GatewayRedbirds.com

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13463 ... fl-forever

He retired after one year in the league because he was concerned about brain damage. It's almost all about that, concussions, painkillers, etc but this was also pretty jaw dropping:

SHORTLY AFTER HE was drafted by the 49ers in the third round last year, Borland attended the annual rookie orientation put on by the NFL. The league tries to prepare young players for what to expect on and off the field, and it brought in two prominent retired players to give the rookies advice.

"Get yourself a fall guy," Borland says one of the former players advised. The former player, whom Borland declined to name, told the rookies that if they ran into legal trouble, their designated 
fall guy would be there to take the blame and, if necessary, go to jail. "'We'll bail him out,'" Borland says the former player assured them

Great piece. Typical post-grad experience compounded by really singular circumstances.

One thing that was kind of misleading, or at least confusing, was that picture of him with those girls and a caption that read he's worried about football affecting his own fatherhood. I assumed, naturally it seems, that those were his girls. I suppose they could be, but they look 5 and 7 -ish and he's 24. Then he went to Ireland by himself for three weeks. I would have appreciated a sentence on clarifying that.

Also, the anecdote about the brain scientist and his wife trying to get a reality show out of the concussion drama is interesting/hilarious/depressing.

I'm not sure if it's still available on Netflix or not, but this was the piece that really opened my eyes on this issue:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline ... of-denial/

Now Mike Ditka wouldn't want his child to play football

Football has always been a gladiator sport, but it was still considered a seasonal sport that even a chihauhua like me could play.

Not like my type goes on to college football. But the culture has changed in many places. The # people that steer their kids towards football are getting less.

who will these people be that fill the ranks of big time HS and College programs, then on to the pros? Again, its always been a gladiator sport - and I suspect it will be get even more so.

I was thinking about this when I saw some middle school kids and their coaches out at a McDonalds. Their football uniforms CBC Junior Cadets (an upscale STL private HS). These aren't chubby white kids or the ones would be paying-tuition $15K per kids. the school has to work the inner city/burb athlete pipeline if they can keep bringing home the championships. Something seems off here.

I haven't done the research, but the evolution of the bigger, faster, stronger player has really made the sport dangerous to the point of people not wanting to let their children play.

Back in Ditka's day I've got the feeling running into a 300 lb. guy was few and far between in the NFL. Now you're lucky to find a guy that weighs under 240 lbs. and that's only because he's 6'0" 220 (I'm exaggerating a bit, but you get my point).

How many damaging hits can a man take from 250 lb muscle bound men running at full speed?

ive probably said it a million times, but my interest in the NFL is dwindling fast. If not for fantasy i would have little to no interest at all.

and to your point karp, some have theorized that taking away the players padding, or at least reducing the pads would discourage hard hits.

not exactly sure how true that is or what concussion rates are like in rugby, but i thought it was an interesting take

cardinalkarp wrote: Back in Ditka's day I've got the feeling running into a 300 lb. guy was few and far between in the NFL. Now you're lucky to find a guy that weighs under 240 lbs. and that's only because he's 6'0" 220 (I'm exaggerating a bit, but you get my point).

And when there was a huge guy, he typically was non-athletic. Not anymore. And on D they specialize so they all are fresh.

On the macro cultural side-football is big money. The demand comes from people that have it and wont let their own kids play. The players they woo tend to be from different social background(generalizing, I know).

Do the star football players ever get a chance to grow up? Even at the small podunk college programs I was familiar with, the football teams were full of moron bros, and operated under different set of rules.

Freed Roger wrote:Now Mike Ditka wouldn't want his child to play football

Football has always been a gladiator sport, but it was still considered a seasonal sport that even a chihauhua like me could play.

Not like my type goes on to college football. But the culture has changed in many places. The # people that steer their kids towards football are getting less.

who will these people be that fill the ranks of big time HS and College programs, then on to the pros? Again, its always been a gladiator sport - and I suspect it will be get even more so.

I was thinking about this when I saw some middle school kids and their coaches out at a McDonalds. Their football uniforms CBC Junior Cadets (an upscale STL private HS). These aren't chubby white kids or the ones would be paying-tuition $15K per kids. the school has to work the inner city/burb athlete pipeline if they can keep bringing home the championships. Something seems off here.

Ditka was the one who I remember saying several years ago that the NFL should go back to leather helmets. He was saying how guys launching themselves head first is dangerous. This was like 8-10 years ago when I watched the occasional football game still.

More on the bit about "get yourself a fall guy" has come to light, with video!

Cris Carter told NFL rookies to get 'fall guy' for when they get in legal trouble

According to Borland, someone at his NFL rookie symposium encouraged he and the other rookies to get a "fall guy," basically someone to take the heat if they got in trouble with the law. Not that Borland would lie, but it seemed unbelievable that someone would actually tell NFL rookies to do that at the symposium.

Oh, someone did tell them to do just that. While wearing his Pro Football Hall of Fame jacket: Former NFL receiver Cris Carter.

BroBible.com did a great job to find the video from the symposium, which was displayed on the NFL's website. The video was titled "Rookies learn life lessons from Sapp and Carter." The NFL took it down on Sunday morning but there were versions on the Internet, including some on YouTube.