Having finished watching one of the most exciting hockey games in recent memory - and acknowledging that the better team clearly won the game - I was profoundly disappointed in the glum, sour, pathetic faces of the American team as the received their silver medals. That's SILVER MEDALS!! For representing the country IN THE OLYMPICS!! After playing in THE GOLD MEDAL GAME!! That no one expected them to be playing in.
I understand disappointment ... and I also understand being a man. And I would have expected the players to honor their country and honor some of their professional teammates who clearly beat them. They could have smiled. They could have nodded. They could have shrugged. But they pouted. In post game interviews, when asked what he "will take away from the whole experience," Ryan Miller glumly and pathetically mumbled something like, "Oh, I don't know. I guess it was cool to play in a big game."
That's what he got? From the whole Olympic experience. A professional athlete who has had twenty years to get used to losing big games and learn to deal with it like a man. What a shame.
I say bring back the college players and let them play their hearts out and be honored by the opportunity and have enough class to acknowledge when they were beat by a better team.
2 comments:
I can see what you are saying, but I wonder if they were playing the role that we Americans expect of them. We Americans, after all, are supposed to come in first. If we don't, we are supposed to be disappointed.
I know what you mean. Disappointment is one thing, and it's not wrong to show it. But one of the hardest things to do is to be a gracious 'loser', and congratulate the other team on their victory. And that is what they should have done. Also, seriously, they won second place!! C'mon, that is pretty amazing. It's hard to lose to someone else, but it wasn't for lack of trying. They played amazingly well, and they had a lot to be proud of.
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