Like everything else, sports can take a political and divided approach to life. Depending on who you support or who you are affiliated to , you can be either pro showmanship or pro sportsmanship. It is either or, no middle ground from my observation. My focus today is on showboating, with Vinicius Junior the Brazilian attacker of Real Madrid being my main. Who is the most fouled man in soccer? According to this season’s stats BY BIG FIVE LEAGUE, Neymar is the man, Premier League it’s Wilf Zaha(with the number of times Jack Grealish hits the deck this is an upset) and finally La Liga it’s Vini. One school of thought is that Vini gets kicked a lot because he shows off like a clown therefore he baits his opponents to do so. Another says he is expressing himself artistically (like a Brazilian should), the client(the fans) enjoys the show everybody is happy. Here is my take. When you go to the boxing ring expect one of many things. Expect a punch to the face, expect more of them and expect high probability of a swollen face. When you go onto the pitch expect to be kicked or fouled. How many times doesn’t really matter, you paid for such. In a not so politically correct way I say man up.

Like everything in life nowadays , when all else fails don’t seek the all mighty, blame it on racism. In a twist, Real Madrid has come out publicly and accused the criticizing public of racism towards him saying it’s a La Liga problem. I get it the us against them narrative works wonders when you are under the cosh. The victim is always held in high regards and always given the sympathy. Is racism there? Yes. Is it the extent to which it is being put in the limelight the reality? Not on your life. Not condoning racist behavior. The main reason fans attack Vini in that way is that they view him as disrespectful when he does his party tricks. The fact that the Spanish authorities couldn’t identify the perpetrators should be clue that the problem isn’t as pronounced as they would like to make it out to be. Russell Westbrook, the new Utah baller, is known for not taking any prisoners when it comes to showboating. Last year, he got angry with Darius Bazley of the OKC who robbed him of the ball and dunked it unguarded in the final secs of a game Russ’s team the Lakers blew a 26 point lead.”There are some things you just don’t do in sports” is what Russ said and right on he was. It’s about the old R.E.S.P.E.C.T Aretha style. Your opponent may be down but he is a professional just like you and you can also have a bad day in the office. Kind of like that annoying office guy you work with who always wants to put himself over by pointing to your mistakes. Showboating happens in a lot of sports, like tennis. So to showboat or not? Don’t. It’s dangerous to your health, physical and mental and creates enemies.

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