"It's not the urge to surpass all others at whatever the cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost."-Arthur Ashe
That quote shows the mentality of athletes of the past. Guys who would go through a wall for there teammates, and if that wasn't enough they would keep pushing themselves until it was enough. That quote signifies what used to be common in sport. Now you don't see that too often.
You used to be able to fill a team with guys that had respect for the game, their team, and their coach. You used to be able to fill a team with guys that you didn't have to worry about work ethic. Now you can't fill a team with that. There are definitely guys who have all these attributes today, but they are rare. You can't fill a team with them, you see it all over, whether it be high school athletics, to collegiate, all the way up to professional sports. Every team now has guys who are more concerned with appearance, or individual stats, than overall team success. Sadly the guys that have that poor mentality are usually the ones with the most raw talent.
Over the years whether it's been parenting, coaching, media, or a deadly combination of too many negative factors, we have somewhere along the lines changed the mentality of athletes to look after #1 before anything. To me this is baffling when you have so many resources today, whether it be sports psychology, books, television, that show what success looks like in team sports. And they show team play. They don't show one guy doing everything and then everyone praises him for winning.
Take the San Francisco Giants who just won a world series. Bruce Bochy made few comments as to why his team was so successful but the one point he emphasized was that his guys were a team first. Everyone left there individual agendas at home and came to work ready to do anything and everything. 2009 Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum had a terrible year, he wanted to be on the post season roster so he without even questioning his manager took a spot in the bullpen. He performed admirably out of the pen and was huge in his teams success. Hunter Pence was interviewed on field after the Giants had won, he was asked how he felt having such a big role in this win, he responded with saying he did just as much as every other guy on the team.
Team players are winners. A team will succeed in the end, where an individual will fail. The Patriots three super bowl winning teams in the 2000's, were team wins. People mention a high powered offence, and a good defence when they think of those teams. They think of a franchise built the right way, and they think of the Patriot Way. Teams win championships, individuals win games.
At what time did it become OK for athletes to decided whats right and whats wrong on a team. That's up to a coaching staff to decide and for players to abide by. Simple rules like what time to show up, what to wear to games, have become issues. You used to have to tell guys to leave the gym, now you have to make sure they get there on time. What changed in the minds of athletes that made these little things so hard to abide by. And when these rules are broken, coaches are made out as villains because they have punishment for these offences. Sure call it a little thing and in the long run doesn't mean much, but it's the simple fact that players has lost the respect for authority so they can't even show up on time. You see it in professional sports now, people show up late so they get benched. How many Chicago Bears under Mike Ditka were late. I can bet there were very few if any.Mike Singletary said it best "I can not win with'em."
All the arrests, discipline issues, etc. you see in pro and amateur sports today are because of a change in mindset of today's athletes. I believe that if you combine old school mentality with today's physical athlete that's a scary thing. Rarely do you see those two attributes together, but when you do its a scary thing, because that makes for an unbelievable man/athlete.
"Natural talent only determines the limits of your athletic potential. It's dedication and disciplining your life that makes you great."-Billie King
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