Who Blue Collar?

I hesitate using the term “blue collar” with athletes for a couple of reasons, starting with salary.  Really, what professional athlete in America qualifies as “blue collar” in the true sense of the word?   I mean, outside of female professional athletes?  Yes, just about everyone in the WNBA qualifies.  But after that, not really.

 

The second reason is race.  “Blue-collar” invariably gets attached to white players.  I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a black athlete described that way.  Why, I haven’t a clue.  If that’s the case, let me be the first and say that Michael Jordan resembled Jerry Sloan on the basketball court in that they were both blue-collar type players.

 

Consider two remarks by Sloan.  “Be on time, work hard every day.”  When was Jordan ever late to practice, and when did he ever give less than maximum effort?  If Jordan wasn’t the first at practice and the last to leave, I’d like to know who was on those Bulls’ teams.

 

Sloan also said, “Why should a guy be rewarded for giving 100 percent at his job?  Everybody’s supposed to do that.”  What would Jordan change in that statement?  I can’t think of a thing.

 

“Blue collar” is lazy talk more than anything, meant to describe players whose drive makes up for holes in their game.  Sloan qualifies because his defense rated higher than his offense.  Maybe so, but if my entry into Heaven depended on what Jerry Sloan did with the ball his team down by a point with six seconds to go, I’d be at peace with the results.

 

It may be time to retire “blue collar” for a descriptive term more 21^st century.  I can’t think of anything offhand, so I’ll go with “full-out serious” in the interim.  I’m pretty sure Jerry Sloan and Michael Jordan wouldn’t be too offended.