Let's tone down the expectations

Sports these days are all about expectations.
Exceed them and your fans are delirious. Don’t reach them and fans are reaching for your neck.
The Coach of the Year awards should be renamed the Coach Who Most Exceeded Expectations Award.
Expectations are why the Super Bowl is usually a letdown. The two weeks before it is just a bunch of hype-mongers heightening the expectations to unreasonable levels. And the actual game rarely lives up to that.
So here’s a novel thought – let’s do away with the expectations entirely.
I know, we in the journalism profession are some of the biggest culprits when it comes to building up these expectations.
But if you read us and other publications and listen to sports radio talk shows, do it simply for the entertainment. Don’t get the attitude that if your team doesn’t win it all this year then it’s the end of the earth as we know it and the coach must be vanquished to oblivion.
That’s why high school sports are such a breath of fresh air most of the time. There (usually) aren’t a mountain of expectations heaped on top of it before it actually happens. Fans can enjoy the games for themselves.
But even high school and youth athletics are becoming more and more prone to expectations. Expectations of winning state titles, expectations of your kid playing more than the other kid.
Let’s not spoil this last bastion of pure sports. As my friend, former Blue Springs High School activities director Tim Crone, has pointed out many times, the percentages that your kid will become a top Division I athlete or even a pro are very slim.
Just try to enjoy their time in high school and let them learn the valuable lessons – perseverance, teamwork – that sports can teach. And if they’re meant to move on, they usually do. From what I’ve seen in my almost 20 years of covering high schools, is that the cream usually rises to the top.
So let the Royals get better and just enjoy them without calling Alex Gordon the next George Brett. When I checked, there was only one George Brett to ever grace the earth. Try not to think of Billy Butler and Zack Greinke as saviors for Kansas City baseball. Just enjoy their talents, and if they happen to return to the level of the teams from the 1970s and ’80s, well, then sit back and enjoy it.
Don’t expect the Mizzou football team to get to the national championship game this season. If it happens – and it quite possibly could (oops, there I go again) – then bask in the glow if you’re a Tiger fan.
Missouri fans should know better anyway. Most times we get our hopes up, they have been dashed. Two words usually describe the disappointment – Fifth Down, Tyus Edney, The Kick. Need I say more?
Let’s just enjoy the magic conjured up on a football field by such talented players like Chase Daniel, Chase Coffman, Jeremy Maclin and William Moore. Coach Gary Pinkel will be fighting expectations every day in practice this fall, so let’s not pile it on them even more. Just simply enjoy moments like the second day after Thanksgiving at Arrowhead in 2007.
KU basketball, too, has had its share of disappointments before breaking through last year for its first title in 20 years. Bradley? Bucknell? Just enjoy it when it all comes together like it did in March.
And don’t expect Glenn Dorsey to save the Chiefs defense. Don’t think Branden Albert is going to suddenly make the offensive line the force it was back in 2003. Don’t expect Brandon Flowers to be the next Albert Lewis.
Just let them develop into pros and if they turn into stars, then enjoy it. If they don’t, then try to find someone who can play the position better.
So if you can’t give up the expectations entirely, just try to tone it down a bit. It will probably make you a happier person.