Is aggression an asset?!

The only problem with having a blog is that you don’t just need regular ideas, but also have witty and funny things to say about them! That said, things have been a bit hectic lately—not that it has stopped my very limited fan club 😛 from asking for updates! Anyway, here goes (this is a bit of cheating as what follows is my Goal Post write-up for the current issue! [In case you don’t know what the Goal Post is, it is a free e-mail football newsletter. If you want to subscribe, please drop me a mail.]):

If the Wayne Rooney fan club—in other words about every commentator, analyst and other mediaperson covering football—is to be believed, aggression is an asset.

In keeping with the tradition (?!) of the Goal Post, we beg to differ. And if you don’t agree with us, how about we take this outside and
settle it with our fists, you ****?!

Apologies ;), but that was just to make a point. Getting worked up seems to be universally acknowledged as the best way to get an adrenaline rush, but it also is a shortcut to saying goodbye to reason. Case in point: Mr Rooney! And, indeed, if it were that easy—get angry and snarly and get a high from it—there would be more of us playing professional sport! Why would we need to bother to actually play—have rules and adjudicators? Why not just line up and hurl obscenities at each other? No warm up and stretching required, either! You could argue that sport is a competition and any competition has an element of aggression. True, but competitions also have rules so that the competitiveness does not get out of hand. Sport is just entertainment; not life and death. It is irresponsible to millions of watching youngsters to hype being aggressive as a positive personality trait. Apart from the fact that it is shockingly bad manners, it is
bad for health!

Gary Linekar—who, we all agree had a reasonably distinguished career?—never got booked in his professional life. Michael Owen shows Aes Sedai calmness, usually even in the face of extreme provokation. Don Bradman didn’t average 99.9 in Test cricket because of his expansive vocabulary or iron-hard fists. Martina Navratilova isn’t playing (and still winning) at almost 50 because of her aggressive personality traits.

Sport—and life—ain’t that easy! Funny that, as intelligent beings, humans invented sport. And now they take that same sport as an excuse to behave like animals. Of course, technically we *are* animals… Oh, perhaps that explains it!

~PD

3 Replies to “Is aggression an asset?!”

  1. You used Aes Sedai in a sentence completely unrelated to WoT! I must say I’m a bit proud. Being the head of your fan club and all. 😉

  2. I have never been into sports, but it’s enthralling to listen to people who are. When the local american football team (the Philadelphia Eagles) was doing very well last year, I put stickers and little pennants up of the opposing team. It was just to get a rise out of people, which is why I assume some sports stars act the way they do. That seems to be the operative word: stars. Is it the fault of the team for hyping certain players the way they do, or is it the overblown egos of some team members? There are some in sports that don’t behave that way. They may not rise to fame and international response as quickly, but they do seem to have longer playing records on average. But, again, I’m not into sports. What do I know? Go Dallas! 😛

  3. lol @ Kaitlin. Trying to get a rise out of people? Shame on you! 😛

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