Most episodes of Hustle and Pro are upbeat, celebrations of our guests’ sports journeys. This episode we dive into that sinking feeling sports lovers get every now and then. In between seasons, when a player leaves our team, or leaves the sport, when we lose a meaningful game – it all adds up and it leaves us sad.
It seeps into our everyday lives. We wake up with a grey sports cloud over our heads. We replay it all day. We listen to sports talk radio all day, which makes it better, like therapy, to talk it out. Sometimes talking it out helps, so hopefully this episode will do just that.
Show Notes
- [:57] Rangers trading a player and losing a big series
- [4:08] Cowboys – high hopes or lower expectations?
- [5:40] Tech Basketball – NCAA Tournament finals compared to football season
- [8:04] Losing a Coach
- [10:23] Off season sadness
- [12:06] Parent sports sadness? Coaching?
- [14:26] Our own experiences as athletes
Resources within this episode:
- Kelly Walker: Instagram @kelly_walkertexas | Twitter: @kelly_walker_TX
Connect with Lifestyle Frisco:
Transcript: (machine-generated)
This is Hustle and Pro with Kelly Walker. Join Kelly as she talks sports with players, coaches, organizers and entrepreneurs from Peewee League to Pro. Now here’s your host, Kelly Walker.
I listen to sports talk a lot. So maybe I dwell too much sometimes about sports stuff, but this is real thing to me. But I get sports sad. I think when there’s a passion for something then there’s highs and there’s lows and sometimes those lows stay with you and bum you out for maybe a few days or maybe a few years. I don’t think this will make sense to everybody. I don’t think this will make sense to non-sports people. I think some non-sports people will think this is silly, but I um, so I brought my husband with me today, Ryan to talk with me since he gets this, we live in the same household and we talk a lot about sports together and when there is something going on that makes us sort of sports depressed, we uh, we feel it together. So, hi Ryan. Thanks for joining me. Thanks for having me.
Okay. So my first kind of example of how to explain this is like with the Rangers. Um, there’s all kinds of things that can make me sad with sports. But like most recently, like when they trade away a player, so like, like Nomar Mazara was recently traded and Delino was gone. And I mean it’s, it’s a bummer just for the player standpoint that maybe you’re gonna miss the actual talent on the field. But what bums me out sometimes even more than that is like the memories that you have of those people. So when I say those two names, I know you know about different memories, but like, like I yell silly things. I yell, nomargarciapara to embarrass our kids at roughriders games and stuff. And um, I just remember watching his major league debut and his great rookie season. And then with Delino, there’s just some funny history there too, so that just knowing that they’re not on the roster anymore makes me sad or I don’t know, a couple of days, a couple of weeks. I know you get over it because then somebody replacing them and then by middle of the next season you have all these other new household names and you’ve, you know, forget, but you’ve moved on from kind of missing the old guys, right?
Well we grow up watching these guys so we see them coming in as teenagers and playing with the Frisco rough riders and then moving onto the Rangers. And then when we see him go, it’s just, it’s hard. And you know, kids have jerseys and they grew up watching them.
Forgot about that. Your kids have their jerseys. We go through that a lot, like as close as we are to FC Dallas. Um, you know, you get attached to these players and then when they’re gone you, it makes me sad. I miss them, but I follow them all on social media so I can at least keep up with them. Like some of the FC Dallas players that we knew and they’ve moved on, they’ve moved on and gotten married and had kids. And so I still like feel like I at least get to kind of follow them, but I miss them. I wish they were still in our market, but also speaking of the Rangers, so that’s just kind of like a player example, but then what about when you lose a huge game? Like losing the world series when you’re as close as we were to winning the world series is not a couple of days bummed out water cooler talk like that’s longterm. Right? For me it is. What about you?
Well, I won’t go back and watch any of the highlights. I don’t want to see that ball coming off the right field wall. So maybe it still hurts you. It still hurts totally. When one it’s going to hurt. I know. So close. I know that that one hasn’t gone away and that doesn’t keep me depressed or anything. It’s just a little bit of that aching, that pain. It’s being so close and then it just kind of slips by hurts more than if you’re just a bad team for several seasons. Yeah. The giants World series didn’t hurt as bad because I believe they got sweat. Yeah. We didn’t, we didn’t expect to win, but against the Cardinals of all teams, the Cardinals and they had their chance.
So that means like when your hopes aren’t as high, the lows aren’t as low. So like I know we’re in this current Cowboys season and you and I are seeing it a little differently, but like those three losses in a row or was it for those didn’t the first one bummed me out, but I kind of just got used to it and I sort of, my expectations got lower and the disappointment week after week. Yes. Disappointed. Want to win. Sure. But I wasn’t like sad about it anymore. Once the season kind of feels like it’s past, um, I dunno and I don’t wake up on Monday mornings and like feel actual sadness when you’re in a season that’s not gonna be that great anyways. What about you? Does this like, this type of a cowboy season, is it still make you actually sad after these losses even when you’re like a 500 team?
Yeah, it does. I mean they, they call it a cowboy Monday for a reason. Um, my Mondays aren’t as fun after a cowboy loss or, um, and I still have hope. I grew up watching this team. I moved here in 1984 so it’s the only NFL football I’ve ever known and, and we’ve won championships and there’s teams like the giants that, uh, came in as a wild card team into the playoffs and won a Superbowl. So my vote is, we’re going to go all the way and we’re going to keep Jason Garrett.
So then, so you mentioned like that kind of longterm expectation and you’ll, you’ll be bummed out about losses until you get another win cause you’ve gotten that win before. So then what about like tech, basketball? Um, tech football’s a whole nother thing. I don’t ever feel sad that much when tech loses football because I’ve never felt that super big winning season feeling. I just, you know, we were there as students and it was all fun and all good, but I don’t have the same like, I dunno, not passionate. I mean, of course I want my red Raiders to win, but like I don’t feel the same amount of let down when red Raiders los in football. But I was going to talk about when for basketball, so like the expectations versus the hopes. So last year’s final four game. So I mean, I know they were ranked good and high and they were supposed to do well in the tournament, but I, I had high hopes and, and it was all good, but I didn’t feel sad when we lost, we were in the championship game this year. Right. I didn’t feel like ultra sad and depressed about it. Um, probably because I didn’t think going into the tournament we were gonna gonna win the whole thing.
Yeah. When they get to the championship game and you don’t expect them to be there, you’re just excited. It’s like the first year of the Rangers getting to the world series, you know, we were excited for them to be there and we kind of thought they were going to lose and going into that final four championship, I kind of thought tech was going to lose. I rooted hard, I wanted them to win, but I didn’t expect them to win. So when they lose, you don’t have that, you know, three or four weeks of depression.
Do you get sad about any college level sports as far as if your teams lose or is that more just kind of social and fun?
Well, I think the only, you know, the only college that I really have an allegiance to is going to be tech. So you know, they’ve never won a national championship in anything, but I think women’s basketball. So I’m just excited for the kids to get the opportunity to play in a bowl game or playing a national championship and if they win all the better, but I don’t expect it to happen.
Right. Okay. Then there’s something else recently in the news that makes me like sad as a sports fan. So like an example is when the stars fired Jim Montgomery. That made me sad because like I listened, I listened, I started this by saying I listened to a lot of sports radio. So I hear him on the radio every week and you get to know their personalities and you, you got, you get to like, like these people and so you kind of feel connected to these people and then it’s broken all of a sudden like for whatever reason, I mean we’ve talked about losing or something like that or getting traded, but this example it’s broken. Um, kind of this, I dunno, rule breaking thing. Something that they’ve done to break that connection that you’ve had with the team and that like makes me sad in disappointed. Just kind of a mellow way, especially in the season like the stars are having when you’re on such a roll and then it comes to a sudden halt.
Thankfully it’s going to be all right obviously, but it just makes me sad. Like Corby Davidson was talking on the ticket about how it’s, it just sucks. Like there’s no other way to describe it. When somebody like that, that head coach you guys love, he’s helping you in maybe turning your team around, you talk to him every week and you develop those connections and just flat out sucks. When all of a sudden they’re, they’re gone and you don’t really, you don’t really get to say bye or do anything and they’re just gone. You don’t always know why.
Well, in listening to him on the radio, in his interviews and press conferences, he seemed like a great guy and until we know why he was let go or in, you know, why he was fired, that could change your whole image of the, of the person’s character. So you’re kind of in, we’re were left in limbo until we figure out was it just something minor that happened that the team didn’t agree with or was it a huge, you know, character or scandalous issue. So it’ll be interesting to see it. Same with Ron Washington when he left the Rangers. I don’t know if it’s ever been announced as to the full reason why the Rangers let him go and we loved wash.
yup. You get, you get past some of that, but it does make me sad. The disappointment just makes me sad for a little while. So you know what else? I’m a whole nother type of like sadness that people that don’t follow the sports, I know they think this is a joke like overall, but off season sadness, like that whole like low of when your sport is done. Um, sometimes the end of a season just gives you just the blues. Like overall, um, there’s, there’s a dead space that happens in between different seasons of things that you like. Like if you’re, even if it’s like, no, just football’s over. And that was your Sunday ritual for however, how many weeks are there? 18 or something? 17, 17 weeks. And that’s what you’re used to. That’s your routine. That’s, that’s like our family time. Like we plan meals around when the cowboy game is and what we’re doing on our Sunday and it all does revolve around wanting to watch that sport. And so when those things are over, you get like depressed for a little bit. Right?
It’s like missing Mickey at the rough riders. He becomes your friend during the season and you see him every time you go. And then during the off season you, there’s no more Mickey.
Yeah. It’s like what do you do with that time? Especially with us when there’s so much sports on our, on our schedule and that’s our, we’re just in a rhythm and then all of a sudden, especially like an FC Dallas end of a season, um, was an away play off game. And like we knew we were done with home games cause we only had away games left. And it’s just like a bummer. You can watch a game on TV but then they lose in, you’re done. And you don’t even get to see those players til, I don’t know, four or five, six months later. So then what about kids sports? Because I have a different experience with like what are children’s sports, um, versus also when we were kids playing sports. But, but my experience with watching our kids play sports and being a parent, it makes me feel emotions of course. Um, but I feel like brief sadness, I feel it really like for my kids. If they lose or something happens, I feel for them, I feel bad. But for me, like I don’t, I don’t see sad and I don’t care that much. Um, to actually like be sad about it, it goes so quick for me. I’m just a support system and I’m like, OK, um, move on. But I want them to still dream and want to keep playing and do well, but I don’t want, I don’t feel sad about kids sports. Do you?
I’m more involved in the kids’ sports because of coaching. And so I develop relationships with these, these kids each and every week. You know, we trained together, we, you know, show up to games and in warm up together. And so it’s when, when they lose it, it does, uh, you know, I get, I get emotionally disturbed, I guess would be the word. Like, go over the, uh, a couple of weekends ago, the boys played in a tournament and we did really, really well and we were the best team in the tournament. And then it all ended and we were in such a, we were in such a great place to go win that tournament. We didn’t have our best performance in the semifinal. Um, so yeah, it was emotional because the boys were upset and I spent so much time with those kids that, you know, it makes me upset to see them.
So that’s the coaching connection, right? Because flip that over to Reese, playing in the, um, like winning all those lacrosse games in a tournament and then in our tournament’s over, I don’t remember you being as emotional about that. You’re not connected to her team.
It’s definitely a coaching connection. Yeah. Because I mean that, that tournament, they want all their games and still get eliminated and it doesn’t seem, it doesn’t seem right, but I felt bad for Reese, but it wasn’t the emotion to the team.
Right. That’s how I feel. I feel bad for them, but I’m like, alright, where are we gonna eat lunch? What’s next? What are we doing? I can move on pretty quick. And I know that’s harder for the kids. So speaking of, I happen to feel like you have some longterm sports sadness about yourself as an athlete, maybe losing some good big games. I know you still like have joy over winning big games and have the state championships and things like that, but do you feel like you have any longterm sports sadness over yourself?
So I, I experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in high school soccer. So, um, my junior year we won the state championship and then we finished second my senior year. Um, I was captain of the team. We got beat three to two, I believe was the final. I don’t, uh, El Paso Coronado I’ll never forget the team that penis, but we got beat in a heartbreaking way in the second half of the game. And yes, to this day it still hurts.
This is a while ago. It was 1996 so this still hurts. I don’t think you’re like, I don’t know if you’re sad about it, but maybe a little, maybe because you just, you did wanted to end your senior year, you did not want to end your senior year like that.
Well, since we won my junior year and you know, the senior year was, I was captain, it was, it was my turn to, to lead the team to victory again in the Plano soccer system was a powerhouse back then. And you know, I didn’t, I wasn’t able to get the team to win state like we had done in the past. So it kinda hurt. And I had a good friend that was an exchange student from Norway. Um, and we had played, you know, we our connection with soccer. So we became good friends that year. And with the season ending, you know, in Texas we play soccer in the spring, which meant my relationship with, with Trim Ogwas, his name was ending and that kind of meant he was going home. And I’ve never seen him since. What is neat though, is that through social media we can still talk back and forth. So we’re friends still.
That is neat. Any other sports, personal sports experiences that you still feel sad about? I feel like that was the main one, right?
The only one. Yeah, I’ve won everything else. Maybe with ND 40 my over 40 team. We’ve lost a couple of games.
Mm. Over 40 men’s soccer. Yes. Yes. I don’t think I have sadness looking back. I mean I have sadness looking back on my childhood stuff. Just that in general, like it was so good at times and it’s, I feel like it’s changed a lot when I look at our kids’ sports. Just think, me thinking back to little league especially, and I don’t know, things were different back then. There were all star teams and that was some of our best times and memories. It kind of makes me sad that our kids don’t get to experience like an all star and I’m like F BSA, baseball. Um, but I don’t, I don’t have sports sadness about myself. I mean I wish things could’ve been different, like finished. We were just so bad, like in softball and soccer and things in my high school, I wish we could have been better, but I don’t think I’m sad about it anymore. It just, I feel it more in like pro sports.
I guess overall. Um, it goes away most of the time, right? It gets replaced by joy and happiness and, a win can do wonders, um, gets you out of your sports funk and sports sadness pretty quick. It can get replaced by new players or new coaches that we end up growing to love every time somebody leaves, I think, ah, that’s the worst. And then a few years later you realize how much you liked the, the new guy. So I know it, it’s all, it’s all going to be all right. And I guess, uh, I’ll keep, I’m definitely gonna keep loving my teams enough to, to feel the highs and lows and, and ride the waves along the way.
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