The Beauty of Athletic Unpredictability

Every facet of the working class has its top professionals.
But among all careers in the world, none are as amazing as the work performed on a nightly basis by professional athletes. No other job serves as a better form of entertainment than the competition of the best athletes playing at the highest level.Whether you’re in sales, marketing, engineering, science, acting, cooking … or anything, each one of those fields has above-average employees who excel in their craft.But of all the different working fields, nothing is as entertaining to watch as professional athletics. The skills of athletes are so unique and fascinating to behold that fans pay good money to sell out stadiums, arenas and ballparks all over the world just to watch them work.
This is probably because their work features skills that most ordinary individuals do not have; the ability to hit a 90-mph slider, to knock down a 30-foot jump shot with a massive man in your face, to seamlessly split defenders with a bullet pass into an open teammate’s hands in the end zone. Yes, you might have some unique skill at your given specialty, but it’s not as entertaining as what they do. That’s why they’re paid more for their work.People often question why professional athletes make so much money, but it is because people will spend countless dollars to see them. And why shouldn’t they? The mere spectacle of live professional events are exciting enough to just witness, but add the element of pure competition into the mix and the value of entertainment can’t be matched.Players must come together as a team and form the necessary chemistry to outwit and out-hustle the opposition.In what other field do you see competition like that? Award shows? Contests? Sales races? None of these engage in physical man-to-man competition like sports do.And the fact that it all comes down to straight skill and athleticism creates an element of "anything can happen" unlike anywhere else you’ll look.And it’s completely true; you never really know what’s going to happen in any sporting event. You can have a good idea of who the winner will be and there may be a very likely outcome, but those athletes still must play the game and outplay their opponent. As the famous sports analyst Chris Berman says, “That’s why they play the games!”A good example of this was Monday Night Football on Oct. 13, 2008. The defending champion New York Giants were set to play the ailing Cleveland Browns. The Giants were undefeated and the Browns had just one win and had been outscored 78-46 in their first four games. Seems obvious what the outcome will be? That’s why they play the game: Cleveland Browns stomped the defending champs 35-14, handing them their first loss in nine games.The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are another example. Not only had they not had a winning season in their first ten years of existence, they had only gotten to within twenty games of their division leader in one of those seasons. With no major acquisitions prior to the 2008 season, what cause was there to believe that this year would be any different? Despite the odds, a combination of terrific managing and great team chemistry from youthful talent bound together formed a dangerous group with great potential. Those Rays went all the way to the American League Championship, where they knocked off the defending champion Boston Red Sox and made the franchise’s first visit to the World Series.The unpredictability of sports is what makes it so exciting. There is nothing quite as thrilling as seeing a major underdog come from nowhere and take down the supposed best with no reasonable explanation other than they just wanted it more on that day.The pure athleticism displayed in professional sports cannot be rivaled in any other profession. Add to that the business aspect of the game in which each player works under contract, the franchise's operation of business and the unpredictability of the individual lives of each player, and you get a form of entertainment that can wow you unlike anything else on TV. Not a sports fan yet? Its never too late. You can find them everyday and on any given day anything can happen.