Gosh darn it, I'm sick of it all! Why is it whenever I watch a sporting event of any sort nowadays, it's never without some horrible display of poor sportsmanship? It happens everywhere. Every darned baseball, football, soccer, hockey, and every other game is absolutely filled with these ill tempered athletes who seem to think it's fun to mess things up and ruin everyone's time. I can't stand it!

A short time ago I was watching an old soccer game from when players knew how to properly behave, both when they won and when they lost. They knew how to act when they were lucky enough to taste sweet victory and what to do when they suffered the crushing agony of defeat. But it's not like that anymore. Is it that people just don't know how to teach proper conduct now? Do parents just do a terrible job of showing their kids right from wrong?

When I was a kid and I played soccer, my father always made sure I understood what real sports were about, how to treat competition, and what makes watching so much fun. Sports isn't about feeling sorry for yourself. It isn't about who wins or who loses. And it especially isn't about lashing out or being a jerk when you win.

The reason big league competition exists is so that the best of the best can go in, create the greatest moments in sports history, and show it all to the world. But what happens when players decide they don't want to give the people what they want? What happens when players are selfish and only thinks about themselves? It ruins the game and it's the spectators who suffer.

That's why I'm so tired of bad sportsmanship. I despise it. Why don't all players just grow up and focus on putting on a great show? They need to get a good taste of proper flare and vengefulness!

Watching a game where everyone "has fun and no one feels bad" is boring! That's what crappy little kid games are for. I don't think I can sit through another end where everyone shakes hands and no one gloats in an outrageous manner or throws things at the winners. What's more entertaining than watching a winning team doing mean spirited victory dances? Or seeing losers handle defeat poorly?

That's what good sportsmanship is; being a good sport, and making it fun for the viewers. It's putting on a good show, no matter how much you won or lost by. And it's even better if players get a big head before the game has even started, because it makes it that much funnier when that team loses.

Any big game is going to be entertaining if the players are talented and have a good coach, but when no one takes the care to keep things entertaining after the game, then it's just another game. The fun stops once the game itself finishes, and no particularly memorable videos are captured.

It's just plain selfish when, even for the sake of the fans' fun, players aren't willing to stain their reputations a bit with ridiculous bragging and trash talk or they won't risk someone seeking revenge on them for an unnecessarily humiliating defeat. It disappoints me when a loser isn't sore. And it leaves me feeling empty when a winner doesn't show off.

I hope you've all learned something about good sportsmanship.

One last thing though, as a disclaimer I'll say there are three major points here that aren't actually that true. I'm sure you've noticed them already, but to be absolutely clear, the first false part is that I didn't actually play soccer as a kid. My father wanted me to, but I was just never that into it. The second thing is that my father never actually taught me much. He didn't really like talking to me at all. Mostly because I wasn't into soccer.

The final false bit is... I wasn't actually watching a soccer game recently. I have some rather bitter feelings toward soccer, actually. I'd rather not get into it, though I will say it has to do with my father...

Thanks for reading.