MMA lightweight champ BJ Penn is a brilliant competitor, but he was outmatched by GSP tonight. My main concern, or irritation however, involves the rhetoric over the past several weeks. In the promos leading up to the fight, Penn uttered that trite phrase we have heard many times before: "Till the death!" Runners will put one blistered foot in front of the other until they collapse, soccer players will head themselves into concussive bliss, and fighters will weeble-wobble on to the after parties...but they seldom follow through with this "until I die" thing. I have run until I vomited a few times, but I don't remember ever tempting fate by promising to continue until death was upon me. Sport has its Shakespearean tragedies, for sure, but what's with the false advertising? Someone should do a content analysis (Fatal rhetoric: A study of deathtalk in sport) on the throwing down of the "till the death" verbal gauntlet. Show me the data on how many athletes we lose per thousand proclamations to fight until Charon hauls their ass over the river Styx. If it is not a significant number, we should prompt athletes to find a more accurate and honest way of expressing their collective desire to do battle until they either win, or take a full time job pushing up daisies.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Promises, Promises...
MMA lightweight champ BJ Penn is a brilliant competitor, but he was outmatched by GSP tonight. My main concern, or irritation however, involves the rhetoric over the past several weeks. In the promos leading up to the fight, Penn uttered that trite phrase we have heard many times before: "Till the death!" Runners will put one blistered foot in front of the other until they collapse, soccer players will head themselves into concussive bliss, and fighters will weeble-wobble on to the after parties...but they seldom follow through with this "until I die" thing. I have run until I vomited a few times, but I don't remember ever tempting fate by promising to continue until death was upon me. Sport has its Shakespearean tragedies, for sure, but what's with the false advertising? Someone should do a content analysis (Fatal rhetoric: A study of deathtalk in sport) on the throwing down of the "till the death" verbal gauntlet. Show me the data on how many athletes we lose per thousand proclamations to fight until Charon hauls their ass over the river Styx. If it is not a significant number, we should prompt athletes to find a more accurate and honest way of expressing their collective desire to do battle until they either win, or take a full time job pushing up daisies.
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Semantics. I think athletes push their bodies to the limit to know how far they can continue to push harder, but not to end their lives or the lives of their opponent. I don't think competitive athletes really want to die, nor is it "advertising" for them to die. It's more advertising to get people interested in that type of extreme drama of where the competitor is so involved and passionate about winning, it's the only comparison. Honest and accurate is boring. Why have referees then if you are allowed to Kill your opponent literally or die trying? Maybe BJ was paid to say that by the marketing department for publicity.
ReplyDeleteI think deeper issues exist in the person who is willing to do something until the death (suicidal), but there are no officials to prevent it, and the person should know the actual legal consequences for killing someone else.
Another point is the sacrificing of the body many athletes choose to do not thinking about later consequence. There could be a number of reason why this is so rampant.
So in the words of the bar attendant Pee Wee Herman pissed off, I say we shoot him, then we hang him, then we kill him!
BTW- about the vomiting.. nasty!
I am reminded of Stephen King's (as Richard Bachman) old short story, "The Long Walk". Dying for sport, indeed!
ReplyDeleteI feel like some fights have to do whatever they can in promoting for the match. "If it bleeds (or if death is on the line) it leads". I also feel that it might be commemorating ancient battles that were often literally to the death. Having said that, I feel there are better ways to promote the fight.
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