National Post

nationalpostsports:

‘Are you gonna cry about it?’ The advantages to blubbering for male athletes
His lips quivered. His eyes winced shut and his shoulders began to heave as Bubba Watson, a strappingly strong lad from northern Florida, became a helpless little boy moments after sinking his 2012 Masters winning putt on Sunday evening at Augusta National, bawling his eyes out for all the world to see.

We see tears in golf. We see them in hockey. We see them in all sorts of athletic arenas where all kinds of victorious men, of otherwise manly stature, turn into weeping willows.

But what we are seeing is more than just tears. Mr. Watson’s blubbering was a biological cue, a secret recipe for long-term mental and physical health, a symbol of male emotional liberation and an indication that, even though he had won the big one, he never believed that he would.