The Josh Innes Show - Have We Dehumanized Athletes?

Episode Date: October 21, 2024

I had a bit of an epiphany this weekend. You may call it a moment of clarity. I think social media and sports betting has dehumanized athletes. I think it's pretty obvious. That said, should athletes just accept that as part of the job? The Texas fans throwing beer cans on the field is another example of this. The constant storming of the field after college games is another example of this. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, Jamokes. So I was in Arkansas this weekend and I went to a game at Reynolds Razorback Stadium, which after the week leading up, which was a week of LSU coming off a win over Ole Miss, storming the field, everything, and Arkansas having a week off after beating Tennessee, storming the field and everything, it was supposed to be kind of an epic clash, which most people, most of your betting experts said, this is a spot, which is a prime letdown spot for LSU. And Arkansas is going to win. Almost everyone I know was picking Arkansas basically because of the spot, spot, spot, spot.

When we got into Arkansas on Friday, we were trying to find sports talk radio. And the one show I found at the five o'clock in the afternoon was talking high school football. So I guess that's where their priorities are. But on Saturday, we were listening to a pregame show. We were in an Uber listening to a pregame show. And the way the Arkansas people were describing this game was that it was arguably the biggest home game they've ever had. They expected their biggest crowd ever. They expected their most rowdy crowd ever. And these people legitimately hate LSU. Like, for whatever reason, LSU is the team they just despise. LSU fans, I am one, so I can tell you, we don't give a shit about Arkansas. We give a shit about teams that if we beat them, we might actually, you know, win something, like in Alabama.

Like, I don't even know how much people at LSU care about Ole Miss, to tell you the truth. Ole Miss cares more about LSU than LSU cares about Ole Miss. Because Ole Miss, generally speaking, is not a team that in the 20-plus years of LSU being a competitive championship contending program, Ole Miss isn't really one of those teams that tends to stand in your way because they don't win anything. It's Alabama. Early in the 2000s, it was Auburn because they were the team you felt like you were competing with to win the SEC West at the time. Those are the teams you kind of circled and said,

let's beat these teams. It's never Arkansas, even though there's a manufactured rivalry with this stupid boot, which I found out was actually created by a former Arkansas player. I did not know this because I didn't care about it, but I was listening to this on this pregame show. So I was expecting this to be a rowdy, raucous, loud atmosphere. When I get to the stadium, tailgating isn't really a big thing there. There weren't a bunch of people tailgating.

The stadium feels like a larger version of a stadium you'd see in Katy, like a high school Texas football stadium. They've obviously added seats to it in the end zones and stuff to try to make it look bigger it's not a very big place the people were not loud they piped in manufactured sound a lot and by that i mean i don't think they weren't pumping in fake crowd sound but they were having to get people going by playing loud train horn sound effects and shit on third downs manufacturing that and i'm like uh it's not really that interesting to me like i i just don't care like what you can do at a place like lsu is people know when to get loud and get rowdy in arkansas they have to be taught or told when to get loud and get rowdy it's also one of those places that do the really lame shit where they have the fans do the

first down thing. That's good for an Arkansas Razorbacks! And everybody goes first down and I know they do it at Texas and I know they do it in New Orleans and places I've been where they do that. I'm not a big fan of that, but they do it there. The one thing that stood out

to the people about me though is they were very friendly for the most part but they all bitch about officiating and they thought that the refs were in the bag for lsu because they want lsu to win which i i don't understand why they would want lsu to win like what it is about lsu they would want to win but they oh the refs are calling it for lSU. Bitch, you lost by 24 points. You scored 10 points. Shut the fuck up. It ain't the refs that did it. Your kicker can't make a kick. You couldn't really stop LSU. You turn the ball over. Let's shut the fuck up. But anyway, they're bitching about the refs. And I'm bringing up fans here because fans were kind

of at the forefront of some of the biggest stories of the weekend. For instance, we'll start in Texas, where the fans threw shit on the field whenever an obviously bad call was made, and that call was rectified. But when a bad call was made, fans start throwing shit on the field. Now, refs changed the call, which really makes the refs look bad. It's not the refs fault that they threw shit on the field and maybe the refs were going to change the call anyway. They were probably going to change the call anyway. They can change the call anyway. But the way it looks is the fans at Texas threw shit on the field. And because of that, the refs were like, ah, shit, I guess they're right. Let's change it. That wasn't the case.

I can see where that's the look, but that wasn't the case. But I bring that up. Then you look around college football the last couple of weeks. And let's talk about field storming. Storming the field used to be reserved for really big wins, right? Like at LSU, I don't even remember. And I'm sure they happened when I was there for the 15 years I lived there, but there weren't many instances where LSU fans stormed the field.

They did it against Florida and they tore down the goalposts 1997. They beat number one Florida in an era where LSU football wasn't very good before the golden era of Saban, then miles, then Oh, and now Brian Kelly, They tore down the goalpost then. I'm trying to think of other examples where they stormed the field, but there weren't many. Here in recent history, college football fans are getting to a point now where they storm the field way too much. It's losing its luster because it happens every fucking week,

and it's not just when you go out and beat a big-time team. It's when you go out and beat seemingly anybody. At LSU, last week, they beat Ole Miss. Ole Miss was ranked a couple of spots ahead of you. Ole Miss is your little brother. You've owned Ole Miss. You own Arkansas. You own teams like that.

Why are we storming the field? Arizona State stormed the field a couple of weeks ago when they beat Utah. Utah wasn't a very good team. They were ranked, but they beat Utah. They stormed the field. Tennessee stormed the field this weekend when they beat Alabama.

They beat Alabama two years ago at home and stormed the field, and I think Alabama was number one for that game. This Alabama team has two losses, could very well have three losses. Why does it matter? I'm not trying to rain on people's parade and tell you don't go have fun, don't enjoy it. Here's what we're starting to see more in sports.

I think the fans are starting to inject themselves too much into the competition and too much into the game, and the fans are overvaluing themselves too much to almost a dangerous level another example and look I talk about sports betting on here all the time so I'm not trying to be a hypocrite I talk about prop bets I love prop bets and you've heard me on this podcast yelling at dipshits for missing kicks you've heard me do all that so again I'm not trying to be a hypocrite here I'm telling you that I am part of this. And if you want to call the problem, you can call the problem whatever. Let me tell you a story. So over the weekend, I had bet on Brady Cook,

the quarterback of Mizzou, to throw for 200-something yards. Brady Cook gets hurt in the first quarter and leaves the field. I go to Twitter and look up Brady Cook to see if there's any information on Brady Cook coming back. Every comment that I read when I search Brady Cook is Brady Cook is a fuckboy. Brady Cook is a pussy. Brady Cook fucking sucks.

Brady Cook cost me my parlay. Brady Cook, and they would tweet these other random gambling sites and shit and be like, I think you should void Brady Cook uh and they would they would tweet these other random gambling sites and shit and be like I think you should void Brady Cook because he's hurt and I was thinking some of these same fucking things and I'm like am I just totally fucked and are we fucked as people that we have completely dehumanized athletes and view them as nothing more than opportunities for us to win money or win fantasy. It's no doubt we have. We have no doubt looked at athletes and we don't see them as human. Now, there are two sides to this because athletes like to be celebrities. They get paid a

lot of money. They enjoy the fame and love they get. They hate the negativity they get. But that's part of the game. That's part of it. When you're rich and famous and you play for big teams, people are going to love you and they're going to hate you. I mean, look at Russ Wilson last night. For about a quarter, they fucking hated Russ Wilson. And they booed him. And it was like, well, it looks like it's going to be dunzo time for Russ Wilson. Then Russ goes out there and proceeds to throw for 260 some odd yards.

And they dominate the Jets. And now all the Steelers fans love him. But that's part of it. Fans are lunatics, short for fanatical. We're all wacky. That's how we are. We hate people and we love them within an instant. I've done it. I'm guilty of it. Whatever. But I did start having one of those moments where I'm kind of looking at myself and I'm like, what the fuck am I doing? Brady Cook's a dude that's in college. I refuse to use the term college kid. These dudes are getting paid to play basically minor league football,

and in some cases, it's bigger than the NFL. So I'm not gonna sit there and tell you that, oh, these are just college kids. However, I'm sitting in a barbecue restaurant in Arkansas, and I'm searching Brady Cook on Twitter, and I'm reading all these people that are like, go fuck yourself, Brady Cook. Man, Brady Cook should die.

And I'm like, I'm thinking some of this same shit, and I'm no better than these fucking people. And I'm like, what the fuck is wrong with me? I say all that, and then I yell at the radio and fucking coo Mrs. Kicks that cost me probably. So we're all fucked. But it's kind of a talk just about where fans are in general. have no problem fans are passionate people fans do dumb shit generally speaking i'm not judge the fans guy because people pay their money we that people that are playing know the athletes know when they sign up that fans are going to love you when they're great they're going to fucking hate you when you suck that's part of being an athlete that's part of being

a celebrity that's part of being famous that's part of being an athlete. That's part of being a celebrity. That's part of being famous. That's part of being rich. Whether it's right or wrong, you can debate that, but it's reality. Reality is they sign up for that. But then I start looking at people as non-humans and just financial entities and I'm like, am I the fucked up one? Or are the athletes who probably don't look at us as real people either? They just view us as people who buy tickets and put money in their pockets look they wouldn't piss on us if we were on fire like do you think Brady Cook like if Josh Ennis breaks his ankle that Brady Cook is like hey man just send big ups to Josh you don't know who the fuck I am but I've been in the stadium I've watched them play I've paid money to Missouri Athletics to go to a game there to watch Brady Cook play LSU so like I know it's not apples to apples,

but when you look at these situations, you're like, am I a piece of shit? And then you go to the situation in Cleveland where the fans cheered Deshaun Watson. He's a unique case. Now, obviously, he blows out his Achilles. He's fucked. He's got the biggest contract ever.

He's terrible. The team's terrible. And they obviously, he blows out his Achilles. He's fucked. He's got the biggest contract ever. He's terrible. The team's terrible. And they cheer when Deshaun Watson gets hurt. And then after the game, you get some of his teammates. Some of these quotes are spectacular. Like, you get Miles Garrett saying, well, the guy was a model citizen in college and most of the pros. Well, at least thanks for acknowledging the guy was a serial predator.

But then you got Jameis. And Jameis is one of my favorite humans ever. Like, he's a truly likable guy, kind of a doofus. I say kind of, very much a doofus, but a very likable guy. And you get Jameis Winston, and he's basically telling people

that that man's worked hard and he's never done me wrong. And therefore, like, you know, I treat people whatever. And he's basically defending Jameis to the people, but then also complimenting the fans. He actually, I mean, he rode the fence politically, like in a spectacular fashion. Didn't shit on the fans per se, but didn't also shit on his teammate. It was very, it was a very, almost a master class in how to take both sides.

But then I see people, media people saying that this was a powerful message. It ain't a fucking powerful message. At the end of the day, he's defending a guy who's more than likely a serial predator. I don't think 30 women or whatever the number was, are all lying about the fact that Deshaun Watson's a creep. They would start humping the fucking bed when they were around and humping the air and jerking himself off in front of people and asking people to massage his asshole. Like the guy is a predator. It seems like the guy is a predator. So if people want to boo a guy because he's in a unique case, this isn't just some guy who sucked at football that they're booing. This is a guy that's also a predator. Now, I will not defend them in this case though. Here's where the Browns people are full of shit

because those same Browns people that were cheering his injury strictly for football purposes I don't think they really give a shit that he's a predator they're just hiding behind the idea that he's a predator those are the same people who found ways to defend trading for Deshaun Watson when it was known that he was a predator as well like oh let's see I mean look the guys the guys served his time there was no punishment let's go then they realize the look, the guy has served his time. There was no punishment. Let's go. Then they realize the guy's terrible, and then they conveniently start to care about him being a sexual predator. You're full of shit, Cleveland people. You know you're full of shit. You were

cheering because he sucked at football. You were not cheering because he was out there diddling his asshole in front of massage therapists. You know you weren't. So let's not be holier than thou people. If Deshaun Watson were out there killing it and they were five and one instead of one and six, I guarantee you'd be heartbroken than that dude went out there and busted up his Achilles. So let's not be frauds. But I think that we as fans of sports, and I think social media plays a factor in this, I think gambling plays a major factor. And before gambling became as mainstream as it is, I think fantasy football played a factor in this. We've created a world where we have dehumanized athletes to a point that we don't even give a

shit when they're hurt or anything. We're just like, fuck them. They cost me my parlay. And we can almost rationalize with ourselves about that and go, well, they don't give a shit about me either. So what do I care? It is just fascinating how we are as people. Now we have just, I mean, the internet has aided in this. I mean, you see the way people talk to each other on the internet. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. We've created a world where the internet is super toxic. We've created a world where, you know, we bet on a player to win a game. And when he doesn't like, we hate this dude and don't give a shit. If he breaks his arm, I mean, go back to Brady cook, the Brady cook story, by the way,

pissed me off before being real, because this dude misses two quarters of football, then magically comes back into the game in the fourth quarter and doesn't throw for enough goddamn yards for me see here I go now I'm I'm a part of the problem but is it good or is it bad you know what I'm saying are we is this okay is it not okay I'm just I'm fascinated by it is all the message I'm trying to get across by this today is like, I'm asking myself, are we shitty people or is this just the new norm? Does it matter if we hate these people? Like, I really hate Nick Sirianni. I think he's annoying and all that shit. But like, I watched this.

I'm like, why? Why do I hate this motherfucker? Why do I hate these people? Why do I hate Dennis Allen? But it's just part of what they sign up for do you sign up to be hated do you sign up to get the love when you're great and the hate when you're bad it's truly a a weird world and it's made easier to do this and I always ask myself this question were these people always around and they're just now being revealed by the

internet or did the internet create this this era of people being assholes like did we create monsters because the internet showed them that by doing what you do on the internet people will see it and they'll like it and there's currency in this or are people always shitheads now they just have an outlet and it's probably the latter but if you're a shitheads, now they just have an outlet? And it's probably the latter. But if you're a shithead and you've got the internet, and you've got Twitter and social media, and you're like, well, fucking rock on. Now I've got an audience.

Then you can build an audience that way. You can build an audience by just being a dick on the internet. And before you know it, you go from zero followers to 100,000 followers. And you're making money by posting content that's hateful. And that's part of it. But it's just, it's a weird world. And I've myself had like a moment of reflection as I'm sitting there and I don't know Brady Cook at all. But all I know is I'm Googling and searching Brady Cook on Saturday afternoon to make sure he's still in the game. And the second I found out that he was hurt, I'm fuck this guy and I'm like this guy could be legitimately hurt his career could be over who the fuck knows and I'm upset that he's not playing in the game and then it goes back to like fans

I think fans are seeing a world where they're allowed to be like, let me give you a quote back to the storm in the field. Brian Kelly was asked about the LSU fans storming the field after Ole Miss. And I forgot the unsettling was the word he used. He goes, I don't really like it. It's kind of unsettling. And I'm like, yeah, I imagine it is. You play this hard ass football game and then thousands of people engulf you on the football field and you don't know if one of them is going to punch you you don't know if one of them is going to take a cheap shot at you you don't know if one of them is going to hug you and you don't know what's going to happen and now i think we're seeing that too much that it's lost its appeal

and i think that's selfish on the fans part. I think the fans want to inject themselves too much into these, especially these college games. And it's to the detriment. There was no reason for Tennessee to storm the field against Alabama. Alabama sucks. You're better than Alabama. There was no reason for LSU to storm the field against Ole Miss. You're better than Ole Miss. But now it feels like it's happening all the time. And I'm shocked that more people running down the field aren't getting their asses knocked the fuck out. I remember one year, I think it was Nebraska played Missouri and Missouri beat them and they stormed the field. And I think this dude from Nebraska just cold cocked one of these dudes. And I'm like, good, you're on the field. I'd be,

especially this world now, man. I mean, imagine like good you're on the field I'd be especially this world now man I mean imagine like being out on a football field and there's at least 10,000 if not more people running on the field and you can't move and you're I mean it's got now in the moment you might be excited because you won and you're thinking hey these people love me imagine you're the other team and you're the team that lost and these players are running on the field talking shit to these dudes that just played 60 hard minutes of football that just lost a game on the last play of the game talking shit. You're lucky you don't get your fucking drunk ass teeth knocked out. And I'd be in favor of that. So I don't know, man.

Anyway, I did have a good college football weekend. I enjoyed the weekend in Arkansas. The bar scene there, cute little downtown uh i enjoyed it i'm trying to think of the places i've been to see a road game for lsu i know i've been neutral site games i've been to the georgia dome for the sec championship which is now torn down been to i've seen i've seen the i've seen multiple games at the new Cowboys Stadium with LSU. I saw LSU play at Auburn. I saw LSU play at Mizzou.

I've seen LSU play at Arkansas. I've seen LSU play at Syracuse. I'm trying to think of other places. I haven't been to a ton of road games in my day. I haven't been to Alabama. I haven't been to Ole Miss or Mississippi State. I haven't been to a ton of road games in my day. I haven't been to Alabama. I haven't been to Ole Miss or Mississippi State. I haven't been to Georgia. I haven't been to Tennessee. I did see them play Tennessee in the Georgia Dome. But anyway, it was good. Good downtown. Got some good drunken experience there. Had a cool Airbnb that was in the hills and the basement of someone's

house. We didn't get raped. That was good. it's always a positive when you don't get raped but uh anyway uh good talk guys maybe we'll do some more later maybe we'll talk about trump and mcdonald's i have thoughts on that maybe you know but maybe not who knows