Why "Winning At Any Cost" Is A Misplaced Sporting Sentiment
When these players step onto the field, winning can be all that absorbs their thoughts. So much so, that they forget recreational enjoyment is the sole reason they are even there. Mario Balotelli famously said that "When I score, I don't celebrate. It's my job, does a postman celebrate when he delivers post?". This type of humble-brag quote swept the sporting media and football fans reveled in its sentiment. Not too many stopped for one second, stepped away from their photoshop template of Balotelli donning his sincere face and actually worked through the pragmatics of this mantra. Does Mario actually believe that his 'job' is to deliver a spherical piece of leather through a 24X8 foot gap? If so, then could he please start performing this pseudo-job at Liverpool. But of course it isn't. Whether he likes it or not, he's an entertainer. Lets take it back around 100 years in the anthropology of modern day sport, to the birth of professional sports