"...And How Tough Are You?"

Yesterday I wrote of people who identify themselves as being part of their favorite team by saying 'we'. Such people are often the same ones I am thinking of today. There are some awfully vile people out there, and not to be overlooked are those who speak stridently about things of which they know nothing. Such people are often extremely good at making decisions for other people- very harsh decisions which do not affect them and which they would not ever make for themselves.

A going concern in the popular discourse these days is that of health concerns in athletics. For whatever reason, professional football in particular is more injurious to those who play it than it seems to ever have been before. There is an epidemic of severe concussion and other injuries, and people are evidently of two minds on the matter. Sometimes they have the right attitude, expressing alarm at what's happening and frustration at the ineffectual response or lack of any response by the authorities. Other times, they have a stunningly ignorant attitude about it.

I have played football a little- mere pickup games of flag football, or maybe one hand or two hand touch. I have found football to be a very tough game, and I consider myself to be in no position to call out professional athletes for cowardice if they decline to play following an injury incurred on some play where they have been absolutely blown up by a devastating hit. Other people feel differently. It's so very easy to make decisions for someone else that impact their earning ability and indeed their very life, isn't it? I don't do that. When I have sustained injuries of even a mild nature, I did not feel up to doing so much as checking the mail. When I have been in car accidents, I felt gunshy about driving for weeks.

I don't claim to know what it's like to play sports at such a level and endure the wear and tear which eventually breaks down even a player who miraculously avoids severe injury, but my bet is that it is worse than I think and not better. The players are compensated beyond any ordinary person's wildest dreams, but it's a brutal profession. They have every right to do what they must to protect themselves, because God knows no one else will, least of all fans who sit at home eating wings and managing the feat of thinking they're owed anything in the bargain. I think very little of such people.