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Monday, May 17, 2010
The difference between Sean Avery and A-Rod
Reading Patriot’s views on ARod and sportsmanship, and he misses the one point I go back to. Sean Avery is a jerk. When he stands in front of the goalie, with his hands out in the air trying to block the goalie’s vision (within the rules that day, though referees have the latitude to call unsportsmanlike conduct penalty), he’s telling the world he’s a jerk. And he’s pretty much admitting he’s a jerk. “Look at me, I’m a jerk!”. The NHL doesn’t stand for jerks, and so created a rule the next day to stop that kind of jerk things from happening. We have a consensus that he’s a jerk, and Avery didn’t come out to profess his innocence or anything. (Avery, you may recall, also called his former girlfriends of current NHLers “sloppy seconds”.)
With A-Rod, the problem is not that he slaps at gloves, or confuses opposing players by calling for plays. No. It’s that he professes his innocence at doing these things. To me, the lasting image is not when ARod slaps at a glove, but that when he was standing on the base and was called out, he threw up his hands in the air like “why? what did I do?” It’s the same image I have of Chuck Blockhead when he blows his bubblegum when catching a ball. It’s not that he blows his bubblegum, but that he turns to the umpire and argues with him while the ball is live on the ground and he makes no effort to pick it up.
If you are a jerk, admit you are a jerk or act like you are a jerk. There’s nothing worse than a jerk that professes his innocence. That makes you an intolerable jerk. Sean Avery is unlikeable, but tolerable. ARod is unlikeable, and intolerable. Tiger Woods is like ARod. None of them are anywhere close to Roger Federer or Wayne Gretzky. Those two set the bar and the blueprint. The only way to emulate them is to actually have a personality translplant. Otherwise, your facade will show. In order to be a likeable and tolerable jerk, act like Shaq or Michael Jordan. Be funny, admit how you feel, and don’t make apologies for it.
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