There are many big topics that are floating throughout the general sports waves of my life right now, none more prevalent than….BUM BUM BUM!!!!!! The dangers of football. This is sort of a big problem apparently. The national sports media can’t seem to get enough of it. It seems like this view that football is too dangerous for its own good is gaining momentum. I’m just a man with a brake pad.
Before you put words in my press, listen closely… I’m not going to say that concussions/injuries are not a problem in football. (I heard they were also a big problem in jousting back in the day too, but this is about big bad fuh-ball). All I seem to hear these days from media heads is that parents should not let their child play this brutal sport. I mean, they don’t even wear helmets in football!!! Oh they do? Dang, I’m thinking about that gladiator game rugby again. I always get those two confused. But still!!! Football is pretty scary!!!
I don’t want to be misunderstood. Football is obviously not meant for everyone. But to deny a kid the opportunity to put on incredible looking shoulder pads and pretend to be Emmitt Smith if that’s what he wants to do, is a little mean. Sure there are risks. That’s why you practice. That’s why you lift weights and run sprints. That’s why studies are done year after year showing how much water is necessary to drink in order to stay hydrated. We as a society have made huge strides in understanding the human body and it’s limitations. For every sad story about an old football player who suffered severe brain damage from a concussion, there are hundreds of stories about guys who reminisce their greatest moments on the gridiron over beers with friends. Many refer to these times as the greatest days of their lives. While that may be sad in itself, it does not change the fact that football has been good to the majority of the people who played.
I participated in football in high school. I was recruited heavily as a quarterback by Pete Carroll at USC, but instead I chose to study business at the local Community College. (That last sentence was mostly a lie, but bear with me). I had an unusual romance with the game. Football is responsible for some of my best and worst days in high school. I wasn’t the fastest the guy. Actually, I was the slowest, a tortoise of an eleventh grader you could say. (Coach Carroll probably would have had me stay in the pocket mostly). If you have ever been on a football field in 90 degree heat, in full pads, with the power to end a notably difficult practice for your team, this may make sense. My only responsibility was to run 100 yards, touch the end zone line, and run all the way back, and dammit don’t jump off sides. The problem is that I no longer had the power to acknowledge any part of my body beneath the torso. The whole team was watching, as I, the slowest of all, ran alone for 200 yards straight. Some teammates cheered me on. Some shook their heads in doubt. Others prayed for violent lightening. But the whistle blew and I ran. Dizzy and afraid, I ran. I crossed the 50 yard line. Whew, still going. Quarter of the way through. After I broke the plain and turned back, I got a sense that some higher power had taken control of the muscles in my legs. They flailed forward uncontrollably. My knees weren’t even really bending. This isn’t real life anymore, it’s eternity in Hades, and the only job is to run. The dizziness is blinding. It literally takes 10 seconds to cover every 5 yards. It’s just silly. But on my trek I continue, and with the weight of my teams afternoon resting squarely upon my shoulders, I finished. Hot, and alone, I finish. Teammates cheer, and some of them whispered totally inappropriate threats of what would have happened to me if I hadn’t. I did it. I saved the day. Kind of. The only reason we were all in that situation in the first place was because I had jumped off sides at least four times during practice that day. The whole team had already been forced to run extra due to my lazy listening skills.
I say all of this to point out that football is an absurd and hard sport. There were days I thought I would die, either by suicide or natural causes. I hated it more than anything. I told my dad I wanted to quit, and he told me that men finish what they start. So I continued, and eventually I was engaged. I was on a mission with my teammates to get better each day, and I learned to love the game. Nothing helped me learn what my own capabilities were more than playing football. My words may sound cliche and overstated, but this game is good. Football is good exactly the way it is.
Right now, there are former NFL players threatening to sue the league for brain damage. Who exactly is responsible for that? Is it the NFL? For providing us a wonderful league that entertains us on Sunday’s? Maybe it’s the players for volunteering their lives to a game that they love? Nobody is forcing these guys to play at this level. The NFL compensates their players very well for the risks that they take. I’m just confused about why people are surprised that there are some negative effects later in life from playing football for two straight decades. Regular people don’t play that long. I played for like five years. The injuries are part of it. We ask 18 year old kids to go to war for a cause that many of them don’t understand. But these are freakishly athletic adults, who played football for a living by choice and we feel bad for them? That was their job. They could have been astronauts if they wanted to. (Although after watching that Apollo 18 movie…. astronaut seems scarier than football player). If I wanted to play a sport that involved no courage or risk of injury in school, I would have bowled. I played football because I knew that not everyone would do it. It was the “manly” thing to do, and I have always been a fan of painting myself in the most manly of lights. I also just assumed that pretty ladies would magically flock to me like I was wearing Old Spice. While that may or may not have been the case, all I knew was that they weren’t flocking all over the bowling team.
I just don’t understand all the fuss. This injury thing is nothing new. Football is the same as it’s always been. Except now wide receivers can run over the middle and jump up as high as they want to catch the ball without any true consequence, and quarterbacks get fifteen free yards for getting popped in the helmet (!!!!!…. That’s right, helmet. Those things that protect the head!). That’s why the top 4 or 5 quarterbacks in the NFL right now are hammering out records and breaking all-time numbers every week. This proves that the game has already been altered to try to fix some of the issues that these retirees are complaining about. When most of the old men suing the league played, there was no penalty for chop blocking. There have been changes already. Trust the process. You can’t protect children from every potential danger in the world. Let the kids play.
Naked Bootleggers 