Sports Identities

It happens at all levels. Pros retire and move on to the broadcast booth. High schoolers graduate and get to the next level - some realizing they won't make it big. Older weekend warriors gradually realize they can't compete like they used to.

At all levels of athletics, the transition point is eventually reached for most of us when we realize we can't always go on. Maybe it's age, or injuries, or other factors, but at some point the identity of pure athlete is lost.

What is the impact of losing our identities? How can some athletic identity be preserved, even if competition at previous heights is no longer possible?

Leave your comments about athletic identity, and it's loss, below.

Home field (dis) advantage?

It's assumed in sports that playing at home ALWAYS gives an advantage to a team. The roar of the crowd helps push the team to greater heights, building leads and coming from behind, right?

Maybe not. A new story in the Toronto Star tells us the Maple Leafs win at home only 49.4% of the time since 2005 and a remarkable 39% last season.

The reason may be simple - increased pressure to playing at home. The home crowd comes expecting a win, and good luck to the home team if they lose. One ex-Leaf said "Especially if you're not playing well, there's the pressure of, `Oh God, if I mess up they're going to be talking about it in the paper all week and I'll get booed off the ice'."