I spent nearly all of today writing cover letters, scouring LinkedIn, and submitting applications left and right to companies that probably won’t have the decency to let me know that I’m not the guy for the job, which got me thinking: Professional athletes live a dream like no other.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m very appreciative of my life. I am the luckiest man in the world to have the family that I have, and I am fortunate enough to attend higher education, but man…earning millions to play children’s games would be a nice career route!
Sorry, I’m definitely just a little sour after a school day that also included 6+ hours of work in an attempt to land a job come June, but I’m sure most of you had the same thought. In fact, I think that a majority of kids had dreams to play professional sports in elementary school, only to have them crushed around the same time that Santa wasn’t real.
I vividly remember getting down on one knee at a hockey summer camp and the coach/head of the program giving us a pump up speech about playing professionally. He asked all of us to raise our hands if we wanted to play in the big show, and as I looked around, all of the younger kids shot their hands up as high as possible, the kids who were filthy did the same, and then the rest of us regular Joes kinda just shrugged and got disappointed instead of hyped.
It’s also weird being the age now where professional athletes aren’t just younger than me, they’re younger than my (not so) little siblings. Hell, Connor Bedard is less than a month older than my youngest brother! Somebody tell me when the fuck that happened.
I’m digressing more and more towards bitter ranting the longer I write; these cover letters are really getting to me. Let’s get back to the point, and let’s make it quick.
I know that very few athletes have the longevity of guys like Tom Brady, Jaromír Jágr, or Cal Ripken Jr., but since we’re talking hypotheticals here, let’s just imagine that all athletes play in their respective leagues long enough to make a lifetime’s worth of money. Is there a better job in the world than that?
Sure, there’s sons of Saudi kings that get born into the world with more money than they could ever spend, but they can’t ever feel fulfilled living that lifestyle.
Rockstars/musicians live pretty great lives too, but they have to deal with record labels, corrupt award shows, and the shitty transition to acting. Seems like more work than signing a couple documents and going out to play a game you love for boatloads of money.
On a similar note of things that are required for athletes to do, why do pros act like it’s so hard to deal with the scrutiny of the media? Everybody should take a note out of Kawhi’s book and not say anything or have any social media presence. What you can’t see can’t hurt you. Also, guys like Kawhi catch the least slack out of anybody. It’s almost like everybody knows that those kinds of guys won’t see the trolling, so they get less of it in the long run.
Once again, I’ve caught myself bitterly digresing, so I guess I’ll end it here. I promise my article on Friday will be more lighthearted, but I hope you got at least one chuckle or three-shot-burst of nose exhales while reading this one.