Recently, there have been two new stories that have caught my attention: the ESPN firing of Ryan Clark and the reluctant woman at Usher’s concert. When I think about those two incidents, one of the words that come prominently to mind is ego. Let me explain…
So, if you haven’t heard about these two stories, Ryan Clark, a former football player, and now former ESPN analyst, was let go from the company while the show he was working on was still in progress. While they stopped just short of pulling him out of his seat with the Sandman’s cane live on air, literally one moment he was on air talking football, I guess, then they went to commercial break, came back, and he didn’t.
As the story goes, his boss called him during the commercial break to inform him of his ouster at that awkward time because word of his firing got leaked and was about to be made public. So before he heard about it on social media, they were kind enough to let him know during the show.
A few days later, maybe less, Ryan Clark went on his own show called The Pivot, to tell his side of the story. One of the things that stood out to me is how he kept saying that he was “the best” at his job. He didn’t just say this as his own opinion – oh, no. He backed it up with mention of others telling him the same thing. But wait – there’s more. He even ended his show with a mini-monologue reminding his audience, in case it didn’t register the multiple other times he said it during that almost 50 minute episode that he was in fact “the best.”
The reason that stood out to me was because he was mentioning he was the best as if that should have been some kind of shield from getting him fired. He seemed shocked that someone who was thought to be the best – not just in his own eyes, but in the eyes of many others as well – could get cut from the payroll, and cut so unceremoniously at that.
First of all, I have come to believe that this whole idea of being “the best” is an unrecognized fallacy in general, but especially in a field that’s so subjective like sports commentary.
Part of me understands why he hedged his bet on being the best, while the other part of me thought what was he thinking? The reason I can understand is because we live in a world that that stratifies damn near everything. There are de facto privileges associated with socioeconomic status, physical attractiveness, race, perceived intelligence and so on. Then beyond that, institutionally we also recognize people as the best. There are Academy awards, Emmy’s, Pulitzer prizes, sports championships, hell even Employee of the Month – all of which are ways to overtly or subtly say that one is better than the other, or others.
I remember a little while back Olympic track star Noah Lyles came for the NBA for calling their last team standing world champions when they are not competing against the world but only American teams and one Canadian one. The inference was (or perhaps he said this explicitly, I don’t remember) that Olympians and other sports that compete against teams from around the world actually earn the title of world’s best, since they actually compete against other people and teams from around the world. But even a title earned in a competition that’s open to athletes from around the world still has its limitations. Let’s take the world’s fastest man title you get in the Olympics for example. There could be someone, somewhere that can run circles around the person who wins the gold, but they don’t know about the Olympics, don’t know how to get into the Olympics, don’t have the funding to compete, or the time to develop their skill, so on and so forth. So the person who emerges as the best, is really only the best out of the ones who know about the competition and has the access to compete in it. A host of other factors have to align in order for them to compete.
My point is, this whole idea of being the best is a social construct – it’s pointless, and I say this as someone who would love to win an Oscar and a Pulitzer, and any other awards that are associated with my craft for that matter. Yet at the same time I also know that it’s all superficial, a stroking of the ego, that just might have you thinking that you’re irreplaceable, only to find out the hard way that you’re not.
Moving right along to that Usher concert. I must admit, when I saw the reports that Usher got dissed at his own concert by a girl he brought on stage who wasn’t feelin’ him, a tinge of joy ran through my veins. I’ve mentioned this before but 21 years ago – gosh, I can’t believe it’s been that long – Usher and I crossed paths when he held the inaugural camp of his foundation on my college campus, yet refused to speak to any student media from the school. I was a part of the student media. Apparently something went down between the school and his team that made him deny access, so I didn’t get a chance to do a one-on-one interview with him. The school, however, still controlled access to the press conference, and I was able to attend that. There, I got a couple of questions in, but he seemed very dismissive. Obviously that encounter meant nothing to him, but as someone who had been a fan of his for like the past 10 years at the point, I was hurt and disappointed. To be honest, I’m still a fan to a certain extent. I love his voice and I love his music. I just won’t be buying any of his CDs (I still love a CD) or going to any of his concerts…well, for more reasons than that regarding the concerts.
Speaking of his concerts, let’s get back to that, shall we. So I was hearing all this talk on the internet about Usher getting dissed at his own concert and I just had to see for myself. Word on the street was, the girl didn’t want to be there, she wanted Chris Brown instead of Usher, so on and so on. But after I watched the clip of their interaction, I didn’t really get the she-didn’t-want-to-be-there vibes. I got the vibe that this was a pretty girl, who knows she’s pretty and has probably been treated like a pretty girl all her life, going on that stage expecting to be treated like pretty girls are treated. In other words, homegirl thought she was the star.
I just googled it right quick and found that she is 24 years old. That’s a 23 year age gap, meaning Usher is practically twice her age. To me, looking at her face during that segment and her body language, instead of thinking she was the lucky one to get picked to go on stage, to me it looked like she thought that Usher was the lucky one to be able to get close to her. Instead of acting thirsty and going all crazy for him like those other girls be doing, she seemed like she decided she would just lay back and let him bask in the privilege of being with her. Usher, however, was used to the girls coming on stage, touching all on him and acting like they just won the hot man lottery when they got up there. And, when that didn’t happen, her lack of enthusiasm bruised his ego. So much so, that he turned his back to her and waved his hand telling his people to get her off the stage.
In this case, I think the young lady overestimated the currency of her beauty, while Usher overestimated the currency of his celebrity and maybe to some extent his physical appearance as well. I mean the shirt was off and the abs were out. Her ego made her think she could just lay there and he would be satisfied, while his was too hurt to let her lay there and do nothing and exit respectfully. He had to try to embarrass her on the way out. I actually think the way he treated her, was worse than what she did. People always tend to blow up things and make it seem like it’s a bigger deal than it really is. I was expecting her to be frowning up her face, and look like she couldn’t stand to be next to him. All I saw was that she simply wasn’t acting thirsty. In the end, she got her 15 minutes of fame, and I’m glad Usher apologized. When you’re embarrassed in the moment, you’re liable to do anything to save face, but it shows good character that he came back around and did the right thing…or good PR, either one.
In the end, in the cases of ESPN and Ryan Clark, Usher and his concerts, as always, the show must go on.
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