Prize Fighter

My least-favorite part of award shows tend to be the "Lifetime Achievement" section, because it seems like they never pick the right people. It never fails to feel like the winner is either getting it too early or should have already won it. But, I don't blame the voters, I blame the nature of awards. On the surface, an organization which wants to hand out a prize every year sounds like a good thing. After all, who doesn't want to see another human get rewarded for their accomplishments? However, I've found that it doesn't really matter what kind of organization is giving out the awards, eventually they all stop running out of worthy recipients. Oh, sure, it seems like a good idea at first because they had 8 or 10 people in mind, but eventually they go through all of them and then are left scraping around the sides of the barrel for next year's winner. The example I like best for this kind of situation is the NFL's "Comeback Player of the Year" which was first awarded to Frank Gifford for coming back after needing a year to recover from a serious injury and is now given to guys who simply under-performed compared to their fantasy football expectations last season. I know comparing every winner to the previous ones is a slippery slope but they should at least be close enough to be in the same sentence.

But, the real fear with any award is that the committee will have to start getting creative with recipients, because that could start to destroy not only the legacy of the award, but also the organization a whole. I couldn't help but think about that this week when I read this year' Nobel Peace Prize was being given to the European Union. Now, the Nobel Prize lost some of its luster when it was awarded to President Obama after just a year in office and before he had actually, you know, earned one. That one felt like it was being given because they were sure he would eventually get there. This year's award feels even more gimmicky than that one. Sure, the European Union has prevented World War III from breaking out but they haven't exactly brought the continent totally harmony, either. Not to mention, with Syria and Turkey currently lobbing bombs at one another while the EU remains silent the timing does seem rather curious. I'm just saying that in the future if the Nobel committee can't find someone actually worthy of their award they shouldn't feel compelled to give one out. If the only other option is to reward someone who doesn't deserve it than sometimes just not having a winner that year could be the smarter option.