Josh Kerr said he’s not sick but had been injured early in 2025

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:

THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:

I think he is in poor fitness overall. Certainly not in good enough shape to go to the well in the 1500 and then come back in a race he struggles with 21 hours later. Maybe the last 200 he gave up a bit but he just is out of shape and wouldn’t have raced until June in his old MO if he wasn’t contractually obligated to.
I think you did predict this might happen to him as soon as he signed. He’s lost his agency over the season, and while I do think he is a good tactical 1500m runner pretty much always if this trickles into his training, he might just fall short of the past 2 seasons and end up more like 2022.

So then the question is, if you are Michael Johnson and this guy was a marquee signing - he was second after only SML and you are paying him that much cash to be the distance running "icon" of your league - are you stoked about that?

I think my basic prediction was that guys were happy to take a ton of cash without really understanding what they are getting into full picture. This is happening at a crucial time in the season when guys like really charging their batteries coming off winter grind. These meets are 6 days of commitment - arriving on Wednesdays and leaving Mondays. Now you have another 3 to do in the next 11 weeks or so. I'm not surprised at all.

THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:

So then the question is, if you are Michael Johnson and this guy was a marquee signing - he was second after only SML and you are paying him that much cash to be the distance running "icon" of your league - are you stoked about that?

I think my basic prediction was that guys were happy to take a ton of cash without really understanding what they are getting into full picture. This is happening at a crucial time in the season when guys like really charging their batteries coming off winter grind. These meets are 6 days of commitment - arriving on Wednesdays and leaving Mondays. Now you have another 3 to do in the next 11 weeks or so. I'm not surprised at all.

I 100% agree and it’s why Kerr was such a strange signing. The guy who shrugs off rare bad performances (partially because he rarely races) with “I run great when it counts most” and competes sparingly is a tough match.

You’d actually want the opposite and it’s why Ngetich is keeping her category afloat. She isn’t worried about that stuff and just runs hard and the prize (not just appearance) money means a lot.
The format did make Kerr more interesting than in a DL style race. In that maybe he runs 3:31 high and is well off the others in an uninteresting way.

But the 800 part of things and the risk with committing to Kerr is he’s interesting when fit and the act wears thin if he’s out of shape and just coming off as disingenuous. Same deal with Kerley. I’d much rather have a guy who maybe doesn’t have the same clutch factor but is steady for this sort of thing like Simbine let’s say or Tim Cheruiyot let’s say in the 1500. Kerr’s a tough sell for the 800, SML has no such limitations and could even do 2 other groups. The injury risk is there but the indifferent performances are not.

Koltrast wrote:

THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:

I 100% agree and it’s why Kerr was such a strange signing. The guy who shrugs off rare bad performances (partially because he rarely races) with “I run great when it counts most” and competes sparingly is a tough match.

You’d actually want the opposite and it’s why Ngetich is keeping her category afloat. She isn’t worried about that stuff and just runs hard and the prize (not just appearance) money means a lot.
The format did make Kerr more interesting than in a DL style race. In that maybe he runs 3:31 high and is well off the others in an uninteresting way.

But the 800 part of things and the risk with committing to Kerr is he’s interesting when fit and the act wears thin if he’s out of shape and just coming off as disingenuous. Same deal with Kerley. I’d much rather have a guy who maybe doesn’t have the same clutch factor but is steady for this sort of thing like Simbine let’s say or Tim Cheruiyot let’s say in the 1500. Kerr’s a tough sell for the 800, SML has no such limitations and could even do 2 other groups. The injury risk is there but the indifferent performances are not.

They signed him because of all the media attention he gets with his drama with Jakob, and now they're quickly finding out that there's a reason for why Kerr is making headlines for his loud mouth rather than his racing results.

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:

Reddy! wrote:

I don't know if I buy the theory that guys like Josh Kerr are phoning it in and don't care because they are pocketing a big pay day. These guys are professional athletes, they should be motivated to perform and expected to perform BECAUSE they are being paid well. Plenty examples of this in track and field and other competitive sports.

In other sports, if you are paid well but don't perform...you get cut.

So how do you explain running 1.50.7 today in the 800m after he ran 3.35.6 with a 52.3 last lap yesterday? - a 1500m performance that isn't bad in any era of the event.

It can't be and isn't fitness (the 1500m showed that) because if he was fit enough to do that, he sure as hell was fit enough to come back to today and run better than that. Don't give me "well it's hard to do races back to back" - wasn't a problem for Wanyoni. Isn't a problem for NCAA athletes. Isn't a problem for his big rival sitting over there in Norway.

You think that just because guys get guaranteed money it means they show up and give full effort every time? Also tell me what other pro sports there are with athletes who sign contracts that don't have a large portion of the contract (if not all of it these days) guaranteed?

You don't follow of lot of pro sport do you.