Top 10 Athletes We've Discussed To Death
By Daniel Friedman
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We love our athletes, but we also love to criticize them. And in today's world of social media and blogs, such criticism is universal and it always comes in bulk.
Here are 10 players we've discussed to death:
10. Roberto Luongo
All he's done is steal games and play extremely well throughout his career, but fans only focus on the instances where he doesn't make the big save or gives up a bad goal. People zero in on Luongo and he gets a lot of criticism, most of which he doesn't deserve.
9. Carmelo Anthony
Either he's your favorite player, or he's the reason why the Knicks will never be good. If I didn't know any better, I'd have assumed he was the only player on the team. People know there are other guys on the court, right?
8. Alex Ovechkin
He's called out for not being the emotionless robot that other NHL stars generally personify, which I think is absolutely ridiculous. We sit there complaining about how he celebrates and enjoys himself, and we go on and on about how he doesn't play enough defense. You know what? Hockey could use more of Ovechkin's enthusiasm and charisma. Stop yelling at the guy and just sit back and just appreciate the opportunity to watch him play. He's this generation's Pavel Bure, for gosh sakes.
7. Tiger Woods
We get it. Tiger Woods was a role model and now he isn't. He is not the first man to be unfaithful to his wife and, unfortunately, nor will he be the last. Surely there were more important things at the time that we could've focused on, right?
6. Brett Favre
Every year he was THE story of the offseason. Every damn year. The entire media would camp outside this man's home in Mississippi and try to get information. It was all we talked about. It didn't have to be.
5. Sidney Crosby
Crosby has his faults, and some of the recent criticism is deserved, but that doesn't mean we haven't picked apart his game and over-analyzed him to a psychotic degree. He's the best hockey player in the world, whether people like it or not.
4. Tony Romo
Not only is Romo to blame for the Cowboys' struggles, but apparently he's a maloik for teams in other sports as well. We can't stop talking about him. We have an obsession with him. We'll find pictures of him at sporting events, wait for something bad to happen to the home team and then blame it on Romo. And the debate regarding how good (or bad) he really is will probably rage on until the day he doesn't botch the hold on a field goal attempt in a key situation.
3. Tim Tebow
Tebow is the most glorified backup quarterback in football history. He might even be the most glorified backup anything in any sport's history. Even playing for the Jets, the team for which everything becomes a back page, he managed to be THE biggest story.
2. Alex Rodriguez
A-Rod is a cheater, and we denounce him for it. That said, we constantly bring him up in conversation. And it's not even limited to steroid allegations; we talk about who he's dating, who he likes and dislikes, what he'll do after his suspension is up. Even before the steroid thing we justifiably but excessively criticized his performance on the field (which, ironically, was anything but "enhanced").
1. LeBron James
"Where's he gonna go?"
"How many times is he going to flop?"
"He's not Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan would never lose a basketball game."
He's probably the most recognizable athlete on the planet right now and the criticism comes with the territory, but for crying out loud -- a TV special to announce where he's going to sign? I hope that happens again, except this time, the host is some angry guy who gets up and yells "MAKE A DAMN DECISION ALREADY!"
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