The Nightcap

Outgoing, extrovert, friendly, joyful, and personable. Great qualities for people to embody but not qualities that are necessary of a professor athlete. Constantly, in our society today, people whine and complain about the fact that a certain professional athlete did not sign an autograph or did not stop to take a picture and they never seem as nice as they should. As they should? Why should an athlete be expected to stop doing whatever they are doing at any given time and be willing to take a picture with you just because they can throw a baseball hard or dunk a basketball or make a hard hit on a wide receiver over the middle? These are normal people who happen to be good at a particular sport, these are not people who applied and accepted a job to be the all-time entertainer to anyone that sees them in public.

The classic argument is always, "I pay his salary". Sure, this is true to an extent but not nearly as true as you would like to believe. In reality, advertisers, revenue sharing and sports networks pay the majority of his salary, but if you would like to go ask for an autograph and a picture with someone who's salary you truly pay feel free to contact any government official. Or, better yet, the next time you see one walking down the street sprint after them yelling their name and ask for an autograph and a picture with them. I bet you get an even ruder response than you would from most athletes.

When it comes down to it, a professional athletes job is to win games in his or her respective sport. It's not to be best friends with the fans, its not to sign autographs and take pictures at a restaurant until their own food gets cold, and its certainly not to take time out of their personal day to make sure to accommodate yours. Yes, it is nice when they do and yea, they probably should be willing most of the  time but it in no way should be expected or frowned upon when it does not occur. The next time you want to hassle someone in public because they are "famous" just imagine if everyone came running up to you as soon as you stepped out of your car to walk in to dinner and see how welcoming you would be.

I'm guessing you would be even less welcoming than you are willing to admit.