“There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.” Ernest Hemingway

“There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.”

                                                                             Ernest Hemingway

The most mediocre player in the NFL brings home north of a million dollars per season.  Are these men chasing the dream?  Hardly!  Just by being on the field they’ve achieved the dream.  What incentive do they have for beating themselves up to rise to the top level when they’re already being paid a king’s ransom?  None that I can think of.  It could even be argued that holding back to avoid injury is the prudent course of action.  But perhaps I’m being unfair.  Defenders of the NFL will point to pro football’s many positive attributes such as the wonderful diversity of its players.  Diversity, really?  The athletes are ninety-eight precent American with a five percent margin of error.  The only diversity I can see is skin color and I’d like to think that I’m not the sort of guy who’s overly concerned about the amount of melanin a man carries.  Football is said to be the world’s most machismo and demanding sport, and yet the grand prize is a ridiculously oversized piece of hideously ostentatious jewelry.  It’s what’s known as “bling.”   

The only sport I watch these days is the Red Bull Rookies Cup.  Sure I know it’s a commercial event created to promote the sales of a highly caffeinated energy drink of dubious or nonexistent health benefits.  You don’t have to tell me that.  But compared to the NFL, NBA and NHL it’s as innocent as 1950’s Little League and the racers are sweetness personified.   The races are all live streamed, commercial free, and without interruption so being a fan costs nothing.  Aside from individual adjustments of suspension, gearing and weight compensation the equipment is identical so it’s a test of skill not bucks.  Each season there are only twenty-four racers so in short order you can learn the names of every kid on the track.  Most years as many as ten different nationalities are represented with riders from all around the word. 

But here’s the kicker.  After the completion of any race they play the national anthem of the kid who won and all the other kids stand and face the flag.  I think they call it good sportsmanship, or showing respect, or just sort of not being a spoiled little prick.  As far as I’m concerned the only bad thing about Rookies Cup is it’s been years since we’ve had an American with the talent to run at the front of the pack.   The kid you see here is Joe Roberts 13 on the podium at Brno, Czech Republic.  That was August 13 2011, the last time the American national anthem was played at a Rookies Cup race.