I was listening to the ramblings of a local yokel on Knoxville’s sports radio station this past Saturday and thought I would join in on the discussion they were having. The show is a NASCAR-based program and they discuss the goings-on in the world of the ultra-rich, spoiled NASCAR drivers, and they were discussing (for some reason) whether or not NASCAR drivers should be considered athletes.
Now, for full and complete disclosure, I am not a huge fan of NASCAR; hell, I’m not even a casual fan. And while I do appreciate what these guys do inside a race car, they are not athletes. This is the point that I attempted to make to the talk show host, who shall remain nameless to protect his ignorance. Upon calling the radio show, I asked the host what the difference was between a truck driver who drives 8-10 hours per day and a NASCAR driver who drives 3 hours one day per week, excluding “practice”. My logic was, and is, that if you’re going to call a race car driver an athlete, then, by that very same logic, you have to place over-the-road truck drivers into the same category. All they’re doing is driving. I drive nearly every day and nobody cares……I know that’s a stupid comparison and was just being sarcastic.
Look, Bo Jackson was an athlete, maybe the greatest athlete ever. Deon Sanders was an athlete; Jim Thorpe; Jim Brown; Michael Jordan…..are you seriously attempting to put a driver of anything in the same category as those guys? That is completely insane! I love drag racing, mainly because unlike the NASCAR fairies they’re not trying to slow the damn car down! They’re trying to take flight! I wouldn’t put them in the class of an “athlete” any more than I would the midget who just won the Kentucky Derby. I’m going to steal one of my father’s favorite phrases and say, if NASCAR drivers are athletes, then I’m a damn jet pilot!
Two reasons why race car drivers are not athletes: First, anyone can be taught to do what they do. Anyone. A well-trained spider monkey can go fast and turn left. You cannot teach what Bo Jackson did. Jim Thorpe was born with his athletic prowess. NASCAR drivers don’t have any special abilities, at least nothing that cannot be taught. Secondly, the only time that the Associated Press has awarded its prestigious “athlete of the year” award to a driver or anything, since 1931, was last year. And THAT was only because Jimmie Johnson won the Sprint Cup 4 times in a row. That simply means that he drives in a circle better than the other idiots on the track. Watch NASCAR this summer; buy your favorite driver’s gear, but don’t tell me that they are athletes; they’re not!
