How to Deal With Frustration in Your Job Search – Work in Sports Podcast - a podcast by Brian Clapp - Work in Sports

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning for WorkinSPorts.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast.It is always my goal to avoid extremely topical discussions -- the reason being, if I talk about the Browns - Rams game last night, or the impact of Tean USA failing at the World Cup -- these things become out of date and are no longer relevant in short time. The thing about this podcast is all the information in the first episode 2 years ago is just as relevant today as it was then. So if you are a new listener, know that every episode is still worth listening to, becasue the content has meaningful and relevant ideas about working in the sports industry.Now I give that preamble because before I get into today’s question I am going to talk about something topical… something happening right now, but also something we all deal with as fans. Antonio Brown. As most of you know I’m from Boston. Been a Patriots, Celtics, Bruins and Red Sox fan for life. Not because of success, rather because of failure. I sat through miserable seasons, and I relish in all that is great right now….but I’ve had a major problem with the Antonio Brown saga as it relates to my fandom.Here’s the thing -- I believe very much in the spirit and sanctity of the locker room. It’s a special place. A family. A unique bond between men and women which should be the safest emotional place in the world for athletes. When Antonio Brown went live on facebook from the Steelers locker room, against the team rules, I was off that guy forever. I love elite athletes and I’ll apologize for some misbehavior, but this broke every rule of being a good teammate and to me that was enough to say -- don’t like this guy. Watching from afar as he had his issues continue with the Steelers and then on to the Raiders -- I thought many times, I wouldn’t want this guy on my team. And then they did it, they signed him, and I listened to fans and media types alike twist themselves into pretzels to say it’s OK now becausse he’s on our team. I hate this attitude. If he had signed with the Chiefs we’d be mad, but since he signed with our team we forgive? That’s crap. And then it got worse. Sexual assault and rape allegations, not paying people who had workd for him, general disrespect of his fellow man. I literally, for the first time in my 44 years didn’t want to support my team. I kind of felt over it. Other things seemed more appealing to me than cheering on this guy. My team had a chance to say -- we’re not going to play you as we investigate what happened here -- hell they could have even covered for him more and faked an injury, or said he wasn’t ready to participate in the offense yet. But they didn’t - they trotted him out there in their jersey out to practice every day then played him against the Dolphins. It all just felt icky. Of course everyone deserves the right to be innocent until proven otherwise, and of course nothing has been proven about him… but again, I didn’t like his comportment as a teammate before the alleged sexual assaults, rape and other crimes. And let’s not forget this is the same a hole who tossed furniture from the balcony of his 14-story apartment building last April, nearly killing a 22-month-old toddler. These are not the actions of a good person. You become conflicted as a fan… do I forgive and forget because they give my team a better chance of winning? I’m sorry, I can’t do that anymore. For the first time ever, this scenario made me question being a sports fan… where we perceive winning is mor important than being good. Yes, I am naive, yes this has been happening quite literally since the dawn of sports time… these aren’t boy scouts, they are flawed humans. I get it. Something felt different this time around… maybe it’s the tyreek hill situation here too. Hurting his kid...allegedly...and then getting a contract extension.

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