110%

Here are a few sports cliches we've heard in movies and on TV that we have come to know and love:

That just had to be the greatest--catch, throw, slam dunk, tackle, goal, etc. in the history of the game. How can they all be the greatest. It's not the greatest simply because it's the latest. If it's the greatest then there is no other to which it can be compared. That's why Tom Brady is the GOAT!

He/She is one of the all-time great--soccer players, golfers, basketball players, baseball players, softball players, pitchers, catchers, runners, jumpers, throwers, kickers, offensive lineman, defensive backs, three point shooters, hitters, goal scorers, etc. How many all time greats can there be? 

What we need to do is play like a team--Especially if you are a team. This would require selflessness and the ability to help build others so they could be the best they can be. Sharing the ball seems kind of hard for the look at what I can do generation.

If we're focused we'll be okay--If you are a bad team or player it doesn't matter how focused you are. Focus away. You will still probably lose unless you are playing a worse unfocused team or person.

It's ten feet from the floor to the basket's rim just like it is in the gym at home--Okay, but your little gym floor at home with its ten-foot baskets probably isn't surrounded by 10,000 screaming fans.

There's no crying in baseball--Maybe not but I have seen some awfully sad faces on the losing team after the last World Series game each year. I have also witnessed some world-famous basketball and football players blubbering their eyes out after losing or winning the big game.

This team/player gives 110%--This is impossible. Giving 100% by definition is all you can give. There can't even be a fraction of a percent more than 100%. If you have 110 and give 100 you have really only given 90.9%. If you give the full 110 you have given 100%. One hundred percent is all there is!  

This team is starting to gel--Are they talking about using a new hair product or do they mean their sweat is coming out sticky?

We have to take it one game at a time--No, no! Let's play two or three games at the same time. It might be more interesting.

Football is a game of inches--Of course it is and feet, and yards as well. However, I have never seen an inch carry the football.

It's a game of two halves--But I only want to see one half. Why don't they eliminate the 1st half and only play the second? It would save time, energy, injuries, and money. I only want to see one half of a soccer match because if you've seen one half you've seen them all.

Go out there and give it your best shot--No, wait! What we want you to do is go out there and barely try at all. Some people's best shot is pretty pathetic.

There's no I in team--Wow! Someone must have paid attention in grade school.

We got outplayed today--Seems logical because you lost.

There are many other oddly phrased observations floating on the airwaves. Don't worry they won't go away. Your children's children will probably have to suffer through them as well as some new sayings that will undoubtedly become part of the mindless replies to equally mindless questions that so often confront athletes and coaches. And would someone please come up with a better answer to, "What are you going to do now?" than, "Go to Disneyland."