What you think about Fred Taylor?

[TwistedHusky]

I always loved to watch the guy run, so even though he was never a Seahawk this story saddens me.

http://www.complex.com/sports/2016/08/f ... g-injuries

If you take what he is saying as truth, kind of a situation where the FO screws over their own player's long term health by deceiving them about the results. So it kind of reminds me of what Kenny Easely always contended, that the doctors knew better. Different activity, different process but both end up with a great player screwed over.

Really sucks for him if true but it is also a big reason why, even though I miss Lynch and consider him one of the greatest Seahawks ever (without him, not sure we end up as patient with Carroll as an example) - I am glad to see him still able to walk away without (hopefully) any lifelong injuries that severely limit him later.

But yeah, watching Taylor break loose was a thing of beauty. Unpleasant to hear what has happened to him.

 

[Tical21]

My third all-time favorite non-local behind Bo and Deion. Once Sunday ticket started, I got it basically just to watch him. Crazy story.

 

[McGruff]

Great all around player and a really good guy. He made it look easy, and I don't think anyone in history was more talented.

But if anyone e is going to be a poster child for how injuries wreck your body, Taylor would be the one. SOOOO many iniuries, especially early in his career. Not shocked at all by the allegations, especially 15+ years ago. Back in the 70s doctors were clueless so I excuse them. But in the 80s and 90s teams were just ruthless and players were just pawns in the game to be used and abused and cast aside.

 

[Popeyejones]

^^^ "Great all around player" is really the perfect way to describe him. He was the type of guy who kind of crept up on you because he made really difficult things look easy.

His son (also an RB) got drafted late by the 9ers this year, although he looks like he's headed to the practice squad at most.

 

[TwistedHusky]

I get that football players make a lot of money (but you could certainly argue that OL & RBs don't make as much compared to the damage we expect them to put on their bodies) but those tweets are a bit heartbreaking.

If nothing else, you wonder if the reason he was always hurt was because he was playing hurt in the first place and they never really did what was necessary to heal him. I mean, if you are playing with serious injuries, unknowingly, you are going to injure other things trying to compensate and you are probably going to do more damage to what was hurt in the first place.

It makes you wonder if that was a contributing factor to why he kept breaking down. Still one of my favorite players to watch that was not a Seahawk.

 

[Popeyejones]

If you enjoy watching football, make sure you really get all the enjoyment out of it you can.

Will any of us be even remotely surprised if at some point in the future people look back at the popularity of boxing through the middle of the 20th century and football spanning into the 21st century and wonder what the **** was wrong with all of us?

Not saying that will happen (things can go MUCH, MUCH worse than an obsession with football), but if it does happen, would any of us be surprised?

I've been wanting to kick my fandom over to basketball for a couple years now, but just can't kick the football habit (too many games; too much start-up cost because I don't know the ins and outs of the game nearly as well; I don't like that it's comparatively less team-based and comparatively less dependent on preparation and strategy; and so on).

 

[TwistedHusky]

Not going to lie.

I think exactly like that.

My neighbor has a son who played for the Huskies. He played safety and came in there at 180 I think, bulked up to 208 or so. Ended up being one of the more physical safeties to the point where I almost started to project him as a LB.

Then they brought in an all everything guy for safety, and he ended up having to move to LB but his body just couldn't handle the weight. I think he was at 225 maybe even 240 at one point.

What I do know is that even at 208 he was always in pain, because he was never 'injured' but he was always injured. He was not even allowed to go see his own doctor, had to use the team doctor.

I love football, and I have to admit I love the violent hits more than I do the great offense. A great hit is better than TD for me. But, you think about what it does to the bodies of the kids playing and wonder as much as I love the sport is it worth it?

I also wonder just how much it affects the brains of those kids who never make the NFL, or even college. And for every kids that spends six hours a day training to try to make a college, there are 6+ kids that did the same thing and didn't get that door to open. Are we better off with a system where to be successful you have to dedicate your life to getting to that level, but only a small % of those that dedicate their life to the sport even make it as a college player?

And the ones that go to college for the sport? Are they prepared for life without football when they don't make the league?

There are a lot of secondary and tertiary costs to the spot in terms of people that are unprepared for anything else if they do not make it, physical damage that follows them through the rest of their life and other issues.

I don't think it will go away, but I think others will look back at the big hit stuff like we look back at football in the 1930s-1950s, people losing teeth, playing with broken bones, and it being more a scrum in the mud than the game we know today. The obsession with inflicting pain and enduring it will give rise to more high level athletic achievement. Ballet on the football field almost.

But for now, the league is trying to have it both ways. Pretending to care about safety and then actively screwing over players whenever possible.

 

[Largent80]

It reminds me of my dirt bike riding days. No matter how hard or what training methods I used (and I tried a lot) I was always injured and my L-4..L-5 has never been the same since.

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

Popeye and Twisted Husky: GREAT posts. And no, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if football eventually dies. I likely will first, but none the less it doesn't look like the game has an enduring future at least as it is played these days.

Popeye: no baseball? I love the game and find it much better than basketball because there is strategy and the like. I played hoops in (small) college but it never had the appeal for as a fan that football and baseball do to this day,.

 

[Largent80]

Mike, football is riding a huge wave of popularity and is going nowhere anytime soon. Even the college game is good. I saw a LOT of good college games last year.

The main problem I see with football are the ticket policies that allow people to make money off of the sale of game seats. There was a guy on FB an hour ago selling $66 tickets in 318 row W for $390 for the pair !!!!!

As long as this continues and get's worse with greed football may go the way of the NBA with nobody caring anymore.

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

Mike, football is riding a huge wave of popularity and is going nowhere anytime soon....

Hope you're right my friend.

 

[mikeak]

Makes you realize how much truth there was in the movie "on any given Sunday"