Golden Tate and NASCAR

How hard can it be to continuously turn left for a few hours?  NASCAR is so simple that regular professional athletes could practice for a few months and immediately compete.  What sort of talent does it require that makes it a sport?

That's what Golden Tate, wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks, wants to know.  Irritated that Jimmie Johnson was included in the ESPY's Best Male Athlete category, Tate took to Twitter to express is disapproval.  His thoughts:

"Jimmy johnson up for best athlete???? Um nooo .. Driving a car does not show athleticism."
"I've driven a car on unknown roads at night at 90mph no big deal. No sign of athletism."
"Guarantee he couldn't in million year play any SPORT."

"give me 6 months of training and I bet I could compete."

Tate ultimately backed down after NASCAR supporters attacked him for his uneducated responses.   But one couldn't help but feel like he only admitted defeat so as to stop the assaults.  Johnson was a good sport about all of it, not striking back at Tate, but rather inviting him down to the track to spend a day racing with him.  

Obviously this isn't a big story, but it does shed light on how many people feel about the debate over whether or not NASCAR drivers are athletes.  And as much as it pains me, I am going to have to side with NASCAR supporters on this issue.

You wouldn't catch me dead watching a NASCAR race.  I don't get it.  At this point, it has developed into a cultural difference between the South and basically the rest of the country.  Nothing about the sport interests me.  But it is tough to completely dismiss when those stadiums routinely fill 250,000 seats for a six hour race, even if much of the excitement comes from tailgating beforehand.

But just because I don't have an interest in it doesn't mean that I don't have respect for the men and women who compete.  Here are two big myths about NASCAR that I would argue are misconceptions about the sport and those involved in it:

NASCAR drivers are out of shape.  They don't need the same kind of fitness or athleticism that other "real" athletes need.

Here's what you should do: go put on four layers of clothing; pants; socks; sweatshirts; and heavy boots.  Then find a motorcycle helmet and put that on.  If that isn't available, wrap your head in scarves and beanies to simulate the heat.  Then go sit in a room with the temperature turned up to 120-130 degrees for the next five hours.  I'll be the one waiting to call the ambulance from dehydration.

On average, a NASCAR driver loses 10 pounds during the course of a race.  Logically, most of this is water weight because the racers aren't moving around to burn fat.  But this certainly requires a special kind of training and fitness level.  Sure, Golden Tate can run a 4.4 and has a vertical of over 30 inches.  No way Jimmie Johnson can do that.  But something tells me that Tate couldn't sit in a NASCAR vehicle that long, let alone race it, and come out alive.  They can't dunk a basketball or hit a home run, but NASCAR drivers have trained and conditioned their bodies to perform a remarkable feat just like these other athletes.

All they do is drive a car.  Turning left requires no skill.

You're right, turning left doesn't require skill.  Turning left while driving a car at 190mph, on the other hand, definitely requires skill.  Especially when you consider that these cars are within inches of each other throughout the course of a race.  The amount of control, reflexes and coordination that these drivers demonstrate is a demonstration of athletic prowess in my mind.  Just as a baseball player has to have the reflexes and control to hit a 95mph fastball, NASCAR racers have to negotiate between minuscule-sized spaces to pass their opponents.  Driving on the Mass Pike is a nightmare.  Passing other racers at the Daytona 500 is the 8th circle of Hell.

Whether or not you think a NASCAR driver is an athlete or not definitely depends on your definition of athletes.  The same people who dismiss these drivers are probably those who fight against golfers, and maybe even some baseball players, claiming a title of "athlete."  Perhaps I have a more liberal definition of "athlete" than most.  But in my mind, there is little doubt that a man as accomplished and talented as Jimmie Johnson deserves the nomination he received.