Terry Mosher
Others, including Larry Stone of the Seattle Times, are jumping on the bandwagon that is taking a second look at the NFL and the dangers associated with playing in the league. It is something I have written about for some time now.
Research over the past several years has zeroed in on what concussions can do to the brain, and what the constant battering that goes on along the defensive and offensive fronts of teams can do to those players.
Benji Olson, who started out playing football at South Kitsap and went on to play at Washington and offensive guard with the Tennessee Titans, once told me that on every play the collisions were like two cars traveling 65 miles an hour and hitting each other head on. Do that for 10 years with the Titans as he did and there is bound to be consequences at some point in his life.
The sad part is that most players go willingly into the NFL even though they know those consequences. So while players are making millions they also know they are risking series injury now and in the future.
Marshawn Lynch, the battering ram who is the star running back for the Seahawks, is at the center of hero worship now. There is no question he is one tough dude (growing up in the worse parts of Oakland will do that to you) who loves the contact and loves to run over people.
You and many others marvel at him and cheer like crazy for him. But I wonder where you and the others will be in 30 years when Lynch is 57 and most likely not know where he is but also who he is.
Lynch is a hero now but whose fool will he be later.
I don’t think there is any amount of money that would entice me to play football. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I could be bought. But I doubt it.
There was once upon a time that I did play football. And I loved it. I was always fearful when I took the field and stayed that way until I got hit a few times. That would get my blood roiled up and with tears streaming down my cheeks I would get tough. Game on.
But it’s a game that is violent and allows for you to legally blast somebody. On the street if you did that you would be thrown in jail and the key thrown away.
Now, as players have gotten bigger, stronger, quicker, and faster the game is much more dangerous then it was when I played. I am addicted to the game as I always have been, and can’t wait for Sunday to watch the games. However, my throat catches and my breath is taken away whenever I see a player who is down and can’t get up. I never know whether the hit that put him there is the one that will end his life as he knows it. And in those moments, I wish for football to go away.
Stone ended his column by acknowledging that no matter what he writes the games will go on. Forbes a year ago estimated the NFL is worth $35 million. That is how much the 32 teams are collectively worth.
If you wanted to make a bid to buy the NFL it would take about $20 billion. The league takes in $6 billion a year.
Bottom line, the league is not going away. There is too much money involved for the team owners and the league itself to dissolve just because a few players get crippled or die (some by their own hand) and many others wind up in wheelchairs in their 50s. Go to Canton, Ohio for the annual Hall of Fame induction and you will see former NFL stars wheeling around in their wheelchairs.
The bottom, bottom line is guys like Stone and me are shouting into a hurricane force wind. Those who do hear us will shrug it off and, like Stone finished in his column, grab the chips and turn on the TV to watch the games.
It will always be like Mad Magazine’s main character Alfred E. Neuman, whose signature comment was, “What, me worry?”
No, you don’t have to worry. You are safe on your couch.
But the NFL players?
I easily can see why former Seahawk John Moffitt hung up his cleats last week. He still loves the game, but no longer could justify the risk. He weighed what he was making against the risk and decided he was done.
Good for him.
Jonathan Martin
And this silly debate going on over what happened in the Miami Dolphins lockeroom between Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin is almost laughable. C’mon, stuff like that goes on in lockerooms in every sport. You put 50 players in an enclosed room, that’s a lot of testosterone.
You expected tea and crumpets?
I was around the Seattle Mariners’ clubhouse for nearly 30 years. It was pretty mild compared to what happens in an NFL lockeroom with guys who are six-foot-six and 380 pounds and waiting to feast on the enemy. You can almost see them frothing at the mouth as they wait the opening whistle.
And you really did expect tea and crumpets?
I’m surprise that many more fights, much more bullying hasn’t leaked out to the general public.
Bullying is something that goes on everywhere to a certain degree. I don’t condone it. There is a huge awareness of that in the public school system, and any sign of it is quickly extinguished.
But in general you are talking about guys with hair growing out of their ears playing in the NFL where God only knows what they take to reach maximum effort and destruction on the gridiron.
And, remember, these guys are not your average Joe. They have been pumping iron for years and could wrap one huge arm around you and squeeze you until all the life is gone from you.
So, tea and crumpets?
Yeah, right.
For some reason, this discussion reminds me of Joey Cora. I’m sure you remember little Joey crying in the Mariners’ dugout after the team was eliminated from the post-season by the Cleveland Indians. Women everywhere, including my wife, were smitten by little Joey, and I’m thinking it’s a good thing that’s all they know about Joey.
Joey Cora was as feisty and as tough with a filthy mouth as you could get when he played. He was not like he seemed. Not that he was a bad guy. He was a good guy. But he could be tough on the ears when he spoke.
Again, we are talking about lockerooms where testosterone spills over everywhere. That’s why the famous line that advertises Las Vegas is used in clubhouses and lockerooms everywhere – what goes on here, stays here.
So to say that the Incognito-Martin incident is an isolated incident is not fair, nor is it being honest. Things go in clubhouses and lockerooms that never get aired. They are like private clubs where the unthinkable can happen, and often does.
And if you think Martin can go back to the Dolphins, I want to know what you are smoking. He walked out on his team. He did not stand up like a hyped-up testosterone man would. He’s about as welcomed back there as a Hurricane in south Florida.
Will another team welcome him?
I’m not sure. He would have to prove his toughness to them, that’s for sure. It might be better for him to take the Moffitt option.
As for Incognito, I would think he would be welcomed by every team in the NFL. He’s tough – maybe a little too crude and cruel – but, hey, this is the NFL we are talking about where violence is acceptable in almost any form.
Will the Dolphins take him back? I’m pretty sure the players would want him back. But will the owner risk the public relations hit he might take? Not sure.
So it goes in the NFL, a sport where the Davids and Goliaths battle and the paying customers flock to supersized stadiums build mostly on public money to pay out their hard-earned money to experience the thrill of the battering.
Only in America.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.