In a good, honest competition, no athlete wants to lose. But it’s inevitable that most folks who play sports will take an "L" at some point in their careers — amateur, professional or otherwise.
Of course, no one gets placed under more scrutiny than the pros. And pros these days are placed under a bigger microscope than ever thanks to the Internet, which is always quick to make a meme (for the older crowd, that’s a funny picture shared on social media). That tends to happen following a loss or any kind of blunder and it isn’t always pretty.
Don’t get me wrong: there’s a time and a place for it. “Crying Jordan” will never not be funny. I got a kick out of “Crying LeBron” in LeBron James’s Miami Heat years, when I had far less respect for him than I do now, and still do on occasion. But those memes arose from favorable situations. Michael Jordan, a guy known also for being an ultra-competitive, no-nonsense curmudgeon, cried during his Hall of Fame induction. LeBron cried in his early days with the Cleveland Cavaliers, with plenty of basketball left to play and plenty more NBA Finals to go to (and win, as evidenced by his last crying face). It’s lighthearted and funny depending on the situation.
I’m not laughing at “Crying Cormier,” though.
Out of context, his crying face looks amusing. I won’t be surprised if it gets used as often as “Crying LeBron” did though, as with real life, nothing will catch “Crying Jordan.” But consider that Cormier doesn’t benefit from the situations Jordan and James had.
Consider that Cormier had just lost his rematch with Jon “Bones” Jones, who may be the greatest competitor the sport has ever seen, by TKO in a fight that probably wasn’t stopped early enough. He had clearly been concussed before the final sequence of the match, in which Jones caught him on the ground and pummeled him until the referee called the fight. He was stumbling like a baby deer and he looked like he was only vaguely aware of where he was and what he was supposed to be doing. Cormier himself said he didn’t remember anything that happened after getting kicked in the head, and he was diagnosed with a concussion at a hospital after the fight.
He was then forced to do an interview by Joe Rogan, who had said in the past that he would never interview a concussed, knocked out fighter again. That’s when the world was exposed to Cormier’s crying face and rushed to point and laugh. I’m not cool with laughing at a guy who just suffered a concussion, lost a fight after being put in danger by the referee and was still forced to say something to the cameras. It’s even worse knowing that, at age 38, that fight was probably his last chance to beat Jones.
Remember that Cormier had spent several years trying to make this fight happen while Jones’s various drug problems created postponements. Jones is only 30 and has plenty of time left. Cormier doesn’t have that luxury. That was likely his last, maybe second-to-last, major fight and in-cage payday. He wanted nothing more than to say he finally beat Jon Jones and now he may never get to.
I have to give Jones credit for the way he treated Cormier after the fight, which was totally respectful. But because I see so many people on social media ridiculing the guy because he looked funny when he cried, I want our younger readers to know that crying after losing the biggest competition of your life doesn’t make you less of a person than any of your peers.
It’s not graceful, but you can’t always keep your emotions in check for the sake of looking like the toughest person in the locker room. I consider it worse to make phony excuses after a loss, like accusing the opposition of cheating or not playing fair simply because you were outmatched. Putting your teammates or training staff on blast for not being good enough is also almost always bad news. You don’t need to cry after every loss but, if you know you’ll never get another chance to win, no one should blame you for doing it.