Devastated? Okay, seriously.

Like any good Broncos fan—and not that I am one—I was more than a bit frustrated when Denver failed to beat the less-than-stellar Buffalo Bills (with absolutely no thanks to their defense).

But would I, like Brandon Stokely in an interview posted on CBS 4 news, say that I was “devastated”? Not quite. 

The headline read: Stokely Says He’s Devastated By Dropped Ball. Now, I’m a competitive guy—I’ve given a guy a bloody nose playing church league football (albeit accidental)—but to say that you’re devastated is a bit much. 

“I’ll be devastated for a couple of days,” Stokely told reporters. And this with ongoing news of nationwide financial crises, plane crashes, abducted children, and shoes flying at the president.

As some have expressed concern that athletes compared the game to warfare in light of Iraq and Afghanistan, I think it’s important to point out that the way we talk about and think about sports is a little bit too extreme. Before long you have superstar athletes complaining that they can’t feed their family on only 20 million dollars a year, e.g. Latrell Sprewell.

And, I will tell you, it’s a bit humiliating to be a human when you watch a 40-something grown man in a sports restaurant  burst into a tantrum, throwing his hat to the floor after his beloved Falcons fumble the ball near the goal-line, only to find out later that his team actually recovered in the endzone for a touchdown.