Pressure Cookers

I've noticed a disturbing trend in sports today that became to much too ignore after the demise of Tiger Woods. These days we place way too much pressure on athletes. As soon as they show signs of greatness we immediately start comparing them to the greats and act as if it's only a matter of time before they become the best player ever in their sports. Think about it, as soon as Tiger started doing good it became a matter of when, not if, he would become the all time majors winner. As soon as Roger Federer started doing good it became when, not if, he would be the all time majors winner. After this, they both began a huge decline. Even with LeBron James, who himself did a bit of self hyping, before he was even drafted the talk began about when he would win 6 rings and become better then Jordan. Now he still has no rings. On the flip side, players that we don't put this pressure on, like Nadal or Kobe, continue to win the highest honors in their respective sports. Even in football Adrian Peterson was proclaimed "one of the greatest running backs ever" in his first year and since then he has struggled to maintain that level of performance. It's mostly the sports media constantly using these hyperboles that put such huge pressure on these guys it becomes expected for them to win multiple championships, rush for thousands of yards, or whatever is considered greatness in their respective sports. I don't think to this date that one athlete has performed up to the hype that we have put on them. We as people today put way too much expectation on athletes, almost as if they don't win the championship every year, they are a failure. Then people wonder why LeBron went to Miami -- at least he knows he can get some rings down there and people will get off of his case about it. I just hope it doesn't happen to Kevin Durant because I'm seeing all the signs of another athlete being overhyped way too early. Let's not forget this guy wasn't exactly superman in the playoffs last year, coming up pretty short in some critical playoff games. So all I'm saying is let's turn down the overhyping and just watch these guys play without letting them psychologically defeat themselves.