I want everyone, in the wake of Junior Seau's apparent suicide, to stop vilifying the NFL. Seau, as you know, was a former pro bowl standout with the Chargers before making two more career stops in Miami and finally New England. Here's my take. Nobody made Junior Seau or Dave Duerson play such a violent game. Nobody made Seau or Duerson or any of the other deceased football players play a game that could ultimately shorten their life span. NFL football is the ultimate deal with the devil; a shortened life span for the opportunity to play a game that you love. A game that will more than likely cripple you but make you financially comfortable if you steer clear of its many trappings and excesses. If there is a magic bullet to stop the brutality of the sport of football from turning brains to mush, I'd like to hear it. And that's the point.... there is no panacea in terms of player safety in the NFL. The only way for the NFL to ensure that CTE related tragedies like Dave Duerson don't occur is to limit the years that their employees give to the game. Now we all know that isn't going to happen, don't we? You can restrict violent hits and you can reconfigure helmets but football is and always be a violent game. It was violent in its early days and it's violent now. The only difference between say, the era of Butkus and Buffone is the fact that the evolution of social media and television has made the league more image conscious.
Before ESPN and before the advent of cable, and before the advent of social media, teams could play dirty with their hired guns without the fear of some news outlet exposing the logistics of a game that is still as cut throat as it ever was. The only difference is that the NFL has better spin control and better spin control means not allowing you and I to witness the murkier side of the business. For every Seau and every Duerson and every Mike Webster there's a kid out there with the talent to make it to the NFL. And that young star will sacrifice himself and his body and his overall lifespan to play a game he loves and to get handsomely rewarded for doing it. And sadly, that young man will probably wake up in his fifties, far from the brights light of the gridiron, and his body will remind him of all that he gave up for the game of football. There will be more Seau's and and more Duerson's and more Websters. And there will be men lining up to take their place and after those young men are bashed into crippled hulks... the cycle will repeat itself. This is the reality of the NFL. No image conscious commissioner can stop the inevitable cycle of football life. No overpaid lab geek can stop the vicious cycle of life in the NFL by creating new helmets and what not. The death of Junior Seau isn't a cause to burn the NFL in effigy. If you want to castigate the NFL, castigate it for being inflexible to the needs of those former employees who want nothing more than decent health care and a fair slice of a financial pie that is more than big enough to spread around. You know what Junior Seau's death is? It's a sobering reminder about the the game we all love, the game of football. It's a moment to pause and remember just how much those guys we cheer for on Sunday sacrifice for sixteen weeks a year every year. The game of football is poetic, it is Americana personified. But it's also cruel. While one of its most accomplished members lies in a morgue, the cycle goes on and the wheels keep on turning and the money keeps on flowing and someone younger and talented steps in to fill the void. It's just the way it is.... it's the NFL.
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