How great is Rafael Nadal?
He won his 13th French Open this past weekend and his 20th Grand Slam tennis tournament overall. He has dominated the clay court like no other player. Yet, he is ranked second in the world behind Novak Djokovic.
Aside from his work at Roland-Garros, Nadal has played the best supporting actor role of men’s tennis more often than the lead role. Whether it be as co-star to Djokovic or Roger Federer, Nadal has acted as a sidekick named Robin rather than the crusader Batman for two decades.
The sport of tennis - both men’s and women’s - is like that. Two or three superstars seem to push each other, as on-court rivals, for a decade at a time. Think of of a few from the recent past?
Bjorn Borg pushed Jimmy Connors who pushed John McEnroe. Of course, McEnroe pushed back.
Chris Evert pushed Martina Navratilova.
Roy Emerson pushed Rod Laver.
Billie Jean King challenged Margaret Court, and then King tried to hold off Martina while she fought an important match vs. Bobby Riggs.
Mats Wilander pushed Ivan Lendl who fought off McEnroe and Boris Becker.
Monica Seles pushed Steffi Graf.
Then, along came Venus and Serena Williams and Serena’s taken it to new heights.
Andre Agassi pushed Pete Sampras.
Then along came Federer, Djokovic and Nadal.
It’s been like that in the other sports, too.
Think Arnold Palmer vs Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods vs. Phil Mickelson!
In basketball’s biggest rivalries, Larry Bird challenged Earvin “Magic” Johnson long after Bill Russell and the Celtics dominated the NBA’s best bigmen, especially when you compare championships against Wilt Chamberlain.
In the NFL, Peyton Manning challenged Tom Brady for a decade after Dan Marino, John Elway, Steve Young, Jim Kelly, Brett Favre and Joe Montana went mano-a-mano week after week. The NFL days of yesteryear saw Bart Starr, Roger Staubach, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Namath, Ken Stabler and Johnny Unitas compete in the late ‘60s and ‘70s.
It was much the same for NFL running backs and wide receivers, maybe defenses too.
More often in sports, it’s team rivalries rather than the individuals.
Take your pick?
Army vs Navy?
Duke vs North Carolina in hoops?
The New York Yankees vs Boston Red Sox?
Ohio State vs Michigan in NCAA football?
All of those sports rivalries are based on fair competition and mutual respect. Every coach worth his clipboard teaches his players to respect every opponent, or else.
While sports can lead the discussion in so many areas - whether it be racial injustice, the fight against illegal drugs, or raising money and promoting awareness for charity and community - it seems quite apparent that goodwill and sportsmanship does not flow from the sports world to politics.
Can you imagine what might happen if a professional sports GM or head coach were to reel off 20,000 outright lies to their fans, most recorded on digital cameras for fact-checking playback?
Can you imagine the backlash if professional athletes called their opponents by childish nicknames while speaking from a postgame interview podium?
Can you imagine if an athlete made racist rants - time-after-time, day-after-day - and their respective league did nothing about it?
Can you imagine if a coach or an athlete tried to change the rules of their sport in-game, then complained that the game they were competing in was rigged because the scoring crew was corrupt or the previous team, predecessor coach or GM should’ve been indicated for their work years before?
Think about the standards we place on our sportsmen.
Think about it when you VOTE.