Swimmers get no respect

I am quite agressive while swimming, even at practice. I only run to be in shape, don't even go to races any more. Billy: It looks like you've found your sport then! But, you know, I hear a fair amount of trash talking in swimming too. Not only on this forum!

I used to get that macho crap from the football players at my high school, who, by the way, won 4 games in the 4 years I was there! I finally goaded one into giving me a hard shot in the abs, then considered the ultimate sign of being in shape. Although it hurt like h---, I didn't collapse and the BS stopped and a little respect was grudgingly given. The other side is the lifelong effects of football on the body. It is being highlighted since Tiki Barber announced he is retiring at the end of the year. One of the major reasons he is giving is he wants his body whole for the rest of his life. There was a great article in the back of an SI I was reading this morning while my car was being inspected (it's the one with Ray Lewis on the cover). Discusses many hall of famers whose bodies are useless for pretty much any kind of decent life, never mind simple exercise, including "real men" like *** Butkus. Be a "man" now, be in a wheelchair way before your time.

I don't understand all this animosity towards football players. Every sport has its pros and cons. I know a ton of former college and high school footballers. They treat swimming with respect saying they don't understand how we can do all that in the water. On the other hand, I have no idea how they could take years of getting squashed by large fast moving men. Let's be honest, as long as grown men wear lycra, we're gonna take some crap. 99% of the time it's good natured ribbing. Oh, and golf is a sport, the most confounding, impossible sport on the planet.

Yeah, I remember seeing Phelps SUV. Im thinking I saw it after he rolled thru the stop sign intoxicated. Not sure what a pimped out SUV has to do with swimming, but whatever floats your boat.

Lewis: I have no problem wearing lycra, myself. Much better than shoulder pads. I will admit that I do occasionally watch the Redskins, but I'm not watching or playing golf. Good luck with that putter.

Wow this is getting hot. Warren,you are entitled to your definition of sport,I don't agree with it. Swimming is athletic and competative so to me it is a sport. It is also timed so it doesn't have the subjective component of some sports like gymnastics. Football is clearly hard. I don't think football players are over paid,especially compared to basketball or baseball players. They have a shorter playing lifespan and are more likely to end up debilitated. I remember reading in Sports Illustrated a few years that the incidence of severe injuries in any year for NFL players is 100%. Even with all our shoulder problems we can't match that,nor do I want to. Swimming is a very grueling difficult sport,it's just not very dangerous.

College and high school football players....I can respect them. In the Atlanta area, the "professional" team led by Michael the hood Vick gets no respect from me. They are overpaid spoilled brats that think they deserve respect but have not done anything to deserve it. Michael Vick shot birds at the crowd last week at the end of the game! Oh yeah, that deserves respect! UUGGGHHH:mad:

I don't think golf is a real sport. There is no physical exercise or endurance involved. He may be a real athlete, but he's not in a real sport. The only sport that should take 4 hours is marathon swimming or a real marathon. I think the best use of a golf course is for running. I used to do it all the time.

Within competitive sports, swimming works best for me, due to my extreme psychological (or psychiactric?) fear of winning. Not fear, but not wanting to hurt the other guy's feelings. I also have a problem with arguing or fighting or anything in that area that would probably follow contact sports. Only played a little soccer in the goalie position (in Brazil where soccer is king). Played some volleyball (no contact, no fights), some basketball as a kid. Eventually settled and played for years tennis at club level, with competition being playing against your friends. I won some, lost others. But, here is my point, if the adversary started to trash talk or talk any within the game environment or showed signs of being nervous about losing, my game would go bad pretty quick. I use to jog or run, but running a marathon with 35,000 others isn't really competitive, just a struggle not to die and end the darn thing. In the pool, I change...I enjoy swimming fast, I enjoy winning. I am swimming against my own previous times, trying to make a P.B. Tomorrow I will be swimming a 400 freestyle where my closest competition is about two minutes slower. However I will be trying my best to lower my previous time (although in a 50 meter pool, so it will be my baseline time, my first swim) from a 400 short pool. I am already guaranteed a first place and even a local record, but still I will swim fast because we are at the end of our regular season and I am in top form. (dang, this post is getting too long). Okay, swimming by itself will not make me lose weight (at my present low mileage) but I am fit. That said, I feel the need for some extra activity which will be running and/or cycling or both for next year as my weight comes down from 210 to 195-200 where it will be okay for me to run, not only walk or bike. Running while overweight isn't a good idea. I realize I deviated from the main thought on this thread, but to wrap it up: swimming is probably the best overall sport for any age up to death (!). You look good, feel good, have hardened muscles, you might not be skinny yet, but it will help you out in your various diets or supplementary activities such as running, cycling or pushing or pumping iron at the local gym. Sorry for the length of this post, billy fanstone.

College and high school football players....I can respect them. In the Atlanta area, the "professional" team led by Michael the hood Vick gets no respect from me. They are overpaid spoilled brats that think they deserve respect but have not done anything to deserve it. Michael Vick shot birds at the crowd last week at the end of the game! Oh yeah, that deserves respect! UUGGGHHH:mad: Unfortunately, one bad apple spoils the bunch, in this case probably the most over-hyped, under-performing football player in a generation, definitely since Bosworth, gull's hero. Overpaid is an opinion. It's called supply and demand. If no one watched football, no one went to games, no one bet on it in Vegas (and, um, elsewhere) then they'd be paid less. I'm not gonna fault a guy for getting paid his market value. If you can get paid millions for playing a sport, more power to you! That goes for all sports.