By: Tim Durr
In life, we gauge the passage of time in many different ways. We count weeks, months, years, and all those standard measures. But, we also mark milestones, and accomplishments in the passage of time.
For sports fans, there is the rotation of which sport is in season, and what point in the season it is can tell us exactly what time of the year it is. MLB playoffs, NFL just started, and NHL and NBA are warming up: you'd know it's early October. As we follow sports for longer periods, we gauge the passage of time by dynasties (if those even exist anymore), and length of player's careers.
As someone who has been an engaged sports consumer for close to 15 years now (can't really count the first 10 years of my life as being anything more than a fan), I am just getting to that point where I can see a great player's career from start to finish. I have had tastes of careers that started after I became a full-time sports lover, and ended recently, but it wasn't a player who I was enamored with from start to finish.
One of the first names that come to mind is
LaDainian Tomlinson. (Enjoy the link to highlights of all the greats I mention) He was drafted in 2001, right when I was realizing that I wanted to do something related to sports when I grew up.
LT had a fantastic career - most touchdowns in a season (31), most points in a single season (186), and so many other scoring records. But, I was on the wrong side of the U.S. for all but those final years when he was in New York. Either way, I enjoyed watching LT play, but he wasn't my favorite player.
Why am I blabbering on about my nostalgia of seeing an athletes career start to finish?
Part of it is watching
Derek Jeter retire after a 20-year career with one team. I'm not a Yankees fan though, so that doesn't personally touch me like it does many others.
The reason I'm nostalgic is because I see that one of my favorite players of all-time is closing in on the end of his career.
Steve Smith, formerly of the Carolina Panthers, and now with the Baltimore Ravens, is getting into his final years.
I still remember the first time I really started paying attention to Steve Smith. The 35-year-old, who was drafted in that same 2001 class with LT, was in his second year when he popped onto my radar.
Initially it wasn't for a good reason. Smith got into a
fight with teammate Anthony Bright, was suspended a game and cited with a misdemeanor. I knew who he was at this point but that is my earliest memory of him. I turned on SportsCenter after coming home from school one day and there was the story. Something told me to keep paying attention to him when he got back on the field. I think it was that fire and intensity pouring out of him, and the ability to make his small 5'9'' body work like he's 6'6''. He's never taken anything from anyone, and that passion was contagious.
I followed the Panthers throughout the 2002 and 2003 season and when I watched them in the
Super Bowl against New England, I was sold as a Panthers fan for life.
When Steve Smith retires, I will know a feeling that so many sports fans have had. The feeling of watching your favorite athlete walk off the field for the final time.
Wait!
I've already had my nostalgic moment with Steve Smith. I saw him walk off the field for the last time as a Panther after a NFC Championship loss to the San Francisco 49ers last year.
It won't be the same when he plays his final game with the Ravens, or another team if he tries to stay around longer. How many of us get to see our favorite player leave from the place we first loved them?
Jerry Rice? Nope, he went to Oakland, Denver, and Seattle after leaving San Francisco.
It seems more often than not, our favorite players depart from where we first loved them before hanging up their cleats, skates, or sneakers.
I'm not sure how to feel about this. Part of me wants to compare it to breaking up with a girl, then seeing her on the arm of another man. Another part of me feels like I'd rather see them playing in a different city over retiring.
This is the nature of sports, though. It's ultimately a business. So, finishing where you start isn't always an option. If it isn't the player who wants a change of scenery, it's usually an owner or GM who forces them out.
Moral of the story, kids?
Appreciate the rare occasions when someone finishes their career with your favorite team. Celebrate everyday that Derek Jeter never put on another team's jersey. Get excited that
Mario Lemieux was and will always be a Penguin. Cherish the fact that
Larry Bird only donned Green and White as a Celtic. (You can be mad that Larry is now associated with the Pacers if you're a Boston fan, though.)
One of the coolest things that I got to see growing up was my dad's love of
Dan Marino. My dad met him at a football camp in high school. Marino was at Pitt and my dad was playing high school football in Western Pennsylvania. Fast forward a few years and my dad becomes a Dolphins fan when Marino is drafted there.
I got to see my dad enjoy watching Marino play on one team for 17 seasons (I was only alive for 8 of those seasons). He saw it from the start to the finish, and became a fan all because of one player. A few years after my dad got to see Marino's final game, I started a similar affinity because of Steve Smith. I found my favorite team because I found my favorite player. Should I be a Ravens fan because he left? No. I'll be a Panthers fan for life because I have that option to stay with one team, and that's something we should appreciate.
Whether you were a Yankees fan before Jeter, a Dolphins fan before Marino, a Lakers fan before
Magic, or you became a Lakers fan because of
Kobe, a Steelers fan because of
Mean Joe Greene, or whatever reason you like the team you do - enjoy the players who find a way in today's sports market to go through an entire career with one team. Because, before you know it, it's 1999 and that guy you met when you were 17 just played in his final game.
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If you have a nostalgic story of watching your favorite player, share it with us in the comments below.
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