Quote:
Originally Posted by absurdplanet
RIP Steve . . .
Another untimely end, far too soon.
It amazes me how many NFL players go before their times in violent circumstances.
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Did you play football at a high level? I don't think "civilians" appreciate the level of violence, and savagery of those who excel at it are capable of. When I made the jump from high school to college it was a trip. I was a great high school player from a not very serious area of the country. Nothing like places like Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Pennsylvania... You know the historic homes of amazing high school ball. Where I was it was more like being in Band. Only I was big fast and strong. And there was a clear line between what us "place holders" who held the team together, started, and did an honorable job doing our best were capable of, and the dudes who just played over their heads. In High School we had one guy like that. In College half the team was that way.
There were just dudes out there who turned off compassion, and empathy completely. They didn't play dirty, they played like if they hit you hard enough you just might turn into a pizza and a pot of gold... And they were going to keep trying until it happened. And if something happened to you, well that's just "how you play the game". And partying with some of these guys was a game of predicting exactly when you had to pull them out of a situation before it went seriously bad. There are no place holders in the pros to watch over these guys. In fact they probably have a "posse" who eggs them on.
Obviously I wasn't going to go any farther, as I wasn't one of those guys, but imagine, the cream of the cream of those guys who make it to the pros... There is a part of them that is capable of stuff you can't imagine. Even quarterbacks. I still think about skinny little Joe Montana when I think of a QB. But most of them are 6'5" 240 these days. And think about how freakin' tough skinny little Joe Montana must have been to survive in the league. We're talking "Rambo would be sitting in the corner weeping" tough.
They aren't like us, and they make their living through violence and intimidation. But once they're off the field there's no ref. And the dude they're intimidating might just be packing heat.