Athlete or Musician?

You may have heard it said ballplayers want to be rock stars and rocks stars want to be ballplayers. If you could pick between having a successful career as an athlete or a musician, which would it be? Someone asked me this recently and I was quick to say answer athlete.

Then I thought about it some more. It was probably a good five seconds longer. No, I didn't change my mind. I actually felt stupid that I had to put that much thought into it. Sure, being a musician would have its perks but we're talking about being on the same stage as people we all see every night on sports center (I say that assuming anyone reading this is a sports fan who watches ESPN more than MTV.)

Sure it must be nice to be able to produce a nice sounding song out of the blue but it's so subjective. As an athlete, you have the opportunity to be the best by proving it on the field or court and it's not based on opinion. You can debate who had the best song or album of the year all you want, but when all said and done, whether or not you like them or not, there's no argument that the Lakers just won the NBA finals and the Steelers have six rings.

When I watch a game, I see athletes I can't stand. Man, I would do just about anything for a chance to be DeMarcus Ware and sack McNabb and force him to fumble. I'd love to dunk on Chris Anderson or strike out A-Rod. Of course, robbing him of a home run would be a blast also.

Point is, as far as I know, there are no opportunities to do things of that nature to musicians you don't like. What are you going to do, see whose voice can go lower and higher or see who's faster on the guitar? Yeah, that'll show him.

Even if my career wasn't so successful, I'd still take a job as a professional athlete over a musician any day. You come, you suck, you get out and you're just a distant memory that people bring up out of the blue. Look at Joey Harrington. Give it a couple years and no one will remember him, unfortunately for him though, his career as a piano player will probably be the same way. The NFL's attempt at combining the two industries with "Monday Night at the Mics" didn't turn out so well.

With limewire, iTunes, youtube, and things of that nature, it's not hard to find songs or "musicians". Radio stations kill the good songs and make the bad songs even worse by overplaying them. That's one problem you won't usually find with AM radio, at least not sports radio.

When your name is being used as a punch line to a joke, you can say "at least I got to play in the big leagues." In someone like, say the recently arrested Ryan Leaf though, well, it was his off field antics more than anything that caused such a short career. Just imagine, a chance at hoisting the Lombardi trophy knowing alll the work you've put in is finally paying off.