We’ve entered a key stage here, friends. Emotions are heightened. The environment seems to be intensifying, almost by the hour. People are noticing; they’re talking.
Individual observers are reacting in individual ways. Individuals vary in the ways they respond. There is not one sole, correct perspective; the Intramuralist believes in the allowance of varied perspective.
It’s the 2018 World Cup Round of 16!!
Sports journalists have posted their previews; the games have begun; Messi and more, unfortunately, have already been eliminated.
Here, no less — albeit slightly tongue-in-cheek-ly — is what we ‘most’ need to know…
First, as offered by Lewis Krell in yesterday’s Huffington Post [emphasis mine]:
“Anyone who has ever taken an Economics class knows that there is only one universal truth; we all respond to incentives. What it is that motivates us changes from person to person but we are all willing to change our behavior to get whatever it is that we want. In soccer (brace yourself for a shocking statement) what everyone wants is to score a goal. When Americans watch soccer we have a tendency to get angry at the players on the field for embellishing contact, whining and in general following Coach Bombay’s advice perfectly. To remove flopping you need to remove the incentive to flop. Currently, the perverse incentive structure of the sport makes flopping and diving far too rewarding to the elusive pursuit of scoring and therefore diving runs rampant, becoming a distracting side-show to an otherwise beautiful game…”
In other words, “flopping” in soccer is a player’s exaggerated expression — when all eyes are on him (or at least the referee’s eyes) — in order to produce a competitive advantage. The player acts as if he has been significantly/seriously injured/offended by an opponent — only to be fully capable of all amazing athletic acts seemingly less than thirty seconds later. The player thus either lied or amplified what happened to him.
Flopping is faking. The motive is to gain a competitive advantage. The reality of the situation is secondary to the player’s desire to win.
Krell continues:
“The problem lies with the current way that penalty kicks are awarded. In a sport where it is so difficult to score, it is sheer insanity that a penalty in the box is rewarded with such a monumental advantage as the penalty kick. The ease of scoring a penalty kick compared to the difficulty in scoring during regular play leads to these objectionable actions that are far too prevalent in soccer…”
Note: we are speaking of objectionable, exaggerated expressions that are far too prevalent.
So if flopping is deliberate, my question to all centers upon whether or not it’s ethical…
… talented people… maybe truly good people… perhaps even highly intelligent people… but people faking their response…
Is the faking ethical?
The sincere challenge, friends, is that some are floppers and some are not — but the floppers and actually-injured are all mixed up together. It is often impossible to discern the difference.
Speaking candidly, the next layer of the challenge is that often we know a person’s expression is exaggerated, but they’re on our team, so we don’t necessarily refute their expression; we don’t question their exaggerated means because we identify with the cause they are attempting to advance.
So again we ask: is that ethical?
(… in soccer, of course…)
Respectfully… always…
AR