"I'd love to finish my career here" and other great sports cliches

Aaron's comment, addressed in a different thread, is just one of those sports cliches that make a tired and old skeptic such as myself all but comatose. Now, I recognize that there are only so many answers that a team's PR director or sports agent can force-feed an athlete in answer to the same old tired questions.... but ... let's revisit the sports cliches. Which ones irritate you like a bad laxative?

For me, it's this one:

No player in particular: "[Fill in player's name] is the face of the franchise...." Worse yet, when an athlete refers to themselves as "the face .... "

Aaaaaaaarrrrgggghhhhhhh... I'm gouging my eyes out here...

Any player in any sport that plays up to expectations is "great."
"There is no I in T-E-A-M." (but there is M-E)

I've got a slight variation of that one. There is no "I" in team... there is however an "I" in "Kiss my butt". Sorry, interjecting old jokes is part of my schtick.

I ain't no role model. (for all you kids in the forum hahaha)

"I absolutely want to stay in (player's current team city), but it isn't up to me."

As a resident Furrner here i have to report this rubbish also happens in the other code of Football __________ (Insert team name) is the only club i have ever wanted to play for................ also the Mercenary club badge kissers are just as bad proclaiming their love for your team and then shortly later waltzing off for a bigger pay cheque elsewhere.

weeds hints at this in the OP but the clichés don’t irritate me nearly as much as when athletes go stupidly off-script. Finley comes to mind as a recent example for the Packers but in the scope of all pro athletes his foolish comments are rather mild in comparison. If I were an agent or someone giving advice to a pro athlete I would advise the exclusive use of clichés and bland generalities. While entertaining, raw honesty just isn’t good PR; it rarely, if ever helps the athlete so to me it’s all downside potential with little chance to improve how the athlete is viewed. Even if his on-the-field performance was exactly the same, how would Packers fans view Finley if they couldn’t recall a single thing he ever said?

Mike Sherman's acknowledgment of something that went wrong and his "we'll get that fixed for next week"

There's a "I" in win too!!

I couldn't agree more. This one always spikes me. 99 times out of 100 it is a player looking for more money. The choice is up to them and they usually choose more money.

Found it:






"Give 110%" is my anti-favorite.

Maybe its my background in mathematics that causes me to be so irked. Or maybe its because when an athlete says in the 4th quarter and they had to dig down and turn it up a notch and give 110% it tells me they were taking it easy the first 3 quarters playing at 90% and they finally started playing 100% at the end.

I hate the sports cliche of comeback wins. Whats so great about falling behind and then picking yourself up constantly. If you think of any other 4 quarter thing, you wouldn't trust it. Example, a company stock slides for 3 quarters, then barely profits in the 4th quarter, I wouldn't trust that company. If a report card gives, D, C, F, A, you still flunked a quarter, and if that happened constantly I wouldn't trust that you knew the subject.

"it's time for me to retire" has been turned into a cliche by ol' #4