In an era of astronomic payrolls, steroid scandals, and widely publicized acts such as "The Decision"; the underdogs, and what one would consider blue collar teams, are the one's walking away with their respective championships and titles.
This past year in the world of major sports, we have seen championships won by the likes of guys such as Donald Driver, Jason Terry and Aubrey Huff. These guys are not exactly your Big Ben’s, Lebron James' and Alex Rodriguez's of the world. These guys represent entire teams of pro's who aren't as highly paid, have zero involvement with anything illegal and are not making the front page for anything except team pictures.
When looking at our recent heroes and their teammates, they encapsulate the term 'blue collar'. This term is defined as every day, hard working, middle class guys who basically shut-up, avoid the limelight and do their jobs, period! And guess what, the ultimate prize has been attained by those groups! Although these teams such as the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco Giants have storied franchises, their personnel are comprised of either home-grown talent such as Aaron Rogers and Tim Lincecum, or wily veterans such as Charles Woodson and Juan Uribe. The most recent champions, Dallas Mavericks, have stuck by star Dirk Niwitski from day one and also assimilated this formula by bringing in vets such as Jason Kidd and Shawn Marion to aid their cause.
We always hear sports is about team and that "it is a team game", however, in our modern era, these teams have been typically overshadowed in the media by scandals, individual stardom and big fat ego's. Thankfully, at the end of the day today, it's those groups of men that come together under one cause and one mindset of playing for one another with the ultimate goal of being winners that not only bind them, but propel them to the heights of their respective sport.
After defeating the likes of Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Big Ben Roethlisberger, Michael Vick and Josh Hamilton; these group of scrappy youngsters and veterans have overcome those widely considered villains in today's sports world on the biggest stages, making today's true heroes in sports to be the low-key, blue collar athlete.
So I ask, would you trade all the fame and talent in the world for modesty and effort? To me the clear answer is YES! And I think we have prime examples as to why the answer should be yes today thanks to these 3 recent champions. As it was well put in the post game yesterday after Dallas' victory, "10 men beat 3".
It is my solemn hope and prayer that this will become the start of a new era, where the individual athlete is overshadowed by the character and principle of the word TEAM. An age where the media's coverage is more closely focused on what is happening in team practices than high-profile decisions and court cases.
As a true fan of all sports, let's ask more of our athletes on the field and beg them to shut up afterwards instead of making themselves into negative icons.
May the age of the 'Blue Collar Champions' reign supreme from here on!
Basketball today is bigger than ever. There are more marketable athletes in the NBA than any other sport. Coincidentally, all 3 of the biggest markets (NY, LA, Chicago) happen to have playoff teams. These teams consist of 5 of the 15 best players in the league. Lebron could have landed in any of these markets with a max contract. Instead, he opted not to go for the money, rather to win a championship. He decided to surround himself with his friends from the Olympics as well as 2 of the best players in the NBA. Critics have made comparisons to MJ saying that MJ would have never joined forces, nor would Magic or Bird. Guess what....none of those guys were ever free agents. Had they ever had the opportunity to test the waters do you think they would have opted for the money or the rings? Granted he could have chosen a classier way to go about revealing the news, but that's another blog all together.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to baseball, the small market aka "blue collar" teams depend on the big market "white collar" teams to survive. Albert Pujols, arguably the best player in baseball (perhaps ever when he retires) becomes a free agent at the end of the season. As nice as it would be to see Pujols in an Astros or Pirates jersey winning the pennant, we all know that will never happen, for 2 reasons. 1) no "blue collar" team will ever be able to afford him. 2) baseball happens to be a team game, as with all sports. Any player with the talent level of Albert Pujols wants to be surrounded with enough talent to win a championship. That just cant happen in a small market.
While I agree that its great to see small market teams come together and win as a team, those cases are rare. The most succesful and storied franchises in sports are usually the biggest markets, i.e. Yankees, Celtics, Lakers, Pats,etc. Most times when "blue collar" teams do win, the league suffers. Imagine if the Canucks were playing the Lightning in the Stanley Cup...more people would tune into a rerun of Saved by the Bell.
Dallas is the 5th largest market in the US and their owner happens to splurge more on than any other owner in the NBA. Dallas team payroll was $85 million in 2010-11, Miami was $65 million. Does that mean the "blue collars" lost?
Well said Simon. For the record I was referring to Blue Collar as more of a class of person and personality type, more than a salary class. You certainly make some good points, and the devil's advocate is one approach that I always appreciate. To answer your question, the blue collar team did still win despite the 20 million dollar gap, because most of that 65 that the Heat made, went to 3 very white collar individuals.
ReplyDeleteModesty over arrogance, team work over individual greatness, and winning over losing.