On athletes acting like idiots

One of the most bittersweet moments of the year for me is watching the World Series champs celebrate.  The way that they all run out of the dugout, mitts and hats flying, and congregate around the pitchers mound is beautiful to me.  No matter who wins (except for the 1997 Marlins, assholes), it's always fun to watch and I always look forward to it.  They act in ways that no fully-grown men ever act; running and jumping and laughing and joking.  On the other hand, it means that the season is over, winter has set in, and I'll have to focus my efforts on the Green Bay Packers and college basketball until April brings baseball and joy back into my life.

Watch this.  They all act like five year-olds.  How cool is that?  You can't blame them either.  If I was getting paid millions of dollars to play a game I loved I'd be pretty excited too.  There's no reason not to have fun.  These guys have the greatest jobs in the world and they act like it, as do their counterparts in other sports.  John Wall dancing, Shaq joking it up, T.O. doing his touchdown celebrations, these guys have way more fun than I think I ever will in whatever I end up doing.

On the plus side, my boring office job will put me at a much lower risk for the old bubble gum on the hat trick.

There is one obvious problem with the fact that athletes act like kids on the field, and that is, well, that athletes act like kids off the field.  They have overinflated egos, they whine and moan about not getting an extra couple million dollars, they turn around and blow those millions, they don't take responsibility for anything, and they pretty act like 250 pound kindergartners.

250 pound kindergartners can be dangerous

In the past few years we've seen multiple dong texts, a dude cheat on his wife with upwards of 10 (20? 300?) women and lose $100 million to her, a quarterback lose his prime to jail time after being caught operating a dog-fighting ring (Editor's note: Why is dog-fighting illegal if UFC is legal?  Should we pay the dogs?  And why the hell did Donte Stallworth get 1/19th of the jail time that Michael Vick got?  Deaths Responsible For: Vick - a bunch of dogs, Stallworth - a human), a man lose his life after trying to hang onto a moving truck, a guy contemplate retirement because the NFL won't let him try to seriously injure people anymore, and a bunch of things I'm probably forgetting.

These guys are idiots, very true, but nobody's paying them to be smart or make good decisions.  While I probably wouldn't want any girl I know to date Tiger Woods, I still love him as a golfer.  I still love watching Michael Vick create on the football field.  I still love Brett Favre is actually pretty much just a douche bag.

I'll accept that these guys have a hard time being normal, functioning members of society as long as I can see them act like they love what they're doing.  These guys have it right.  Would the world not be more fun if the sales team dogpiled after getting a huge order?  The world needs to have more fun, and while there might not be many scenarios where we should be looking up to pro athletes as role models in everyday life, maybe we can take the things that they do on the field and apply them to the real world.  I don't possibly think this can be a bad thing.