake, or at least encapsulated in this culture that we have of loving everything we do.  How many people have picked up a book, read halfway through it, and then decided that the story wasn't that great and decided not to finish it?  Probably very few.  Most avid readers I know think every book they read is great and want to persuade everyone they know to read it as well.  Then we have the fitness fanatics that are determined to fall in love with working out.  They live for the sweat, the pain, the euphoric acid that runs throughout their body.  If they miss a single day on the pec deck then they have to double the effort the next day.

Now I can totally understand enjoying your time at the gym.  You can definitely get a lot out of it including energy, self esteem, and seeing physical results in front of you, but lets not pretend like it's the greatest thing in the world.  If we could obtain the same results by sitting on the couch, watching football, and eating chicken wings then I think we'd go for that route.

We shouldn't have to love all of what we do.  There's going to be positive and negative aspects about everything in life, so let's not pretend that the negatives aren't there.  Even if most of us don't love our jobs, there's probably a sizeable amount of us who like what we do for a living.  There's good days and bad days.  Satisfying times and frustrating times.  That's life; that's people being realistic.

So let's be realistic about being a professional athlete.  There are great incentives that come with the job, but there's deterrences as well. For some it's dealing with the fame, for others it's dealing with the fortune.  For many football players it's having to act like the Pro Bowl is of importance.  Remember, it's okay to just like something and not totally love it.  I'm sure most of us say we love a sport, a team, or a player, but I'm sure there's parts of it that we actually dislike.  Players are the same way.  There's the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful.

Do players have to love the game? No, and we shouldn't expect them to.