Bit of a crap Doctor Who episode no?
Back in my day, a goat was something you went to the farm to go and see, not Silverstone, Wimbledon or whatever. But there it was, appearing on my twitter timeline out of nowhere like Christmas seems to do every year. Greatest of all time? Bit strong. You can’t knock it though, 3 years on or so and just when you think it’s been forgotten, it rears its ugly head, a bit like how you thought the dab would die in a few months.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s always nice to see a sportsperson get the praise they deserve but it just seems to me that everyone’s a goat now. Messi’s a goat, but so’s Ronaldo. Federer’s a goat, but so’s Djokovic. Is it a definitive term, or like the new fad, is it a tiered system? I feel like I’m late to this. Is it an American thing that’s crossed over to Britain and beyond? It’s certainly lingered and even made it to mainstream media. Mind you Sky would probably get their presenters to wear their underpants on their heads if they thought it would make them ‘down with the kids’.
I just thing it’s a bit mad, calling someone the greatest of all time seems like it should be a one and done thing. If someone said that person’s a goat, you should be hard to deny the fact that they are. But here we are it’s 2019, but admiring Messi, perhaps alluding to a goat status, brings you a wrath of twitter hate from people saying Ronaldo’s better. And that’s no different in Formula 1. Race issues aside, if you call Lewis Hamilton a goat it brings on a twitter ****storm. That’s a technical term by the way. From my memory we’ve had 3 years to get acclimatised to the goat, but it seems calling someone a goat is greeted in the same way as you would be seductively eating a bacon sandwich in the Middle East.
That’s why I love sport so much, as soon as anyone has a hint of success you can legitimately argue for their goat status. Formula 1 is no exception, and arguably is where this is clearest. There is no real comparative stat between drivers. You could say Senna was the goat, but statistically Hamilton, Schumacher are better drivers. Yet in my lifetime, the points scoring system has been done three different ways. There’s also the fact that each season has a different length, so that almost reduces the value of a win. More controversially, how dominant were the cars piloted by said drivers? Even if someone was bored enough to convert all the points and races to equal footing, taking into account the cars they were in, I still don’t think that’d be enough to convince someone that they are the definitive goat. There’s something more than just success for me, for someone to be a goat. If someone is a complete arsehole, but just keeps on winning, I doubt they’d be celebrated as much. A goat should do something more than just be good at what they do. Do they have the charisma? Are they generous outside of the track/stadium? Are they controversial? You just can’t quantify that, but that’s what’s so good about sport. Yes, we have the stats now, but you can easily find the flaws in those, and once it becomes opinion based, it’s difficult to call someone the greatest.
This constant argument between friends and strangers alike on who should be considered the best, is what drives sport. Imagine how dead F1 would be if we knew who was the best. They’d be no point tuning in on Sunday. Even the invention of social media wouldn’t stir up some excitement. Imagine that if I said Lance Stroll was the goat next Sunday, and the twitter replies would only consist of ‘hell yeah’ and ‘you’re dead right!’ my word, I might actually survive Sundays without having to tip toe around delicate subjects like who’s good and who’s not.
But there’s the paradox for you, calling someone a goat is one of the worst bits about sport, but without the concept of the goat, sport would be dead.
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We can’t talk about goats without reflecting on the unfortunate news about Niki Lauda. It’s sad when you hear about Tiger Woods having the greatest sporting comeback but in my mind, there’s only one greatest sporting comeback and that’s Niki’s. It’s a shame that it’s often forgotten by the wider sporting world. He is one of my sporting heroes and always will be.
Thank you so much Niki, you will never be forgotten.
Vielen dank Niki, Sie wereden nie vergessen.
George Talks 