Originally Posted by TwistedChief:
You're one of my favorite people on here, but I don't think you're qualified to judge her if you don't even know who Larry Nassar is and what he did to **hundreds** of girls. And how USA Gymnastics - which she represents - went to great lengths to ignore it and cover it up which only meant more and more abuse.
So, let's just say you have a job where you need to be flawless in everything you do. If you're a split second slow, it could mean serious injury or paralysis. You've been doing this your entire life. You hoped it would be over in 2020 but it was delayed a year. You pushed through it. But you've also felt conflicted representing an organization which exploited you and others for its own gain. But you pressed on believing you could do it, under the world's most powerful microscope, to live up to what everyone thought you should be. For your country.
The girl was molested by a team doctor. As a fucking child. You now know you were one of hundreds of gymnasts who suffered the same fate. And the adults who were supposed to protect you and all of your friends hide in the shadows? But enjoy the accolades and benefit from trappings of your success?
And yet you're supposed to represent them proudly? And just brush it off?
Pretty easy to see how she could reach a breaking point easily. And to blame her for it and act like it minimizes her accomplishments? Her going out there again to try to continue to prove herself as the greatest ever in her sport is so many million miles beyond what any of us are able to comprehend.
And for those comparing her to Mahomes? Saying there's no precedent? Completely ridiculous. Mahomes will never, ever need to be as perfect in every motion as Simon Biles is to avoid catastrophic injury. He might get into a terrible mental space and the worst thing that happens to him is a 1 TD/4 INT game. Mike Trout might go 0-20. Jordan once went 2/22. Tiger might, be, well, what he became when he hit his breaking point.
Good for Simon Biles for being honest about it and not half-assing things. Being honest about mental health is probably a lot more inspiring to people who need it than anything else she could've done in these games.
There’s a lot here. And damn if the last thing I want to do tonight is defend my criticism of marketing. But here goes.
1. I know who Larry Nassar is. I didn’t know Biles was involved. I don’t follow gymnastics. Moreover I have a 7 year old daughter who likes gymnastics (she’s horrible at it but nonetheless) so I’m not just some asshole midnight radio caller dismissing everything that has happened to her.
2. I’m open to the idea of a mental breakdown. It’s just a poor look when you just got done telling everybody you’re the goat. And I’m a lot closer to this than you might think too. I work 3600 hours a year in the second most dangerous industry in the nation. I’m pretty safe, safer than most guys, but I’ve danced kn the razors edge more than I’d like to admit. It’s different, but a lot of the same concepts. But empathy on my end doesn’t really matter. All I’ve criticized her for is the goat thing. Regardless of the job, if you’re going to say shit like that and then quit it’s going to be a bad look. No matter the circumstances.
3. I fully acknowledge that the rape thing was horrible and she deserves much better. But if that stuff is really weighing in her mind heavily enough to be a major impact on her thinking she needs to quit mid-competition, why be on the team? I mean the Olympic trials weren’t that long ago (according to the wife. She follows the stuff not me), she had an out. And again, a lot of this stuff is softened substantially if she doesn’t roll out all the goat stuff.
4. I never compared her to Mahomes, Jordan or anyone else.
5. My point was always about the goat stuff. I know it’s all marketing, but the simple truth is if you’re going to lean on the marketing narrative, you have to control the imaging associated with your brand. And spouting off about being the goat (I think this is only person other than Ali, who had a far different approach who’s ever said anything at all like that). If I’m in her shoes and they want to make a funny prop hype video, I put on a fake old man beard and a cane and rip it off and do a flip or something. She didn’t need to go the goat route. Invariably if you say things like that and then quit, it’s going to look bad. Invariably.
5. This is most certainly not a hill I’m willing to die on. I’m willing to concede anything you want because I just made a damned passing comment about an athlete in a sport I don’t care about. But while I’m conceding, here is my rear guard action as I retreat.
The following things are not mutually exclusive and can all be true simultaneously with regards to her withdrawal .
A. Being raped is horrible and undoubtedly has substantial impacts on her mental health.
B. She’s in a high stress high leverage situation. There’s a reason most gymnasts don’t do 2 olympics. This undoubtedly has substantial impacts on her mental health.
C. She stuffed the whole thing up pretty bad by playing up the goat thing and then not finishing. That will never not look bad.
The hill is yours. Enjoy.
[Reply]
Originally Posted by Buehler445:
There’s a lot here. And damn if the last thing I want to do tonight is defend my criticism of marketing. But here goes.
1. I know who Larry Nassar is. I didn’t know Biles was involved. I don’t follow gymnastics. Moreover I have a 7 year old daughter who likes gymnastics (she’s horrible at it but nonetheless) so I’m not just some asshole midnight radio caller dismissing everything that has happened to her.
2. I’m open to the idea of a mental breakdown. It’s just a poor look when you just got done telling everybody you’re the goat. And I’m a lot closer to this than you might think too. I work 3600 hours a year in the second most dangerous industry in the nation. I’m pretty safe, safer than most guys, but I’ve danced kn the razors edge more than I’d like to admit. It’s different, but a lot of the same concepts. But empathy on my end doesn’t really matter. All I’ve criticized her for is the goat thing. Regardless of the job, if you’re going to say shit like that and then quit it’s going to be a bad look. No matter the circumstances.
3. I fully acknowledge that the rape thing was horrible and she deserves much better. But if that stuff is really weighing in her mind heavily enough to be a major impact on her thinking she needs to quit mid-competition, why be on the team? I mean the Olympic trials weren’t that long ago (according to the wife. She follows the stuff not me), she had an out. And again, a lot of this stuff is softened substantially if she doesn’t roll out all the goat stuff.
4. I never compared her to Mahomes, Jordan or anyone else.
5. My point was always about the goat stuff. I know it’s all marketing, but the simple truth is if you’re going to lean on the marketing narrative, you have to control the imaging associated with your brand. And spouting off about being the goat (I think this is only person other than Ali, who had a far different approach who’s ever said anything at all like that). If I’m in her shoes and they want to make a funny prop hype video, I put on a fake old man beard and a cane and rip it off and do a flip or something. She didn’t need to go the goat route. Invariably if you say things like that and then quit, it’s going to look bad. Invariably.
5. This is most certainly not a hill I’m willing to die on. I’m willing to concede anything you want because I just made a damned passing comment about an athlete in a sport I don’t care about. But while I’m conceding, here is my rear guard action as I retreat.
The following things are not mutually exclusive and can all be true simultaneously with regards to her withdrawal .
A. Being raped is horrible and undoubtedly has substantial impacts on her mental health.
B. She’s in a high stress high leverage situation. There’s a reason most gymnasts don’t do 2 olympics. This undoubtedly has substantial impacts on her mental health.
C. She stuffed the whole thing up pretty bad by playing up the goat thing and then not finishing. That will never not look bad.
The hill is yours. Enjoy.
You're a good man, sir.
But it's possible karma dictates that a goat will one day attack you at a traffic light. Otherwise, blue skies ahead.
:-)
[Reply]
