I Am Pleased to Hear that NFL Players Have Banned Together to Sue

For as long as I can remember, I have stated that though I believe safe football is possible at the high school level, that I do not believe that it is safe beyond that level, such as at the professional level.   Players get too strong and there is too much risk in order for players to have the risk of injury downplayed.

I do not neglect that injury and even death at the high school level is possible, but there is some risk in every sport, such that the line or rules should be drawn somewhere.  In fact, just being alive is a risk, so that the argument of risk may be made be made to the extent of absurdity.  However, the issue is that I don’t believe that there is a single pro player that has not ended up as a cripple, while I have never heard of a player that wound up as a cripple at the high school level.

Maybe it is as if the pro football player’s intelligence is pounded right out of them such that they can no longer think straight at the end of their professional career, and that they get pounded until they are essentially as vegetables, such that the NFL plays them until they are no longer intelligent enough to make a claim against the NFL, which is a process that the NFL may have used in order to prevent their heroes from talking back once they are done.  For example, professional football players are known to have high levels of tau protein, which is associable with dementia.  I am personally familiar with dementia in that my grandmother Nelson had it.  My experience with her was that she would do things like put down several items in front of me and ask me which one was the phone.  Sometimes she forgot what state of the USA she was in.  For example, once she went for a walk thinking that she was in Chestnut Hill, PA, when it was actually Sandwich, PA.  This is the predicament that a lifetime in the game puts players in.

What I do know is this, I have never heard of one high school football player getting crippled, while with respect to professional players to my knowledge they all play until they are cripples.  To me that sounds practically hideous.   Hearing that the league has banded together makes me wonder if the intent of the league is to get young naïve players and cripple them until they are no longer capable of speaking up for themselves.  Take for instance the very successful player Madden that wound up being a football game announcer that was famed for saying moronic things.  My guess is that he acted like this because his career as a football player beat up his mind until dementia was caused.  Thus, it should be assumed that encouraging a pro football player by downplaying risks is done for the sake of increasing damage to players to beat them beyond self recognition.

For years I have advocated not supporting the NFL for this reason: as I have essentially said, I believe football is stupid in that we take our most athletic gifted, and strongest men and smash them together from the beginning of their career, all the way to the end, at which point most of them are hobbled.  My attitude toward this professional sport has been negative, and I often refuse to watch it in protest.  My policy is not to watch it unless you play the game though I admit to having watched and enjoyed things that I would not like to be a part of.  This recent uprising of players has garnered my interest because it is the first time I have ever heard of players complaining about the game.  In fact, after protesting the game as a youth, I finally hit the like button on the New England Patriots Facebook account.  Every interview up to this point that I have heard from pro football players is that they enjoy their jobs, but that is from the television.  Finally, I gave in and hit the like button for the New England Patriots because I was pretty sure that I had ascertained that they thought the game of men beating on other men until they are cripples is fun.  My attitude toward this is very Libertarian.  That is, I feel someone should have the right to their own body to the extent that if they want to risk being a hero through a game of men beating on other men in front of millions of fans, then, who am I to tell them to stop?

I have mentioned the possibility of my son Alex growing up and becoming a pro football player due to his enormous  size.  However, I believe that I have ascertained that that sort of behavior does not fit his personality, and as such I haven’t mentioned football to him in over a year, as far as I recall.  Sure, we might toss the ball around in the yard, and tackle each other, but we try not hurt each other.  However, I do not believe it is his intention to want to hurt other men, which is impossible not to do at the professional level.  However, my Bible says that the way to raise a son is to, “Teach him in his own way,” and what I have learned from my mother is that some people don’t change.  Thus, the only reasonable way to act is to try to teach your son according to his purpose, such that if he wanted to be a professional football player, I would respect him for that.  When a person has made up their mind to the extent that all actions of causing them to see the proverbial Light of your own way of life as good fails, and your son makes it clear time and time again that he wants to be a football player, I do believe that it is reasonable to let the professional sports football league, the NFL that is, continue to assist people in accomplishing their dreams.  However, my Bible also discusses the point of warning people of what they are about to do, such that by downplaying the risk of professional football, I strongly believe that all participants in this crime are liable, including the audience both at home and in the stadium.

I, myself, have never been to a professional football game, such that I do not really know what happens there.  I know that it is possible to make a television screen or radio transmission say anything, such that it is impossible for me to testify as an actual witness.  Thus, it is such that prior to this date, I had heard many stories of professional football players that were crippled, and it is such that I have advocated against professional football, but not to the extent that I believe it should be illegal.  However, this much is certain, anyone found guilty of promoting professional football collisions or anyone found guilty of downplaying the risks of this sport, such that players are coerced into playing should be punished.  I have to admit that as a child under the age of 12, I watched a few games, but I stopped being a fan of the game at the professional level when I heard my first report that retired professional football players are a bunch of cripples.   However, I did desire to play at the high school level, but the opportunity was not available, such that I do not have experience enough even to make a ruling as to whether or not high school football is safe to play.  Yet, I can assure you I would have tried it.  My dad told me that he wanted to play high school football, but his dad forbade him to do that, and he has flip flopped over his opinion on this subject, such that I am unaware of what his current position on the matter is, except that he has watched Penn State to the extent of religiousity for as long as I have known him.  I, however, did not watch, and often found his behavior absurd during these games.  Exactly what he was getting out of these games, I do not know, and he may have even been trying to discourage me from watching football in a roundabout way, as his actions did not make me want to watch the game.

Thus, it is such that I do believe players should not only be warned when they are about to play football, but I also believe that they should be made to understand the extremity of the damages that may occur before engaging in the game if they are adults and if they are intelligent enough to understand.  Likewise, the pervasiveness and degree of damage of injuries that occur throughout most football player’s should be documented for the purpose of warning potential players.  If they are not intelligent enough to understand this document, I would rule that they should be forbidden from playing the game.

As for me, I like baseball.  I believe that it is likely possible to play baseball safely.  If you are a batter, though a pitcher may throw the ball at you, it should be realized that every time one gets in a car and drives that someone could intentionally cause a collision that can kill you.  As driving is potentially lethal, so should playing the game of baseball be legal.  To me it seems impossible to take all the risks out of this world, and as far as baseball goes, though players retire, it does seem possible to me that players could survive a career safely.  For example, a good pitcher knows when to ask when to be taken out of the game, and a good coach does not pitch a pitcher until his arm hurts, respecting that his player knows when it is a good time for him to be taken out of the game.  Though a little pain may be permissible, slavery is forbidden in America, such that players are legally capable of deciding whether or not they want to be relieved.  In fact, I have observed that pitchers that refuse to be communicative often damage their careers by causing the team to lose.  Thus, it is such that if a team desires to win, then it becomes more appropriate to pull a pitcher when his or her arm is sore than in the game of football.  Thus, it is such that not all professional sports are created alike.