Motivation Quote by Jennifer Wyatt

Wyatt’s line lands like locker-room realism dressed up as media theory: talent isn’t the full ticket, not even close. “Likeable superstars” is doing the heavy lifting here. Not champions, not record-holders - superstars, the rare athletes whose performance is already public spectacle. Then she adds the second filter: likeable. That one word quietly reframes “the masses” as an audience that doesn’t merely watch excellence; it auditions personalities.

The intent feels pragmatic, almost strategic. Wyatt isn’t romanticizing fandom; she’s naming the gatekeeping mechanism of attention in modern sports. In an era where highlights travel faster than box scores, “get the attention” reads less like applause and more like algorithmic oxygen: endorsements, headlines, broadcast slots, social virality. Likeability becomes a kind of currency that converts achievement into visibility.

The subtext is sharper: mass attention isn’t neutral, and it isn’t earned on merit alone. “Takes” implies a cost or requirement, a toll athletes pay in charisma, palatability, and narrative compliance. The phrase also hints at who gets to be deemed “likeable” in the first place - a judgment shaped by race, gender, accent, class, and how safely an athlete fits the culture’s idea of inspiration versus “attitude.”

As an athlete speaking from inside the machine, Wyatt’s observation carries a faint fatigue: you can be great and still invisible. The masses don’t just crown winners; they crown characters.