Do Real Sports Cry?

Craig Little provided this link to an Atlantic piece on crying in sport.

Do we still regard it as unmanly? Surely we’ve moved on in these “enlightened” times?

To judge from elements of this article, the debate in the USA hasn’t entirely advanced.

What do you think Knackers?

http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2011/03/attention-miami-heat-in-sports-crying-is-for-winners/72205/

Comments

  1. John Butler says

    Personally, I’m a sucker for the big sporting moment.

    Where’s my hanky?

  2. I’m gutted thinking about two blokes who won’t get to play in the Falcons GF team due to injury and illness. One bloke broke his collar bone after one of our players went for a hanger late in the (already well won) game against Muscat. The other bloke pulled out early telling us it was a bad flu. Turned out to be pneunomia, which coupled with a secondary infection led to 2 weeks in ICU and the excising of a portion of calf muscle.

    I didn’t cry after losing to Hong Kong in an extra-time Asian Champs final (3 second places in a row), but did telling the Geckos that it was the last time I would play for them and what it meant to be part of that group for the past three years.

    Expecting waterworks if we do get up for the GF, in what will be my last game and first ever flag in Aussie Rules.

    But that’s why my wife likes me!

  3. Mulcaster says

    Have you ever caught your niagras between yourself and the pumel of saddle?

  4. When you love something as much as you love your footy team i think its fine to cry.
    I personally spent majority of the final term of last years GF crying into a pillow so dramatically
    that my mum threatened to turn off the tv.
    In happier moments i cried after the siren of the GF replay and while the players were recieving thier medals.
    In conclusion, its perfectly acceptable to cry.

  5. Steve Healy says

    If something means a lot to you then It’s perfectly normal to cry. Unless you are incapable of feeling emotion or your tear ducts aren’t functioning properly

  6. To be honest, I think the reported attitude of the American public to the crying issue is largely unenlightened and unempathetic (if that is a word). Not entirely surprised, I must admit. How hard is it to understand that sport is these people’s lives?

    They’re not showing up just for the sake of it. These sportsmen are men who live and breathe their particular code. They train so much, make so many sacrifices. They do it to be the best, to win. And when you put in all that effort, and the result is unfavourable – I dunno about you, but a combination of exhaustion, frustration and disappointment would have me bawling my eyes out.

    Look at Cam Mooney after the 2005 SF loss to Sydney (you could hardly avoid it, Channel 10 have replayed this moment so often the footage wore out. And it was digital). He hid his face and cried into his guernsey. This is their life, and in these big moments, it’s shattering to lose.

    Let the tears run free, I say (I draw the line at crying over spilt milk, though).

  7. Ian Syson says

    Susie, unless the milk is spilt in the course of a milk churn carrying race thereby resulting in disqualification.

  8. Rick Kane says

    I agree with Danielle, #4: “In conclusion, its perfectly acceptable to cry”. It’s 2011 and I’ll cry if I want to.

    And Ian, #7, I think you have found the exception to the rule. Another exception may be if you spill milk over a lactose intolerant Hells Angel’s brand new hog while trying to juggle said glass of milk on your nose to impress a girl in the bar who coincidentally happens to be his ‘woman’. I believe it’s permissible to cry on such a milk spilling occasion as that.

  9. I find that crying over spilt milk tends to dilute it.

  10. John Butler says

    Does that make it skim?

  11. Ian #7: Good point, well made :P

  12. I almost cried tears of joy when I saw the Bangladeshi tail wag and wag and wag to defeat England.

  13. I tear up whenever I see Cathy Freeman win the 400m at Sydney. Puts a lump in the throat just thinking about it.

    When Freo win their first flag I’ll reckon I’ll shed a tear. Hopefully the tear ducts still work by then.

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