We’re all Americans
Yes, all of us are Americans. Everyone reading this blog, anyway. I know, you’re thinking, “But I was born, raised, and live in England!” Yes, you’re an American, too. You all are.
Of course, I’m not talking about being American strictly from the standpoint of citizenship, but rather from the standpoint of being what many non-Americans attribute to Americans. I’m talking about arrogance, brashness, cockiness... These sorts of things. I’ve been well aware of our country’s reputation for having cocky, stupid people who go around the world proclaiming dominance and carrying themselves little to no humility, but I had an epiphany when I was in Italy last week for the Motocross des Nations, and that is that Americans aren’t any more cocky than any other nation, but perhaps the people in America tend to have more reason to be sure of themselves.
Let me explain.
In my younger, dumber days, I would talk a lot about the superiority of the U.S. in just about everything. Hey, if it was American, it was better! Of course, with time and travel come perspective, and with perspective comes the realization that I was just being an idiot. By now, I’m well aware of the fact that the U.S. isn’t automatically better at everything, and frankly it’s worse with some things than many other countries, but one thing I, and most every other motocross fan in American, could always hang my hat on was that our motocross riders were faster than those offered in the rest of the world.
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This crowd is less than pumped that the USA is going to win again.
However, even last year, the year before, etc., I never went around at the races telling people how badly the U.S. team was going to kill everyone at the Motocross des Nations, even when I knew it was true. I’m sure the same can’t be said for many other Americans, but it’s true of me. But this year in Italy, I was one of few American journalists/photographers at the event, and I seemed to catch the brunt of what everyone was throwing around. Various journalists and every non-American fan I ran into were all wishing and hoping upon hope that the USA was going to lose, and they were taking it out on me.
And I mean I heard it every way you could imagine. I had a journalist ask me why I came all that way to watch the U.S. team lose to Italy or France... with a smirk. I had others do similar things and say similar things. On Saturday, after our team’s very average showing in qualifying, Youthstream’s Mario Marini asked me what I thought of the track, and I said I thought it was awesome, and very wide, which should mean that bad starts shouldn’t be an excuse for losing the Motocross des Nations, as everyone would have room to pass. I knew I was setting myself up to not have any excuses for the U.S. team if they lost, but I didn’t want there to be any.
Then, while sitting outside of my hotel in Brescia, Italy, drinking Heinekens with some of the guys from the team, DC, and a few others, we had multiple sets of fans come hang out, mostly Brits on this occasion, and they were all loudly and brashly proclaiming how the USA was going to lose. One claimed Cairoli and Team Italy would take the title, while another thought it would go to France or Belgium, because of the “poor team” we sent this year.
Eventually, it started to piss me off. The race hadn’t even been run yet and these people were proudly and arrogantly proclaiming champions, or simply which team wouldn’t be the champion. I heard it Friday, and then again Saturday into Saturday night before I finally snapped back at a British woman who wanted nothing more than to see the USA lose, telling her that the only reason she was rooting so hard against the USA is because the USA has been so dominant, and that was actually a compliment. She denied it. She said she “just really likes Antonio Cairoli.” Yeah, right.
At that point, I lost it and told her that the USA was going to win, and that I hoped it ruined her vacation.
The next day, more of the same. Check out this picture of the fans after it was clear the U.S. was going to win again. They’re not pumped.
While I was very proud of our riders and team that made this win happen, though, I realized something, which is that the same arrogance that us Americans are known for, it must be human nature, because everyone is guilty of it if they’re in a situation where they’re supremely confident in the eventual outcome of an event. So, really, everyone is an American in that regard. It just so happens that, as far as motocross is concerned, we’re still the top country in the world, and many of us come across as cocky because we’re confident in our team, while the rest of the world can rarely show that side of pride.
So, any of you guys reading this who were so supremely confident in the U.S. team’s inability to win the event, remember this next time you see some arrogant, brash, cocky American walking around like his MXdN team is god’s gift to motocross racing: You’re just like us.
Well, just like us, except that we have 20 wins in the last 28 years...
