Football is, in itself, a metaphor that imitates real life and it provides more examples than anyone wants to hear, but at the end of the day, it's a player's job. They go to work, do their job, go home and take out the garbage.
But the result of their week of preparation happens to be presented in front of an audience that tops 70,000 people in the arena and millions more on television - and the men that do it better and harder than the other guys end up being the winners.
The losers? Well they generally support the guys on the other team - many are friends and have a healthy respect for each other, unlike many of the national journalists and, even more, the teams' fans can become so bitter that it controls their emotions and renders them incapable of appreciating greatness...
...like Sunday afternoon outside of M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland, where a throng of Ravens' fans stood and saluted the New England Patriots in the only way in which they were capable, their raised middle fingers and snarling of colorful metaphors an expression of their fear and anxiety that their team was about to get their asses handed to them.
And the ass whoopin's followed shortly after that.
Patriots' linebacker Rob Ninkovich expressed this experience to Mark Daniels of the Boston Herald after the Patriots' 41-7 public flogging of the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday evening - a beatdown so brutal and utterly humiliating that by the time the game ended there were less people left in the stands than there were in the throng of ill-wishers that greeted the patriots' team bus with "The Bird", as it were.
“You know what? Coming in here, on the bus ride over here, I felt great. I knew we were going to beat these guys" Ninkovich recanted, "and getting some hand gestures, coming in from the fans, that’s always a good motivating thing."
A sentiment echoed by tweets from Christopher Price of WEEI.com:
Ninkovich said he knew they were going to win on the bus ride into the stadium.
— Christopher Price (@cpriceNFL) December 23, 2013
and again
Ninkovich also mentioned the added incentive after seeing some "hand gestures" from fans while on the bus.
— Christopher Price (@cpriceNFL) December 23, 2013
No one should really be surprised, neither by Ninkovich's confidence nor by he and his teammates gleaning motivation by their rude greeting.
It happens everywhere, even at Gillette Stadium - particularly when someone like Peyton Manning, Wes Welker or any player in the upper echelon of the fame and fortune that professional football brings come to visit - and it's uncool no matter the venue because it shows what losers the fans that do it really are...
...Because, as we've learned, losers are fans that can't appreciate greatness in any form - or at least refuse to acknowledge it.
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