Football players need to tough it out sometimes!

[Fin-Loco]

Guys,
I run a business for a living. I get paid pretty well in comparison to my conterparts at other comparable businesses. When I am sick as a dog or break my leg I still have responsibilities I need to take care of. Understandably, my business is nowhere near as physical as an NFL Players. These guys get paid a crapload of money to play football. So when I hear of Michaels Strahan hurting his pinkie toe, Mcduffie retiring due to his turf toe, Fiedler having back spasms I just really don't care. I am a Dolphan true and true and I care deeply about this team. But, I think somewhere in the last couple of decades Football has become a game of over paid pansies. There are more than enough cases to state the opposite: JT playing with four broken fingers, Zach playing with a neck injury.

But this is what a football player is supposed to do they make a sickening ammount of money to play a game. They have accountants to worry about their money, lawyers to worry about their strip club visits, wives and/or girlfriends to make them food, nutritionists to tell their wives/girlfriends what to make them, trainers to tell them how to lift weights, coaches to tell them how to hit, PR people to tell them what to say, and agents to tell them who to say it to. All they really have to do is apply it on the field. I would go out there and go across the middle to make the catch through traffic for $100,000 a year and be living the dream. These guys get 20 times that much and they b#tch about taking a hit. Oh no you had a big hit their Randy Moss it's not like we dont f#cking pay you 30 times the average fans salary to make that catch. Oh whats that you need to go rest, well ok!

These guys are supposed to be football players not ballerinas. They are modern day gladiators. I missed the part in Gladiator when Maximus left the Colliseum because he had turf toe.


:fire:

 

[ckparrothead]

Or the part where Maximus' turf toe doesn't allow him to run or jump very fast and he therefore gets killed in the Colliseum by an inferior opponent.

 

[eltos_lightfoot]

There is a little tendon underneath your big toe. You can feel it if you take off your shoe and rub there. In my sports injuries class, we studied many injuries. Including what level of pain various injuries cause. Turf toe caused more pain than ACL tears and the like. Think about it, you use your big toe to walk, get up out of a chair, and about a million other actions. And for every one of them it hurts. It kills. I say this because McDuffie played through many other injuries, and was a loyal player on the field.

Also, the players usually want to play. It is the trainers and doctors that tell them they can't. Moreover, they will try to gut it out by not telling them about it, hoping for one more year in the sun. However, their performance suffers to the point where the undrafted camp bodies are beating them, so they retire.

Are there some wusses out there? Yeah. But I would like to think that we are smart enough in the 21st century to avoid the Mike Webster's.

 

[Pink_Dove]

Oh no you had a big hit their Randy Moss it's not like we dont f#cking pay you 30 times the average fans salary to make that catch

They are pampered and loved by millions of fans just like us..We pay for the tickets, the jerseys, the souvenirs...They are the entertainers, we are the entertained...You must remember football is before anything else a business..If Randy's toe is bothering him well he has to sit out because the Vikes don't want to lose him for an extended period of time...Everything is calculated..They can afford to bitch and to demand rest...They don't NEED to be modern day gladiators...
Nevertheless even if they did play with 4 broken fingers or a twisted ankle does that make them gladiators?

No Way! These guys play a game...A tough game but still a game..They aren't forced (as gladiators) to get on the field..These guys get payed a lot to do what they love..As u said they are extremely lucky...We portray them as gladiators but they really aren't...They don"t risk their lives every day (except for those coke sniffing fools) and they certainly don't live in caves and have to face lions every sunday...
I love football but i still see it as a game...an entertaining game...where men like us through hard work and gifted physical attributes get to play football and demonstrate all the talent they have on sunday...

 

[MarinoFan4Life]

I don't think anyone that hasn't played in the NFL can understand what the body goes through in NFL football. I think that more often than not, they tough it out. My main point would be watching Byron Leftwich hobble down the field with a broken leg, or watching his teammates carry him to the LOS (not NFL... but the next best thing)... Incredible display of toughness... I would say relax. They get paid a lot of money, but their bodies endure more on any given sunday than most of ours EVER will in our life.

 

[eltos_lightfoot]

Well said Pink_Dove!

 

[Muck]

Originally posted by MarinoFan4Life
I don't think anyone that hasn't played in the NFL can understand what the body goes through in NFL football. I think that more often than not, they tough it out. My main point would be watching Byron Leftwich hobble down the field with a broken leg, or watching his teammates carry him to the LOS (not NFL... but the next best thing)... Incredible display of toughness... I would say relax. They get paid a lot of money, but their bodies endure more on any given sunday than most of ours EVER will in our life.

I agree. Look at Mark Schlereth. He had a great career. And because he's articulate and intelligent, he was able to get an analyst job with ESPN.

But the guy had so many surgeries is unbelievable. He can barely walk now. And it's only going to get worse. He knew it while he was playing and gutted it out. He kept going because he loved the game and loved his teammates.

Still, I think he got every penny he deserved. Because lord knows it's gonna be tough for him to make a living down the road....not being able to walk and all.

A few years ago, I heard Steve Young(?) say that the NFL acknowledges that every player (who plays a decent amount of time) leaves the game with at least spinal column compression and arthritis. If they were paid the average man's wage.....I wouldn't think it'd be too long before lawyers starting suing for "pain and suffering" and other injuries.

Like MF4L said, most of us cannot imagine what their bodies go thru. Ricky said similar words on his site last year. He noted just how hard it is to get out of bed Monday morning. How much your body aches.

You mentioned pinky toes, fingers, and turf toe. Fact is, most guys play thru that stuff and far worse. (Even if they don't play thru Turf Toe (which is very painful), it generally ends their careers [Jack Ham, Deion Sanders, O.J.]). But you don't say anything about THEM breaking a leg. Only you. Somehow, I think you'd find a way to "play thru" a broken leg at the office. :)

But they sit out many times because.....

1) The team's future depends on this player's long term ability

2) Players know time is limited. And as soon as they stop performing at a high level, they're out. They must prolong their careers as far as possible.

Finally, most guys DON'T b*tch about taking a hit. They know they're lucky and they love the game. They are expected to play thru pain and unreasonable injury. It's only a small minority who wine. Squeeky wheel gets the oil. Oil = media attention

This thread is yet another "Professional Athletes Are Overpaid" rant. And therefore, I'm going to have to move it.

 

[M-REAL]

I think some of the posters here don't realize how much pain these guys have to endure and the beatings they take also. The only thing I have to gripe about is the differences between college football players/ vs. NFL players. IMO, it seems that the college players play the game harder and most of them, with more heart and desire and they don't even get paid(except scholarships of course). Now if ya want to argue the business aspect of it okay but the nfl players gettin paid all that money should play with more heart and desire like most of the college players do. That, IMO, is the difference between them.