Do you remember the “coolness” of sports. When we would be captivated by what we saw on television or even the radio? What is that anymore? What “cool” do we chase today? Who are the trendsetters? Who is breaking the rules we play by and setting new standards?
Magic and Larry owned the 80’s. There wasn’t anything more cool than “BEAT LA” and “BOSTON SUCKS” chants in June. That was pretty cool. Kurt Rambis getting clothes-lined and Larry Legend lighting up Boston Garden, draining 3-pointers on anyone who dared to guard him. Da bears were pretty dang cool. Coach Ditka personified cool. Monsters of the Midway. Yeah, that was cool. Jim McMahon taunting the NFL with his headbands was so bad, it was ridiculously cool. Ozzie Smith playing shortstop for the Cardinals and doing backflips on the field after big plays, that was the epitome of cool. Oh and the Montana to Rice tandem was pretty cool too. The west coast offense was still a niche back then, unstoppable too. Ickey Woods of the Bengals, he was awesomely cool and he had the coolest touchdown celebration ever. The Ickey Shuffle, pretty cool right? I mean, the dude’s name was Ickey. What is cooler than a dude named ickey?
In the 90’s, everybody wanted to be “Like Mike”. Of course everybody wanted to be like Mike. Maybe it was the shoes but Air Jordan and his six championship rings ruled the world in the 90’s. Who can forget Marv Albert’s ‘oh a spectacular move’ call against the lakers in 91? Or the shoulder shrug against the blazers in 92? The rockstar season with 70 wins after 18 months away? Michael Jordan made cool, well, cool. I suppose there was a football team in Texas that was good in the 90’s – “HOW ‘BOUT THEM COWBOYS?!!?” Emmitt, Troy and Michael, they made cool look easy. 3 Super Bowl titles will do that. John Elway riding off into the sunset with 2 super bowl rings made cool look real. He became the people’s champion. That was cool.
Now what? Who do we watch today that has not been scarred by scandal, embarrassment or media sensationalism? Where is the love of the game? Now we have athletes clamoring for the spotlight that makes Neon Deion look like an amateur. Athletes act like they don’t need to win to be cool. Lebron? Ochocinco? T.O? This is supposed to be cool? Twitter and Facebook has gotten to them. The cool in the 80’s and 90’s was based on winning first. You didn’t get accolades if you didn’t get the wins.
Kobe should be cool. Michael Vick could have been cool. Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady are almost too perfect to be cool. Drew Brees has a cool name. Tiger Woods loses his cool every outing. A-rod? I don’t think being fed popcorn at a football game by your actress girlfriend is that cool.
Cool today is not cool like it was. Cool had charisma, cool had a smile. Cool had fire and cool had a killer instinct. Now cool is regulated by Twitter followers and ESPN exposure. It has lost its zest. Cool is becoming obsolete, a thing of the past. Now athletes trying to be ‘cool’ annoy us. We are annoyed because they don’t carry the same swagger that cool used to have. Cool was original. Now all we have left is reminiscing of a time when cool really was, cool.