On hyper-reactivity

We're too impatient as sports followers, and that's not exactly a revelation.

Clemson fans know all about getting too high after big wins and too low after devastating losses, but that's not really the point of this writing.

I'm thinking of a broader sense of hyper-reactiveness (is that a word?) that seems to infect our judgment these days, and two excellent examples are Tiger Woods and Lebron James.

In Woods' case, a weekend spiral at the U.S. Open has brought pronouncements that he'll never be "back." This comes after a Thursday-Friday ascent in San Francisco brought pronouncements that he was back.

In Lebron's case, every time the guy loses he's a bum who will never measure up to the greatness of his predecessors. But then he wins and he gets showered with love, and people start figuratively carving his visage into the Mount Rushmore of NBA greats.

Maybe it used to be like this 10, 20, 30 years ago but I doubt it. The obvious answer to explain this phenomenon is the round-the-clock consumption with sports. Hey, they gotta talk about something, right? And the inclusion of social media has given everyone a voice and a platform, so the hyperventilation factor is magnified.

It's almost as if our nation's sports culture has become New York sports culture. For the longest time, New York was considered the most stifling environment for athletes because of all the crazy fans and all the tabloids. Sports never slept.

Now, we no longer occupy different enclaves. Everyone is connected. Everyone with a keyboard or keypad opines on everything.

And if you want your voice to be heard, you'd better not say things like "let's just let this play out." Or, heaven forbid, admit that you don't know something.

There's definitely some good that comes from this wild and crazy landscape. Opinions are no longer the monopoly of a few newspaper columnists. Dominant media voices are now accountable. Windbags like Tim Brando and Chris Berman are now subject to being called out for being windbags. If someone on TI thinks I'm full of crap, that someone can publicly tell me I'm full of crap. That's refreshing.

It's hard to feel an overwhelming sense of compassion for our most popular sports figures. These guys get paid so much that they might as well be on a different planet than the rest of us. But you can understand their frustrations with the non-stop referendums on their statures.

From hero to goat to hero to goat, all in the span of a weekend. Or even a game.

LW