In His Defense: A Cautionary Twitter Tale

Yesterday afternoon, Dan Ellis retweeted some things from Reggie Bush's twitter account.  If only he knew the storm it would cause for the remainder of the day.

The tweets from Reggie Bush were innocent enough:

RT @reggie_bush: Lol! Clearly some of these people have never been through an NFL Training Camp! Hmmmm? Maybe that could make a good tv show

RT @reggie_bush: Let's put a fan through training camp, two-a-day practices for 2 weeks straight, 100+ heat everyday, full pads

That is nothing someone with a normal job wouldn't say on a regular basis, if met with scrutiny about their performance.  In the Twitter world, a retweet typically serves as your agreement with someone else's sentiment as was the case with Ellis. However, he delved further into the issue with these tweets:

ppl say well that guy makes too much money...well he earned it. Just like a brain surgeon makes tons of $, it took 15 more yrs than u put in to get that kind of pay

Any job I can think of that makes lots of cash..that person is a specialist. Meaning other pl can not do the job as well. They train harder, are better educated or just plain blessed. They are not a dime a dozen unlike many other professions.

My brain surgeon comparison does not compare their importance to life but merely their years of training and perfecting their craft!

This did not go over very well.  People were poking at him left and right about what they considered to be inaccuracies in his philosophy.  To suggest that pro-athletes are specialists in their field and deserve the pay compensatory to their craft...oh, the horror! Then to compare brain surgery to athletism...preposterous!

But let's take a step back from the shoot from the hip, instant word vomit of Twitter for a second.  How many people can honestly (HONESTLY) say they would do a better job than any pro-athlete under scrutiny in any given sport?  As a fan, we pay good money to see these individuals do what they do best.  Did it cost them a hefty price to get to where they are? Without a doubt.  Their entire lives have built up to these moments in time.  They have practiced countless hours, sacrificed plenty of life's little moments they'll never get back, and continue to hone their skills to achieve all that their sport can offer them.  By comparison, brain surgeons, general practice physicians, and anyone else in a highly specialized field have sacrificed just as much and are under just as much scrutiny, if not infinitely more so.

Does it suck when people in these professions claim to "have it hard"?  Does it seem ludicrous for people who play sports for a living to make millions of dollars a year?  Of course.  Especially when you compare your take home pay to theirs.  But such is the society we live in.  These are the norms by which we live.  This is what has been deemed acceptable by most.  Are these people extraordinary at what they do and deserve the compensation they receive?  In a lot of cases, absolutely.  In the case of doctors, from my own experience, I know firsthand that they are some of the most brilliant minds on the planet.  They've worked hard to get where they are.  From what I know of professional athletes, their version of hard work just looks a lot different than the average job.  That doesn't mean they aren't amazing at what they do and don't deserve the pay appropriate for their skill level.

What you really have here is a case of "the grass is always greener on the other side".  There are pros and cons to every job, no matter if you are a teacher, a mailman, an athlete or a neurosurgeon.  Everyone has their own talents.  My weaknesses could be someone else's strengths.  We are all blessed with unique characteristics that make us stand out in one way or the other.  Whether or not we all get paid the right amount of money for them or get the recognition from the world at large for our contribution to society is a whole other issue.

Besides, we can't all be professional athletes.  The sporting world (and Twitter, for that matter) would be far less appealing if we were.