perspective:
on The World radio program there was a story about a Sudanese imigrant who serves in the US Army and is stationed in Iraq... in the back of an armored veicle soldiers joke and haze eachother... the sargeant slowly rubs the ear of the "new guy" to get a rise out of him minutes before they step out into the hot ass sun to patrol Mosul... then its game on because they have a job to do that has serious repercusion on many levels... all business in a life and death situation...
i hear stuff like this it makes me want to smack anybody who wants to tell me about "professionalism" or "appropriate behavior" in cycling... as if this is all so serious that you cant have a good time and just get silly when you feel it...
41 comments:
I think your post presupposes that the US miliary is an example of professionalism. Let's try to think back to Abu Ghraib as just the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the embarrassing stuff the military does on a daily basis. I don't exactly mean this as a way of blaming anyone in particular. The kids doing stupid stuff out in the desert are mostly just there because they were too poor or uneducated to do anything other than join the military and it's probably at least as hard as you'd think for the top brass to keep an eye on a hundred thousand teenagers running around in the desert without their mothers to slap them around. Maybe just think about whether the private behavior of the US military is exactly a model of professionalism. If you want someone who takes their work really seriously, maybe you could learn lessons in professionalism from the catholic church.
Erik, when you are the funding behind a pro team, then you can decide what professionalism is, until then, do what the man tells you to do. Or you could continue to follow the example of jon hamblen...see where his "self-policing" got him.
Professionalism from the catholic church... like making boys take it in the ass? Or just trying to cover that up?
good point... but, no.. i dont presume that the military is an exact model of professionalism...
but i do think that this instance shows that having a laugh doesnt preclude one from concentrating on what is important in a given situation... if a guy is going to step out of an armored car to get shot at and he can still have a good time joking around.. then why do bikers have to take things so serioulsy?... its just a race... guys act like you cant be good at your job and you cant represent your sponsors unless you are some kind of automoton.. gimme a break....
you bring up something to think about though...
here is something else- the space between having a silly good time and human rights abuse is vast.. its a gulf... and i am sure that a behavioral scientist could explain 20 ways in which these two types of behaviors are far removed...
but hey...lets talk about.. the damned NBA!... another great example of the idea of "professionalism" gone wrong!
hey man.. i do my thing.. and people dig it.. i dont need to do this... so have fun... and thats why i dont have to stress to bad about finding a team and getting enough to live a nice life...
hamblen is the same way... he ducked out of the scene on his own... and if he wants back in he can come back in... there arent too many guys who does what he can do.. it will only take a year for him to prove that.. in 06 he will be back... on his own terms and ready for action... thats a fact...
there is a big disconnect between what the fans of cycling enjoy and will accept and what the cycling "behvior police" think is proper...
has anybody ever heard the expression 'play to the room'?... here we like something different than they might dig on somewhere else.. the key is in knowing where you are, but never being fake... giving people what they expect and making them happy, when they feel comfortable they feel good and want more... then give them a bit more but with a twist... then show them something else that they will enjoy too but might not have realized it... thats just showmanship... thats how you pick up and move a crowd...
thats where i come at it from... you gotta be out there and put on a show and be a personality that people can enjoy and get behind... thats really what sponsors want...
Fuck yea! Too many guys take the us cycling scene way to seriously, what it all boils down to is that we are riding our bikes, something we did when we were frigan 4 years old. Chill out.
If anyone tries to fuck with me this year, i am gonna kick them in the nuts.
For the record, Hamblen is the shit.. He can kick any fuckers ass on a bike or off the bike anyday.
I try to stay out of these discussions, but reading someone say the us military is a bunch of teenagers running amok without their mothers to watch them is insulting to the point of being criminal.
1978 of these teenagers have died my freind. dead. shot, blown to peices. Something like 15k are wounded, missing arms and legs.
All for minimum wage. It takes a level of professionalism and maturity far greater then any 19 year old stateside riding his skateboard and drinking pops in the woods with his buddies to do what they do. The fact that they are only teenagers speaks volumes for the level of professionalism they bring to the job. The job of getting their asses shot off for people who hate them and that they probably dont care for either.
Think about what you say before you say it. The world is not just full of trust funder cat 1 bike posers, which I take to be erics point.
Jerry Chabot
USMC Grunt '88-'94
professional- adjective, 1: of or engaged in a profession, 2: engaged in some sport or in a specified occupation for pay. noun: a person who is professional (esp. in sense 2) -professionally, adverb. (from Webster's New World Dictionary)
Other than the first definition, I really don't think that this word is applicable to American cyling, save a select few persons. If you get a stipend per race and you live at home, are you 'pro'?
Have fun, race your bike, stop wanting to be a pro. No one cares anymore unless you're 21 and know Vaughters. Does anyone really think that TT3 programs have actually deveoped new talent when the bigger teams take the masters squad to the NRC races?
a knife is only as useful as the person who wields it, and the USMC is a very sharp knife.
Speaking of pro, who you riding for next season EROK???
I haven't seen a press release?
George Bush should not be allowed to play with knives.
He should have safety scissors and crayons.
Jerry
Billy,
Stop stealing my material regarding what being PRO is all about.
RVD
the best thing that I can say about being in the marines was that while looking for osama, for over in 4 months in afghanistan, i made thousands blowing guys in my tour. so am i gay or were the guys that i blew gay? yeah, we were hard core....so hard core that i could make a 6'4" jar head quiver and cry like baby while sucking his cock and fingering his ass in an empty cave. so dont act USMC is professional, or that we lay it all on the line...cause were laying it anywhere we can get it.
Jason Wells
USMC 1996-2003
god reed you are the most fun guy i know... and dont be tellin people you rubbed my naked ass... its a MASSAGE... not a naked ass rubbing... be profesional about it... you got paid to do it...
reed is just homo who is secure with it, erk seems to like it too....Reed is a perfect example of someone that can claim to have a lot of experience, and have learned nothing, absolutley nothing fucking from it. the guy writing the checks decides what is professional, bottom line, fuck spanking sherwin, Reed writes no checks, he grovels for them.
STOP IT!!!!! You guys are making me "HOT"!! No no no don't stop? ahah Ok!! I'm done. Thank you!!
i am gay? so what, you want some of this too.
Reed,
of course your wonderful, and smart and pretty and everyone loves you (say that three times a day in the mirror), surely you were hired for spanking sherwins ass.....you are underappreciated reed, sounds like for your whole life, to resort to stroking up cyclist for gratification.......you should keep up the self-indulgent pity professionalsim speeches, they make me respect you more as they obviate your "be proud of me, please" side, and to make such a weakness be so obvious at your age, just screams "treat me special, im handicapped" it becomes you...a little obvious, but it becomes you....
-Kirby Newman
oh! snap,
thanks kirby, couldn't put it better myself.
j.greico
wow, reed, there sure is a lot of wrestling, spanking and rubbing of men going on by you in your life for you to even be in the realm of heterosexual, flaming inappropriate behavior and unprofessionalism, at its best.
you dont grovel for money, you grovel for attention. i guess in a way you have some kind of attention deficit disorder?
im not gay Reed, im female....you on the otherhand are pityful.
i thought everyone knew reed was gay already? we all did.
i am a professional (in the doctor/lawyer sense of the word) and i farted so hard that i shat myself the other day. i totally 'dropped the cosbys' in my pants in beverly hills.
i just needed to share.
thank you.
Whoever the hell this Kirby Newman is, is a f'ing lyrical genious...like a lay dennis miller of sorts...strong words kirby.
Jeff Traugott
"the guitar man"
I saw on the net that RB is coach?
thats some funny shit right there.
TC
For what it's worth, my wife just came back from risking her life at a demining facility in Sudan. They need that humor to help compartmentalize the rough times and gain/regain perspective and zest for life. Any shrink (or conlfict mediation specialist) will tell you that.
"Un-pro" it up boys, the stakes are much lower in US Cycling than just about anything else in any developing nation.
thats not worth much
oh, boohoo, if you want to feel good, keep your mouth shut old man and quit displaying your narcisistic and pathetic psych 101 apparent issues and maybe we'll do like we should, and feel sorry for you instead. you poor guy, if you need some more help let me know,
knewman@comcast.com, I specialize in you military type GI joe wannabe...you all have an interesting lot in life and unfortunately has been plagued, like a mold really, except it works from the inside out.
kNewman
oooh, what it sounds like you didn't realize reed is that you have a lot of issues, and you never thought that they would be as apparent as they are. come on, your grown, you think opening up on this or any blog is safe, like you were gonna sweep in and some random ass comments and self-indulgent resume quotes and that was going to lend you credibility or respect...haha,you fucking idiot...this is the internet....duuuuuuu, that makes you even more stupid. your right we should quit talking about you. your pathetic... did you create the internet, i thought i read somewhere you did....or maybe you just man-hadled the guy who did it, you know gave him a reach-around at a party or something.
jgreico
I never thought I would really ever be surprised by anything in the comments section on ErikSaunders.com. So wrong. Someone suggesting that fighting should be condoned; A marine talking about fingering a guy's asshole in a cave; Reed talking about his vaguely homo-erotic escapades with cycling figures; someone who claims to be a woman, but can't spell calling Reed a homo; and many many people screaming about professionalism. All of this: very funny.
What's sad is that if y'all took the time to read what others had written, I think almost everyone here would see eye to eye on most of what you're talking about:
1) Having fun is fun and that's okay.
2) Showing respect to the people you work with is professional and should be mandatory, but whether you, in fact, respect them is your own business.
3) Dying or losing some portion of your body while employed in the armed forces is a bummer.
4) Professional cycling is part of the advertising industry. There is no pedaling industry. Image is your business. If you want to work in an industry where image doesn't matter. Bike racing may not be the place for you.
Things that there is disagreement on:
1) Whether Reed and/or Erik are gay.
2) Whether fighting should be encouraged and is professional.
3 Whether we race at "50+ MPH" more than .0001% of the time.
4) Whether Reed "wants some of this".
5) Whether dying young makes you professional or just unlucky.
These are the big questions that the readers of ErikSaunders.com still have to grapple with. Go nuts.
Geoff Rapoport
Tom Doyle? No way!
(That's inreaction to Hamblen, not Jmurder.)
Anyone who's dad drove him around in a supercharged white station-wagon with pinstripes is WAY cooler that I'll ever be. And that's a fact.
J.Murder is right. A 1yr suspension for fighting is bullshit. I have long held that less than .05% of bike racers could even come close to kicking my ass, and I tailor my comments toward tham accordingly. I will talk shit during a race, because I don't really care what people think.. In my mind, what are you going to do about it? Yep, not shit. Therefore people need to realize what is said on the bike and the tempers that flare during racing is just a product of competition and testosterone... So lighten the fuck up. There are guys in the SE who you would think are my mortal enemies the way we talk during races, but we understand that all that shit stays out on the course once we dismount.... Or at least that's how I look at it. I'm still waiting for someone who wants to stroke after a race. It never happens because bike racers are on the whole, pussies. That is what keeps fights from breaking out, not the threat of suspensions. I think it's bunk that two grown men shouldn't be able to work it out after the race if that is what they mutualy feel they need to do, leave'em alone--a pecking order WILL be established. I will talk shit and guys are free to talk shit back... I don't fear escilation because I can kick their ass anyway, which gives me carte blanche to say whatever the fuck I wanna say.
thats pretty funny... be warned Radar Rappaport... you talk quite a bit of shit that i know you could never ever back up... better work on a laser death ray... its your only defense... and you thought that a tough suspension is what had been savng your ass all these years!... no.. it was your own sissyness!...
yeah.. and this is the only website you go to that gives you any useful information and you know it... everyday you are getting a little bit hipper...
Speaking of fighting...remember mccook and gord fighting after Fresno? That was fucking funny as shit. And JJ won because they were being dumbasses. I think it's great to watch a buncha small dudes battle. fun shit.
Umm, are either of those guys small?? Maybe by NFL standards or something.
RB
What? McCook is like a midget... Gord is like 5'7 or some shit... Not actual male size.
i didnt see that one... but i do remeber sayers and gord double teaming dionne at redlands right after the finish line...
real pro...
it was actually caught on film but i was unsuccessful at getting my hands on it...
I don't want anybody "attaching" me either.
RB
i would like to see mr Meatnuts beat him self off .. and go away for Good . Dumb Ass
Yeah, well....it was funny as hell. Like a coupla midgets going at it. I mean, if you're gonna get hard come real like roberto and beat someone with a 2x4! ha! Seriously though sayers was all getting up into shit...all red faced after sitting on the front for 100 miles. Pate was cracking up in the background....
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