Politics & Power Quote by Curt Flood

Flood’s genius here is that he delivers the American dream as a locker-room pep talk, then twists the knife with a weary grin. The sentence piles up in that very American way: “worked hard enough and tried hard enough” (as if one “hard enough” isn’t already the point), then the comic self-help vulgarity of “kicked yourself in the butt.” It’s funny, approachable, almost corny. That’s the trap. He’s mimicking the language people use to police their own disappointment.

Then comes the turn: “Well, I think I did, I think I did.” The repetition isn’t just emphasis; it’s self-cross-examination. Flood isn’t bragging. He’s building a moral receipt. If the bargain was effort in exchange for success, he’s presenting proof of payment. Which makes the real target obvious: when someone like Flood still has to fight for basic agency, the dream isn’t broken by laziness or lack of grit. It’s broken by the terms.

Context matters: Flood, an elite MLB player, challenged the reserve clause that bound players to teams like property, a stance that cost him dearly in money and career momentum but helped crack open free agency. So the subtext is a rebuke to a system that sells meritocracy while enforcing control. Coming from an athlete, it lands harder because sports are supposed to be the cleanest meritocracy we have: perform, and you rise. Flood is saying he performed. The real contest was never just on the field. It was against the mythology that tells you the rules are fair, right up until you ask to be treated as free.