It's amazing to see how much respect they have/had for each other and each others work.
Basically on the level of that guy you worked with in a previous job that you're not really going to put in the effort to reach out to as much as you both said you would.
Personally I dont see them not being friends as something bad, they definitely respect each other and their respective skills, they just don't have compatible characters.
Its actually a great example of how people who dont 'gel' can work and create amazing things together, as long as they are capable of communicating respectfully with each other.
As soon as the game/practice was over, the players would snap into a completely different kind of person, and go back to their own private lives, which was very unlike the college environment where the players spent almost all their waking hours together always during the season.
It took me a while to realize that the NFL players were just doing what most people do when they ‘grow up’ and become professionals—they were colleagues, not necessarily friends.
I know that there’s good reasons why this happens, but I can’t help but feel that there’s a bit of tragedy in it. We gain personal freedoms as we mature into these types of professional relationships, but lose that unique experience of ultimate comrade-ery, and descend into a ruthless world of competition, even with others on your own team.
A working relationship is just something different. There is still emotion, because we're human. But more than anything, there's mutual trust and respect.
I have very deep and emotional connections with my family and with my friends, who I trust deeply and call on (and am called upon by) daily. But I wouldn't necessarily trust them with a technical project or start a small business with them or something in that realm.
Meanwhile the small startup I work with just released an app yesterday, one with lots of difficult problems that we worked through together to resolve over the past two years. I have such a thorough trust and respect for every member of that team - technical and not. I wouldn't call any of them for a personal issue.
I have friends who fall into both categories, but they are few and far between.
There's nothing wrong with these relationships, and there's nothing more or less valuable to them. They just work differently and for different reasons. I don't need to be my colleague's best person at their wedding or pall bearer at their sibling's funeral for us to have a long and solid relationship building amazing things. I don't need to start a business with my wife or teach my kid how to program for us to have full lives together.
It's not all competition and ruthlessness.
Especially in today's more divided environment it's a nice example people can get on well, be professional and productive and they don't have to do this based on whether they like each other personally.
It kinda comes down to good manners and courtesies. I feel these are far more important for society than we give them credit for.