Many sports fans get confused when they see how their favorite players from the NBA and NFL such as Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal or Tom Brady are rather… petty and sensitive to criticism. Heck, people in general tend to get upset or perplexed when successful people care so much about how others think.
Welp, the reason why successful people – especially athletes – care so much about their perception is simple: how you are treated affects your quality of life, and it validates or invalidates the work you put in if you are an ambitious person. To make this easier to understand, we’ll use athletes. If you are an ambitious person, who not only is good at a sport, but you play it because you want to be the best, external voices matter a lot. Working so hard to become the greatest… putting in so much unseen blood, sweat, and tears, going through injury, and spending countless hours watching film and practicing to hone your craft… only for the general public to think “eh you’re not that great” and for you to not make the hall of fame is a definite gut punch. It makes all the grind and work completely worthless if no one else but you recognizes it. Why, you may ask? Because it’s almost like as if you didn’t work hard at all.
Imagine studying hard for a test, day after day, week after week, for years, and getting straight As with the perfect GPA… just for you to not get accepted into any good college, or get any great job, and for people to think you’re not even that smart. It would have made so much of that studying pointless. Not to mention, people treat you differently depending on how they think if you. What use is knowing you are smart if people don’t take you seriously, don’t trust you with anything important, and pass you over for certain jobs and constantly belittle you if they think you are dumb?
Like it or not, we live in a socially entwined world. We always say “you shouldn’t care what others think” or that “you don’t need outside validation”, but that’s bogus. What use is having talent or knowing you have talent if it only exists inside your own mind? You may as well not even have it if it can’t be shown in real life. Proof. There’s a reason why need evidence in court. There’s a reason why we record things. They may as well have not happened if it can’t be recognized.
This article is going to (obviously) use athletes to valid this point.
We will start with Tom Brady.
One of the greatest tragedies of Tom Brady’s career (that hopefully won’t be forgotten through the sands of the time) is that much of his career, many thought that Tom Brady was a “system quarterback”: that is, he wasn’t that great, and that any QB could have won Super Bowls with the teams Brady won with. Even the coaching staff of the New England Patriots themselves have said this. Others were less brazen, but still felt that Brady wasn’t really any better than other all-time greats like Peyton Manning.
And Tom Brady listened to all of this. If you think this is a lie, check his social media posts. Even check the T-Mobile commercial with Gronk. Even check his announcement to leave the Patriots, where he said he still had a lot to prove. And if that is not enough, check his post-Super Bowl Instagram post, where he blatantly acknowledged and called out the haters.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CLZ_O8tgpW_/?igshid=1xejrlswwbizr
If Brady didn’t care what others thought, he could have potentially retired in 2018 after winning the Rams (assuming his love for the game naturally dwindled and wasn’t fueled by betting on himself). And guess what? If he retired then, there would still be unfortunate skepticism regarding his definitive status. Imagine if the Pats drafted a QB high or signed a free agent that was available in the 2019 offseason, and played out the 2019 season with that schedule and went 10-6. Everyone would have said that it was confirmed that Brady was a system QB. Just like that, the 19 years he would have put into the Patriots organization, the numerous postseason successes and heroics and his overall greatness and sacrifices and passion he put in would have been reduced to him just being a nothing-special player. You see how terrible that is?
But Tom bet on himself. At age 43, he went to Tampa, who, although had a very good supporting cast, still only went 7-9 the year before, hadn’t made the playoffs in 13 years, had a losing culture (lowest win percentage of any team in the 4 major pro sports), and had a head coach whose scheme is difficult for QBs to play efficiently in, especially in their first year. And he won a Super Bowl in his first year with his new team. With a limited offseason and no preseason due to Covid. And with no coordinators following him. That’s something that no one – not Brett Favre, not Peyton Manning, not Joe Montana ever did, even with them having good teams that they went to.
And now, you can’t take that away from him. The system QB argument and the “Brady wouldn’t win anywhere without Bill” arguments are dead in any serious discussions. One of the reasons why Brady left New England was that he didn’t feel appreciated there. The coaching staff not really treating him like the accomplished player he was and taking him for granted made his time there more unbearable. Him never publicly criticizing Belichick unlike other QBs with their coaches (cough Aaron Rodgers couch Big Ben), not demanding top dollar all the time, etc. Led to them taking him for granted. And his legacy took a hit, to a point where some people thought he was washed up. Thats how bad it got. But because Brady still is motivated by his haters and by what others think of him, he flipped the narrative and ended it forever.
An older, classic example is Richard Sherman. Sherman went on First Take to dismantle the arguments that Skip and Steven A were saying about him. After that event, many started to pay attention to and recognize Sherman’s greatness. And guess what? His endorsements increased, and the ensuing hype and respect he got most likely added extra pressure for receivers going up on him.
Another example can be found with Baker Mayfield. Baker Mayfield is someone who garnered a large amount of criticism after his sophomore year in the NFL, and many considered him a bust. Some even called him Johnny Manziel 2.0. People said that Baker Mayfield was a bad teammate with bad intangibles that was slow, inaccurate. A longtime critic of him was Colin Cowherd. Peep the video below:
What do you notice about the comments? Many agree! Many are saying Baker will never be a top 10 or even top 15 QB. Now, this isn’t meant to dig on Colin Cowherd. But he has a big reach, and when Baker played poorly in week 1 of the 2020 NFL season, many wrote Baker off and agreed that he was a bust. That was the popular consensus, and the popular narrative.
Even when he improved throughout the year, and Cleveland was looking like a playoff team, Baker still wasn’t taken seriously or respected. Many would say that Baker shouldn’t care about this, and just focus on his play. But it does matter. Not being considered good by the general public and general media can affect how your team’s GM views you: if you are lauded and well-respected, your GM may be pressured to keep you, even if you suck. And Baker Mayfield is a great example of this. He went on Colin Cowherd’s show once to address the critcism.
This is from back in 2018, by the way (yes, Colin has criticized Baker since he was in college)
Baker going on Colin’s show was smart; it set up an unofficial challenge, where if Baker sucks, Colin is right, but he shows his improvement, then Colin is wrong, and the narrative is destroyed. And that’s what happened. Look at Colin when the Browns defeated the Steelers in the 2020-2021 NFL playoffs.
Read the comments. Many are teasing Cowherd here, and are defending/supporting Baker for proving Colin, and the rest of his critics wrong. It is a complete 180 from the previous videos, and such a thing is possible because these people were aware of the history between these two. Mayfield calling attention to Cowherd and making an unofficial bet made the general public much more invested in seeing his success and having to own up to their opinion. And guess what? People’s willingness to clown on Baker has reduced heavily. Letting go of Baker will be a much more controversial move if the Browns decide to do so now. Endorsements that he has from Progressive are not going to be going away anytime soon.
Let’s bring up LeBron James now.
LeBron has been criticizing for trying hard to control the narrative for being the GOAT. Including his infamous “that right there made me the GOAT” argument.
But it’s smart. Let’s look at it from Lebron’s point of view. You are drafted to the Cleveland Cavaliers – a franchise that has accomplished virtually nothing without you, and that comes from a city that hasn’t had a professional sports title in around 40 years at that point in which he was drafted. Least of all, you’ve been the most highly rated draft prospect probably in NBA history, and you were compared to Michael Jordan. You were supposed to surpass him, and be the best player in the modern era at minimum and anything less than that would be a disappoint. That’s an absurd amount of pressure for a kid that grew up poor in Akron Ohio.
So if you are LeBron, the idea that I would be considered a disappointment for not winning rings even though I never had a Pippen-like player in my first stint in Cleveland, and that I wasn’t able to win 6 rings despite literally going off against 2 dynasties (Spurs and Warriors), and never playing for a great coach, must be a huge nuisance given the amount of work I have put in throughout my career, and the feats I have accomplished. So of course I would care about what others say about me! Of course I would campaign to call myself the GOAT, especially if the media is going to ignore circumstances. If I have been compared to the greatest of all time, and have the media on me 24/7, failing to be considered the GOAT would lead to a lot of ridicule and a lot of belittling of what I have accomplished. And this is important. The validation from others – as said before – matters when you do something ambitious. To know why, let’s take a look at Tim Duncan.
Tim Duncan’s resume is insane. 5x NBA Champion, 2x NBA MVP, 15x NBA All-Star, 15x All-NBA (including 10x All-NBA First Team), 15x All-Defensive Team (including 8x All-Defensive First Team). Tim Duncan is also extremely skilled: he was dominant in the post (low post and high post), could shoot the mid-range ball really well, could ball handle well for a big, was an excellent passer, a great point forward, and was one of the best defensive players of all time. In short, all things considered, Tim Duncan should be in the GOAT debate. His resume is better than 99.99% of all players who have played in the NBA. Articles have been written on this site that someone dispute his greatness and accomplishments, but they are still there, and he should still be in the debate given the skill he has.
But Tim Duncan is also known for being quiet. He is known for being boring, and not really getting emotional at anyone. Duncan was a chill dude who never really cared what people thought. He did his business. Many people praise him for that and “respect” him for it. But guess what? “Respect” doesn’t mean anything. Why?
Because for all his accomplishments and GOAT-worthy credentials, Duncan is relatively slept on. Not only is he never really considered the “GOAT”, he is never even considered a top 5 player all time, and in some cases, barely makes the top 10 on all-time lists. People “respect” him in a “you are inoffensive and you’re cool” type of way, but they don’t respect him as an actual GOAT-level player he is.
It also has affected his endorsements (which then effected his potential earnings and future investments).
It speaks to how people are in real life. Duncan is the type of person that many people claim to like, but would never really truly respect. In many cases, they may take advantage of or never really appreciate. The reality is, the people that are a little insecure, and care about what others say to an extent, and can be emotional (again, within reason), also end up garnering respect. Tim Duncan types of players miss out. Proof? Tim Duncan’s former financial investment advisor lost him over $20M due to wire fraud. Extra endorsement money that he could have gotten could have really made up for that, you think?
And the main inspiration for this article was the situation that unfolded at Cam Newton’s summer camp. People say that Cam should have just “ignored” the kid and not care. And yeah, maybe he should have done that. But the reality is is that what that kid did wasn’t in a vacuum. Cam Newton has been getting disrespect throughout his whole career, arguably more than he should given his accomplishments (1x MVP, Super Bowl appearance, 3x Pro-Bowl, 1x All-Pro, 1x OPOY, 2x BCS National Champion, 1x Heisman Trophy). And that matters. Cam shouldn’t ignore what others think of him. Because it’s probably not just that kid. It’s the media. And fans. And general mangers and coaches to. (General managers often do make decisions if they know the fanbase will react strongly.) It’s why he is struggling to stay in the league, while QBs who have accomplished way less than him like Josh McCown can still start despite being 10 years older. This is because people disrespect him. And there are reasons why. Part of it is him and his getup: the flashy clothing and hair that makes others not take him seriously. Part of it was his personality early in his career, being a “showboat” if you will. Obviously some of it is his play – but again, given how other QBs that are both worse than him and older than him have chances, Cam probably should have been more cognizant of his perception and legacy when acting in the moment.
Cam should care – and clearly, he is at least starting to. Because people take advantage of you, and it ruins your quality of life (obviously it’s all relative, Cam is a millionaire). His 15-1 season in 2015 should have boosted his legacy, but instead, the media never respected him or that Panthers team. So it did nothing for him (although winning would have helped). And to reiterate, it has come to a point where he is barely hanging on in the league, despite what he has done. Other players can be washed and still have chances just based off reputation and accomplishments. But Cam’s reputation is getting in the way of him being in that category.
So by looking at all these examples, you can see why you should care what others say about you; being looked at as worse than you are and being disrespected without any pushback has numerous consequences. It can hurt your potential earnings, limit opportunities, invalidate the hard work you’ve done, cause others to flat out forget about what you have accomplished, and just make things painful, no matter how great you have been. As said before, humans are a social species. Much of our “truth” is only true because we collectively recognize it as true, to an extent. We like to believe that we should be self-validating, but that only works if you are a) not super ambitious and live a rather simple life, and b) you already have a lot going for you that allows you to get validation from others without even realizing it. But for anyone else, caring what others say is a must, and can be fuel for your future successes.
