By Sam Reeves

There are many times when an athlete is being observed by fans and media, and they are usually given a label. Whether it’s prospect, depth, average, star, or superstar: each athlete has a label they didn’t ask for.

A player can put up huge numbers one year but fail to come close to a repeat season the next. Is it because of the pressure that fans and media put on them? Is it due to people setting the wrong expectations? Is it because being a professional athlete is one of the hardest things in the world? The answer to all of these is more than likely, yes.

Too many times do we see an up-and-coming player look good in their development and then completely fall flat on their face. It HAPPENS. Some players don’t really blossom into serviceable players until a few years into their respective leagues.

Guess what? That is OK. The impatience from fans regarding a player not performing to whatever expectation they were led to believe is the correct one is truly one of the weirdest things I see daily on the internet. I am sure it happens across many fan bases, however, being Chicago-based, I am most exposed to how this goes in this region.

The funniest thing is believing what a sports organization tells you about their team. Whether it’s that they are competing for a title, rebuilding, retooling, etc. It seems to not matter to the fans when they go after a player who is underperforming.

Guess what? You can set your own expectations for that player. Guess what else? You can CHANGE those expectations as time passes. No, really, you can. I wouldn’t lie to you. I mean, I would, but not about this type of thing.

The nightmare of using these analytics and advanced stats only shows you some aspects of how an athlete is performing.

More and more fans are CLINGING to this nonsense and spouting it without context. The mental state of an athlete is a very fickle thing. They know that their job is to play a sport and that they are fortunate to have that job. They also understand they need to produce with the median of their league to stay relevant.

Now imagine a player has a down year and is dealing with being asked about it regularly. That can’t be good for their psyche. Right now, I bet you are saying to yourself, “That comes with the territory.” While that may be true, it shouldn’t have to. I understand it is the media’s job to ask these questions to get their clickbait titles for their publisher to be happy. It is just a gross business in and of itself.

I respect a lot of the media members who do a great job at covering their respective fields. My self-proclaimed best friend, James Fegan, is one of the top journalists in this regard. He asks guiding questions to coaches, athletes, trainers, front office staff, etc., and gets the job done.

Now imagine the average sports fan going into a locker room and asking questions after a loss. It is an INSANE thought. I can hear the questions in my head now: “Why the fuck did you miss that one ground ball in the 4^th inning?” “Why can’t you hit a fucking curveball?” “How come you threw that interception instead of just throwing it away?” “Are you going to keep taking 3’s even though you only made like 2 of them?”

The easiest thing to do while watching your favorite sports team is to have no expectations. None. Not even one. Do not expect them to win, don’t think they are just going to lose, just let the game happen. Sports are weird, any team can beat any other team at any time. Like a 16 seed beating a 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament or the 8 seed beating a 1 seed in a seven game series.

You typing a Tweet in all caps about a bad play isn’t going to do anything other than maybe keep you from punching a wall. If typing is your anger outlet, I guess that is better than an alternative. This has gotten all over the place as things usually do when I write, which is why I write. This is my outlet to try to remember to let people feel how they want. It is just difficult to sit by while people go after a player’s social media over a sporting event. It’s the question that’s been posed a few times: what if you were treated like that at your job? Do you want people yelling and screaming at you all day while you are doing what you get paid to do? Probably not.

Circling back to the main topic at hand, labeling a player is lazy and outdated. Just because they aren’t meeting what these projections are saying they can do isn’t the end of the world. It happens all across sports; different players are scrutinized for different things and the common denominator is the expectation complex. As I said previously, I am Chicago-based, so I only have examples of Chicago athletes. Let’s go through some examples, shall we?

First up, let’s talk about Patrick Williams. Power forward/Small forward for the Chicago Bulls who was the fourth overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. Everyone was confused by the pick due to him being a sixth man in his year at Florida State. Nobody would’ve had him on their radar as a lottery pick, so therefore expectations were already going to be flawed. The Bulls drafted for need over best player available, which is an old school method of drafting and sometimes works out if you stick with it.

However, being a high lottery pick usually means you are expected to be a “star.” Which again, whoever said you had to be? Just because the team drafted you was bad and picked you where they did, doesn’t mean you have to be the best player that has ever played the game. I have always clung to the thought that any draft in sports is a crapshoot. The player you draft may not work out with the system you are putting them into. They may succeed when they leave the team they were drafted for. Then the vicious circle of fans being irrationally angry restarts and it’s back to square one.

Let’s move on to the next example I have for you: Andrew Vaughn. The third overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft. White Sox first baseman and former “outfielder” has been the target of some volatile talk amongst the White Sox fanbase.

The guy is playing exactly how he should: serviceable. However, because he was a high draft pick and the experts sold him as an elite young hitter, people are very mad at him for “underperforming.” The guy never developed higher than A Ball and was called up due to a need. The organization screwed everything up with that which is just what the White Sox do. Hate the game, not the player it’s affecting. Granted, if the White Sox did “develop” Andrew Vaughn more, he’d probably be a lot worse. Just because you believed in the hype and expectations, doesn’t mean it was right.

It’s time to get into the meat of this rant: the players are supposed to be the next big stars in Chicago. So I will start with Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields. Justin Fields was selected 11th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft. NFL experts weren’t sure how his game would translate into the NFL, so he slipped a bit in the draft. The Chicago Bears took their chance and drafted him to be their next QB of the future. Then they stupidly went and signed Andy Dalton and promised him the starting job. They also had Matt Nagy and Bill Lazor “helping” the young QB in his first season. It didn’t necessarily go well for Justin Fields in his rookie season.

Enter a new regime to help develop the QB in his next season. A play caller that decided to play to the strengths of the team instead of keeping it the same, a head coach who continually spoke about his faith and confidence in Justin Fields, and a new GM who is trying to build around him. That is what teams need to make sure a player succeeds. We haven’t seen the full arsenal for this upcoming season but the hype is there.

However, that is dangerous territory for the fanbase. Again, if you set the expectations too high for the player, that is all the fans will talk about. They will magnify every mistake, they will overreact to every good play, and they will take to social media to let the world know how they feel. Just let the season play out and then make a judgement call if things are looking up, staying the same, or headed downhill again.

The last example I will share is the current “next big thing” in hockey, Condor Bedhard. He may be known as Connor Bedard, but not in my article he isn’t! The Chicago Blackhawks won the draft lottery in 2023 and drafted very highly touted prospect Connor Bedard with the first overall pick. As a recovering hockey fan, that does bring some excitement back to an organization that rightfully was given the cold shoulder by many. They had gutted most of the organization prior to Rocky Wirtz’s death, and now it is fully gutted. That may be enough to bring some Blackhawks fans back and getting the number one pick doesn’t hurt either.

Look, I don’t know much about Connor Bedard but the kid is already being labeled a star before he’s even laced up his skates for an NHL game. The recurring theme here: STOP WITH THE UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS AND LET THE PLAYERS JUST PLAY. Not every number one pick turns out to be the best player in their leagues. So please, let the kid earn his ice time in due time. Let him develop and then hopefully blossom into a star.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading my “old man yells at cloud” article. We will be looking to cover all sports more in the future so as to no longer be hypocrites. We appreciate our audience not only from our podcast(s) but our blog readers and commenters as well. So if you’ve read this, please share it with your friends and family. Even if you didn’t like it, invite them to hate it with you. Stay tuned for more from your friendly neighborhood ASS.