Our words fall on deaf ears when our actions aren’t in alignment.
“‘DiD yOu KnOw 94.6284% Of PlAyeRs In ThE sUpEr BoWl PlAyEd MuLtIpLe SpOrTs In HiGh ScHoOl!?’
Did you know that billons of people played multiple sports in high school & never played in the Super Bowl?
Stop using biased stat snacks to push your preferred narrative.”
-Ray Zingler on X
We have this deep affinity in America to focus on outliers.
We say out loud that we should “never use the exception, to justify the norm” but that is exactly what people everywhere everyday try to do.
If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know that I am a massive advocate for multisport participation as I work every day of my life to wage war on the on the garbage that is premature specialization.
But is using outlier statistics that are heavily biased the way to encourage average kids to play more sports?
Of course, many of the guys in the Super Bowl played multiple sports in HS. There is a clear draw to play multiple sports when you’re naturally a better athlete than everyone else.
And no, not every elite athlete ran track in high school. He was genetically superior and faster than everyone else so the track coach lured him out to run in meets a few times a season for his own personal glory, not the glory of the ball sport athlete who has little desire to run fast in a straight line against no defense.
If we’re going to push an agenda maybe we use relatable reasons?
I don’t know maybe we could try using reasons like fun, being a part of a team, developing more diverse skillsets, etc.
But even then, and I know this is a crazy idea for adults to wrap their heads around, maybe some kids have no interest in playing another sport?
Do you really think dangling the fact that Lebron and MJ played multiple sports in HS is going to drive your 5’10” 168-pound white kid to go play 4 sports?
It won’t.
He’s too busy working through the identity crisis we’ve created for him by teaching him the all or none principles associated with the zero sum game that is premature specialization.
We’ve tied specificity to their identities, but yell at them to “go run track” last minute and wonder why they don’t want to.
We cannot teach and preach one thing and “randomly hope” they go against the narrative they’ve been conditioned to believe all their lives.
Adults are the reason they aren’t playing multiple sports.
Not kids.
(Or NFL stat snacks.)
