Arrogance Personified – A sporting Perspective

As a recent recipient of a tirade of abuse – whereby I was flagrantly labelled an “arrogant prick” – I feel that I must be an appropriate author for this inquisition into the use of the term “arrogant” and all that it implies.

After spending some time psyching up my arrogant little digits and then sitting at the computer to begin the piece, I suddenly realised that however that I wasn’t exactly sure what arrogance was.  Was it arrogant to assume that I understood the term arrogance? After initially (and very briefly) contemplating calling my abuser to ask for their definition, I decided instead to turn to the only two sources of reliable information that I know of: the dictionary and google.  The New Zealand OXFORD Schoolmate Dictionary (1992) told me that arrogant is defined as follows:  “proud and dictatorial in manner”.  My little friend google told me much more than that, but most of it was useless definitions and blogs that would take far more effort to read.  As a last resort I selected the “pages from New Zealand” button and found an article from www.nzherald.co.nz entitled “Herald Readers name their most arrogant sportspeople” (click HERE).

In my eyes, as an amateur sportsman with better than average hand-eye coordination, this was, in a word… perfect.  A look at the term arrogant within the realm of sports was exactly what I needed. The article listed the top 10 most arrogant sportspeople, as follows:

10. Byron Kelleher

9. John McEnroe

8. Muhammad Ali

7. Lleyton Hewitt

6. Anthony Mundine

5. Cristiano Ronaldo

4. Roger Federer

3. Dennis Conner

2. Graham Henry and the current All Blacks coaching team

1. Ricky Ponting

Now if I am indeed arrogant all I can say is “what illustrious company to be in”.  Stoked. After reading the names on that list my arrogant little smile was the size of Dennis Connor’s arrogant waistline and the arrogant little sparkle in my eye was as bright and as bold as Johnny Mac’s 3-stripe headband.

In terms of the dictionary definition of the term though, I would be reluctant to say that any of those listed people were dictatorial in manner, or after looking at the thesaurus, tyrannical, autocratic, overbearing, etc, but proud… maybe.  Some of them (see; Bryon, Mundine, Dennis Conner and Graham Henry) seem to me (the grossly uninformed observer) to be dickheads, but I can understand why they can and should be proud.  They have all achieved something pretty special in their lives, whether it be through sporting performance or through coaching.  Whether they did it by being dickheads or proud doesn’t change the fact that they have all excelled in their chosen sports – far more than your average humble sportsman that’s for sure. Looking then at the wider array of sports… from my point of view, I’d say I’d rather be a Federer than a Roddick, I’d rather be a Dan Carter than a Stephen Donald, I’d rather be a Tiger Woods than a Doug Batty, I’d rather be a Jarred Hayne than a Jason Nightingale, I’d rather be the Auckland Rugby team of the late 80’s early 90’s than the present day team and I’d rather be a Usain Bolt than a James Dolphin.

Put simply I’d rather be successful, albeit slightly arrogant, instead of a mediocre performer. I hate the way Roddick is submissive after losing, sometimes he looks pleased to lose matches, just so that he can say the better guy won on the day, blah blah blah.  Fed in contrast goes into matches looking, feeling and playing confidently.  Therein lies the difference, Fed has achieved and continues to achieve, therefore why should he be anything but “arrogant” on court.  I just don’t understand why the media expects our sporting heroes to be homegrown champs… they aren’t.

Fed, Tiger et al are successful because they have a steely determination to not lose, which at times can be perceived as arrogant. Good on them I say, if Roddick adopted a similar approach at times instead of being Captain Humble he might start to show a bit more pluck. I have always favoured sportsmen that don’t suffer from a case of humble pie.  I don’t expect champions to have to pay their respects when losing, they should be pissed off and able to show their dissatisfaction with their performances, it’s just natural competitive spirit to be disappointed.  So, I’d rather be a Casey Williams than a Richie McCaw.  As a Captain you should be prepared to speak your mind – if you don’t then you aren’t doing your team justice.  I enjoyed Williams’ post-match address after losing to Aussie when she said “We’re pissed off to lose this series”.  I wish McCaw let rip more often in order to let Joe Public know that he has faith in his team to turn around after a bad game.  NZ sport needs to stop sounding defeatist after rubbish performances – you don’t hear the Aussie’s doing that.  If you are talented sportsmen you shouldn’t be afraid of letting the world know that you should have done better. I reckon arrogance pays off.  It may not come across well through the media, and people don’t get respected for it, but they should.

At the end of the day its achievements that count, the people that simply make up the numbers shouldn’t be valued higher than those that win.  In NZ however they are, maybe it’s our small poppy syndrome at fault – are we there to make up numbers – “participation” being the key word – or seriously contend for titles? Personally, I think that the label “arrogant” may not be as bad as the media implies.  If it pays off and leads to success in the long run, then hell, I’m willing to take it… just don’t tell the media.