This past week, Coach Joe Glenn of the University of Wyoming guaranteed a victory over the University of Utah. By the end of the game Saturday, we had the Utes trying an onside kick with a 43 point lead, Glenn responding with a "one finger salute" and the Utes going for it on a 4th and 2 in the 4th quarter. The Utes ended up destroying Wyoming 50-0, leaving the Ute fans chanting "guarantee" at the Wyoming team. In my opinion, both coaches came away from the game with less respect than they had before.
My intent here is not to discuss the specifics of this game, though I don't doubt that someone will take over the comments to do just that. Instead, I ask the question: what's so bad about "guaranteeing" a victory?
Every time a coach or player "guarantees" a victory, the media gets all worked up, the students get all worked up, and suddenly, we have a pair of decent teams and coaches doing some pretty class-less things to each other. You'll note that I put "guarantee" in quotes because, let's face it, it doesn't do anything. When players don't guarantee a victory, does that mean they're not trying as hard?
What's wrong with saying "I'm confident that we're going to win?" Wins are usually guaranteed in important games where realistically either team could win. Usually one team is in particular need of a win after a rough couple of games, like Wyoming was. Teams can get away with saying "let's go win" or "go beat the Utes" (or any other team) or any number of other things, but the minute the word 'guarantee' comes out, suddenly everyone is offended and 'disrespected'. I just don't get it. The other team is trying to beat you any way they can, whether they use the magic g-word or not.
I suppose opposing coaches need to start finding innovative ways to say "well, even though it is possible that we could win, we choose to maintain low expectations for ourselves such that no discord can result from any claims we might choose to make about our chances at victory."
9 comments:
I've got no problem with Bryan Kehl predicting that BYU is going to win by a lot or something (which he does almost every game). But when a player (or coach) guarantees a win then it's quite a different story because football, basketball and most other exciting sports games are team games and that one person cannot usually backup that guarantee themselves. It usually works against them anyways as locker-room fodder, regardless of sport or league.
But why is it ok to "predict" a win, but it's "quite a different story" when a player or coach "guarantees" a win? What if I 'assure' 'affirm' 'certify' or 'evince' a win?
I'm quite certain that guarantee and predict are not synonymous. Having my "satisfaction guaranteed" compared with "satisfaction predicted" is totally and entirely different.
You're right, predict and guarantee are not synonymous. But again I ask:
Why is it ok to "predict" a win, but it's "quite a different story" when a player or coach "guarantees" a win?
Would it be ok to guarantee a win in an individual sport like tennis?
Of course every team will 'predict' a win to the media (what are they going to say, that they expect to lose?) but when you actually 'guarantee', that implies a certainty that there will be no other outcome. 'Assure' is synonymous with guarantee, but there is something about the word 'guarantee' that gets people going.
So, does saying "we're going to win" mean that a player/fan/coach just guaranteed a victory? What about "we're going to win no matter what!"? There's plenty of playing with semantics here.
The Utes have always searched for ways to be offended as a means of motivation under Kyle. (See most any Utah fan/player response to any comment by Curtis Brown.) The "guarantee" was just a stronger means by which they were able to do so.
People will be offended by what they choose to be offended by, and if a "guarantee" does it for you, so be it. There's nothing wrong with a "guarantee", there's only something wrong with our being offended by it. (see "And nothing shall offend them" by David Bednar) I'm sure John Wooden would also have some sort of excellent quote about only worry about the things you can control and don't worry about the things you can't.
I think everyone can agree that Kyle got way too offended by that (even he regrets it), but back to the post at hand: players/coaches can say what they want, but for some reason the actual word 'guarantee' strikes a chord with people in the world of sports. I don't recall anyone getting mad over any other verbage that has basically the same meaning. It seems that when anybody makes a guarantee, it always makes news (Ocho Cinco comes to mind).
This goes back to Tyler's recent post as well, but I just want to go on the record as saying, I think coaches, players and fans need to stop being so offensive and offended. Just have fun with the game for heaven's sake. People will say what they will say, but who cares. In the end, it's just sports and the world keeps turning no matter who wins. I love watching sports and love watching my teams win, but it's not worth saying stupid things over or getting upset if someone else says something stupid. Am I going against all that is holy in sports to say that?
I agree with Alison, it's the implied certainty over something that is inherently uncertain that is offensive.
I sometimes get annoyed when people claim to know the unknowable.
"Napoleon, like anyone can even know that..."
Post a Comment