The Cognitive Dissonance Issue With Modern Sports
Play, celebrate, get fined, get promoted... the confusing rise to stardom as an athlete in the modern world.
Major American sports leagues have a tremendous issue on their hands when it comes to social media & those who they choose to promote. The nastiness of the sports business has been emerging every season. Specifically, it’s being done by the main pages of these leagues.
Many aspects surrounding this issue can all be true. Firstly, players can be penalized & fined for unsportsmanlike conduct, taunting, fighting, excessive celebration or many other off-field activities. Secondly, these companies own their proprietary content & can post whatever they want. Lastly, we are constantly reminded by the fact that these sports live in the entertainment industry and should be viewed as such & not like a youth league, high school, or developmental league.
“Player A” gets penalized for celebrating too hard while embracing the competitive spirit & passion of the game. “Player A” then sees themselves highlighted by the league’s social media platforms to incentivize fans to tune in for more of **this**. Well, the **this** got the player fined, yet the league wants more of it. Leading to a very bad case of cognitive dissonance.
We won’t get into the semantics of whether players should bat flip, take PEDs, fight during games or celebrate touchdowns. Instead, let’s analyze what these sports leagues want their athletes to be. This post from @honeyNonABG sums up their thought process pretty well in my opinion.
The NFL wants a player at the top of his position, with no off-the-field issues, who is eternally grateful to The Shield, who is also a fun character, very active on social media (especially with other players/teammates). They want a player who will never criticize the refs that just flagged him for celebrating an incredible accomplishment in a gladiator sport. OR they want a player that takes runs at the officials so they can fine him more & make more headlines. Here’s a hard truth. Athletes are boring people now. With all the access of social media, why would a current player risk being themselves when millions of eyes are on them whenever they try to be themselves?
We recently saw Anthony Edwards get in heaps of trouble over language he used on his own personal social media accounts. A heavily vetted PR apology was issued, a $40,000 fine was levied & the league moves on. The constant policing by strangers online hasn’t kept your athletes from being characters, but rather themselves. Good, bad, or ugly the new age has transformed these superhero’s with massive amounts of personality, ego, competitive fire & jock-like attitudes into sit-down athlete podcasts with very safe questions written on flash cards. That’s not highlighting the athlete at all, it’s putting an ‘84 white Chevy Monte Carlo SS with the wide body tires on it1 in a garage to gather dust for a decade while you drive to work in a Honda Pilot.
With that being said, I understand the insatiable desire for those running their league’s social media accounts to find something that will “pop”. I understand why the MLB is posting clips of Barry Bonds from their main social media page. He’s a controversial figure who was at the top of his game & his career has been subject to debate for a decade since he retired. “Barry Bonds” will garner a bigger reaction than “Luis Arraez” who hit .314 last season.
Josh Allen was included in a post from the NFL Gameday Twitter account where he pointed his finger at a Bengals defender while trotting into the end zone in 2023. Allen was fined over $10,000 for that action. The NFL used that photo of Allen’s “unsportsmanlike conduct” to highlight how good of a QB Allen is. This is where the cognitive dissonance hits. You will be punished for being yourself, but WE can also benefit from you being yourself.
Life for athletes used to be great. Every kid wanted to be you. Nobody could track your every move & the only outlets you had to battle with were actual sports media companies. Now, you’re battling against the fans, the media & the league you play for. Nobody wants to be a heel anymore because it’s too much to deal with. It’s easier to just conform & be the PG-13 version of yourself.
It’s actually a pretty good compromise for normal people in society. The athletes should be the exceptions to this ‘rule’. Would ANYONE care how the eggheads2 at SpaceX acted during a rocket launch? That’s their big game, they should pop champagne bottles and celebrate like they just won the biggest trophy on the planet. They won’t get crushed though. They’re not in the same realm. Athletes are the latest group to get socially nerfed because of social media currency. I thought “the real world is nothing like social media”. That what all the pandering suits and stiffs say. If they really believed that notion to be true then they wouldn’t dare be hypocrites on this issue.
Either lay off the guys for being themselves or shun them from socials. Take a hard line on how you want these players to be treated. Figure it out, because the double standards and conforming to a bunch of teenagers with burner accounts who have been trolling you for years won’t fix anything.
What a machine!! Take the time to check out the interior too. One day I’ll get one. Tell your friends to subscribe so I can get one.
I’m still floored that a company was able to retrieve 2 astronauts after 9 months of being stranded in space & return them safely. I HATE what Elon Musk has done with Twitter, but boy is his work with space traversing technology impressive