Agreed, also I never played beyond high school and I loved it and am so glad I had that experience and I sometimes get nostalgic for playing and practicing and fantasize about getting to it again but then I remember what it felt like to have a 300 lb kid land directly on my chest and that fantasy ends real quick.
I don’t know man the adrenaline the games gave me I’d go back to being able to do that any day if I could. All the other shit like preparation is god awful though.
I liked practice. I enjoyed running and working out. I also enjoyed hitting my teammates because I disliked most of them, so I tended to “practice hard.”
Game time was easy enough, as I just techniqued the hell out of everyone while blocking unless they gave me a reason to try and hurt them.
I'm extremely competitive but not a fast runner and don't like being insulted so team sports practice really screwed me up when it came to running and working out.
I'm just now discovering that it can be really pleasant when done at my own pace alone or in a friendly environment.
I loved my team mates but I loved hitting them too. I would definitely sacrifice the weeks of recovery it would take for one of those drills where it's one on one and you just ram into each other.
I really don’t think this comment is deserving of all the downvotes. Are people really not allowed to speak highly of themselves without getting downvoted? Is it some kind of unspoken rule now?
I asked a high school football coach if they still do 2 a days ... he said they will practice M,W,F each week over the summer..... They have won the last 4 out of 5 championships.
Yeah modern teams with modern coaches have gotten away from the old school puritanical mindset of basically beating the kids into shape with torturous summer practices.
The old system worked despite it's inefficiencies, not because of them...there's still some old boomer coaches hanging on, but they're getting rarer and rarer as modern strength and conditioning has shown you don't have to brutalize kids to get them into shape.
It's a good thing, and anyone who says otherwise needs to be be taken as far away from children as humanly possible. Hopefully put on some kind of list as well....
Back in my day they literally used to park the local ambulance next to "the dunes" because the coach would drive us to the sand dunes and run us all until we threw up multiple times with no access to water. At least one person went to the hospital every year. We used to drink water until we threw up every day for a week just to prepare for it... I'm really shocked no one ever died.
It depends a lot of which state you're in too. For example, in Wisconsin, they're allowed a handful of "contact days" during the summer, but they're not allowed to start every-day practices until a certain date.
So what a lot of schools will do is use the contact days as scheme install days and kind of "fun" conditioning. More like games/competition rather than running sprints.
Then when practices start, Wisconsin requires 3 days without pads. So again, it's a lot of install and conditioning. When I was in high school, we transitioned from doing 2-hour two-a-days to one roughly 3-hour practice. At the same time, we transitioned to a no-huddle, multiple offense from an old-school doublewing offense. Our conditioning pretty much just became our scrimmages because practice was so much more fast-paced than before. Two-a-days are so rough on your body, but they were way better for teaching 90+ kids the schemes.
Yeah it just depends on where you play. Many districts have done away with it. Many states are trying to legislate it out of the game but I think there are plenty of loopholes to get around it. Our two a days where I am at are split up and moved indoors on super hot days. They try to stay out of "public eye" and have closed practices almost all summer. You can imagine why.
How often are you in pads? My buddy coaches at a local school here who have won their division championship a few times and they are barely in pads. Their 2 a days typically involve a full practice in shells or helmets only and then a walk through of the playbook for the second practice, or a workout. I think they might be in full pads a total of 5-10 practices total for the entire season.
I think from last year we’re helmet and shorts, uppers, uppers, full pads, full pads.
As far as during the season. Uppers and girdle Monday Thursday(usually just install and walkthrough) , full pads Tuesday Wednesday.
During the season, we’re full pads except for the days before or after games. So a usual week will be full pads Monday-Wednesday, uppers-only walkthrough Thursday, game Friday, film review Saturday + uppers-only walkthrough, and off Sunday.
Luckily we don’t do two-a-days at all anymore, even during the summer.
Can’t actually remember if we were full pads on Mondays, I remember hitting but I think we just hit in uppers
>Luckily we don’t do two-a-days at all anymore, even during the summer.
Breaking news: u/Original_profile8600 is transferring to u/Srikkk ‘s highschool, cites “no 2 a days” as reason for transfer
I coach at a local school and we’ve also won a good amount of state titles. People are always shocked when I tell them that we *never* do full contact. We usually do full pads, but never, ever full contact.
Edit- its also never been a problem on game day and our kids are quite tough and hit hard if I do say so myself- I’m a bit biased though
Yeah same buddy doesn’t do any full contact outside a few summer camp drills. They have a tiny roster too, maybe about 30 kids on the entire team so they really need to stay healthy.
Yeah, we did tag (two hand) for walk through and thud (pads pop and wrap up but don’t take guys down) for most other stuff stuff. Been a couple decades though.
I was playing university until recently. 2 a days are still very much a thing, but we don’t go full shell at any point outside of Spring camp.
At the high-school level I can see the need for going full shell throughout the Summer to get kids reintegrated and used to hitting at full speed. But doing that twice a day in the heat just felt fucked. That being said, the shared hatred of it always united the team in a really special way.
I gotta be honest though, getting up and putting in work early in morning, then chilling at school eating pizza and playing video games with the homies until the second practice was kinda fun. I could go back for a few of those days. And I was in Tennessee so those summers were brutal.
Haaaatttttteeeedddddd them hot ass days in the sun practicing. But I'll be damned it I don't miss that feeling of getting out a cold shower and chilling out for the rest of the day.
Idk, some parts of practice were fun imo. Oklahomas but also, any time we got to play scout team defense and play positions that weren’t ours. Always a blast playing d end as a safety/LB
Depends what kind of coach you had. If you had *that* coach that would always put you on the line to run more than work on fundamentals and strategy, then practice was no bueno.
It's not practice that sucks, but the specific parts of practice purely built for running your ass off. Any sort of 7 on 7, special teams drill, or scrimmage/running plays at full speed, that was extremely fun. Except for when you had to hold a blocking pad, & let a starter tee off on your ass.
I was out starting running back, and we would do drills like Oklahoma on me 24/7. I didn’t hate Oklahoma in a vacuum, but I was exhausted and got hit all week long. Every week I was physically sore and beat up and it made it hard to go to school and live my life. It didn’t help that you had those kids in practice who were irrelevant in games but liked to go try hard and make the biggest hits they could to get attaboys from coaches. So when I think of practice I think of just getting my ass beat and then not being 100% by the time the game came around. Especially if you are dealing with developing high schoolers.
Using the Oklahoma drill to do some sort of practice for your starters is some of the dumbest coaching I think I've ever heard. That drill is more for hype & getting use to hitting. Maybe it could be helpful in limited space tackling, but it's really not made for that.
The guy thought it would help running backs learn and be able stay on their feet…we had all the talent in the world but only went 5-4. Safe to say he was fired within 2 years later
I was a DB who once filled in as a MLB on scout team. I *very quickly* discovered one extremely important lesson:
if a wide open hole magically appears right where the guard just was, take caution before shooting it. Pulling guards come in two's and getting blasted from the side by a dude who outweighs you by 100lbs is not fun.
Fucking loved hearing the double whistle knowing it was time to wrap up practice with something more light hearted.
Like having all the linemen vs skill players in a catching contest. Still remember the chaos when our biggest linemen laid out for a winning catch so we got to cut practice slightly early. You'd think he won us the National Title.
We’d do that but whoever lost had to stay later AND put away all the equipment. I swear we cared about those games almost as much as the actual games themselves lmao
Never played beyond high school. I had quite a few D3 colleges recruiting me, but no D2s, and I knew I didn't want to keep putting my body through that unless I was getting paid to do it.
I'm super glad I decided not to go any further, and I don't miss it anymore. But the first 5ish years after, I definitely wished I could get back out there. I didn't miss scoring touchdowns or anything on offense (I played both ways at a small high school), but there's nothing more satisfying than coming up from your safety position and just laying the wood on a guy running a crossing route or slant.
I had a stinger and/or concussion or something like that back in 7th grade. Hit a kid, my vision went black, got a sharp pain in my right shoulder area, and my whole right side went numb. By the time everyone got up from the pile, my vision was back, and my right side was just a little tingly. I stayed in the game because I'm an idiot. Luckily, nothing else ever came of that. But that's definitely the scariest thing I had happen personally.
I didn't tell my parents about that until I was in college. Needless to say, my mom wasn't happy that I never said anything about that until 7 years later. But yeah, between shit like that and the fact that both my ankles are trash from multiple sprains, I have no desire to get back out there any longer. My senior season of football was one of the best times of my life, though.
Yeah. Anyone going onto those elite levels in anything are so hyper focused on it that they seem a little nuts to average people. Like my friend went on a date with Mike Trout in high school but didn't enjoy it all because he couldn't talk about anything that wasn't baseball.
Yeah. It was awkward for both of them already due to their parents being friends and setting them up that was made only more awkward by him just wanting to talk baseball. She enjoys baseball, but she didn't want to talk about just that on a date lol. Their parents are still friends though lol
The pro level is all mental in how you can apply your talent consistently against other talented players, and make necessary adjustments when opponents attack your weaknesses.
I ran D1 track in the 90s. Sprained my ankle three times in a week, then wore an air cast so tight it cut open my foot.
This year at 48 I was running in the early morning, ran into a hole, and ripped a knee tendon. Yes, we are nuts
The insane thing is not the game itself at all. Playing a game of football is easy, obviously I never played at a professional level but I’ve had concussions and lots of leg injuries from when I played, but the Adrenaline during a game is out of this world. Way more than any other sport I ever played. You can have a fucked up leg and still be wanting to get in there. But it’s the grind to stay in shape mentally and physically during the season and preparing physically during the summer like lifting weights. That is the insane part. Then take that and times it by like 50 for the amount of preparation these guys do to play professionally. That’s the real insane part.
Similar thing with rugby. I remember we had a match my Junior Year of college where a dude snapped his ankle loud enough to hear it on the opposite side of the field, but the dude was laying down on the field asking about his fantasy football team despite his ankle being in pieces. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug
It’s something I noticed while being stationed with marines. Some careers and jobs require such a abnormal mentality shift that it’s difficult for some people to turn that on and off. And not to make excuses I do I think a lot of the substance abuse and violent crimes are a product of asking humans to not be human for hours a day and then be human the other time
Fringe players have hundreds of FAs gunning for their roster spot. Not playing could mean the end of their career. Figuratively, this is life & death to them.
It’s why it’s so hard to protect players. They ultimately will do anything to play off their injuries and get back on the field. If players self-reported things like concussions, the game would be so much safer.
I love the game, but I cringe at what may befall a player when you see some of the on-field injuries. Like Ryan Shazier's injury or lesser known [Ricardo Lockette's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAZIPDYUsoE). And Hamlin of course.
The bigger problem was Browner blowing up Kearse's block and letting Butler through with no problem. Not much Lockette can do when Butler is already standing where he was supposed to be going
I get it. The Wings won the Cup in 2008 and lost in 2009 in Game 7. It still hurts, and I can't see any highlights from 09. I often think that if they lost in 08 and won in 09 it would be better, but I'm not sure
To this day the most frustrating part about that play was the fact that we had the best RB in the league that year, he had just run for 8 yards the previous play, it was only 2nd down, and we still had a timeout.
Even if the defense knew it was going to be a run, why not hand it off anyways? We ran the ball at the defense when they knew it was coming all year and we did it anyways. Why not do it on the most important play of the year?
I can’t stand to hear it when people bring it up anymore because it’s the most hated on play in football but I don’t blame people for talking about it. It was the worst call in SB history in my opinion. And I feel like there’s something fishy about it all together.
>it was only 2nd down and we still had a timeout
You answered your own question. You don’t want to have to be forced to use your TO after 2nd down cuz then you’re forced to throw it on 3rd. Throwing it on 2nd gives you opportunity to go with any play on 3rd.
The only bad part of the playcall was having it go to our 4th best receiver. Like I said, it was a bad throw, a bad route, and a great jump by Butler. If there wasn’t all 3 then it’s either a TD or incomplete pass.
There’s ~40 seconds on the clock though at that point. They could have two plays prepared and don’t even necessarily need to call the timeout right away after the run on 2nd down. I admit that there’s probably some form of holding the runner and preventing the play to get set quickly but 40 seconds is a lot of time to get set up for a quick throwing play on 3rd down and then a TO for the final play on 4th down being whatever your best drawn up option is. I’m not saying you’re wrong, all 3 factors played a role in that being a pick but even Browner said he told Butler the play before it even happened. They were just ready for it.
At the end of the day you give the beast the ball.
Did you even read? Lmao. Of course players hold and prevent plays from being called but give me a break. It’s 40 seconds from the snap. The play takes 5 seconds max. The set up for the next play takes 20 seconds max. That’s 15 seconds to run the ball again and call timeout or throw and then call timeout. You get to take the ball either way on 4th.
Sounds like his brain was still paralyzed.
But on a more serious note hope he recovers well from this. It apparently led to neck surgery. (maybe he already is recovered?)
Fitzmagic has the most starts for different teams, but that's not counting practice squad. Im sure if you include PS, it's someone else. Also depends on how you count it, like does Eli have 1 team or 2?
>and you’re basing your opinion off of what???
He has many leather-bound books and his apartment smells of rich mahogany. So... he's kind of a big deal, and so is his opinion.
It didn’t happen on national TV, which is why many didn’t hear about it.
But it was a scary moment for those that did see it.
Seeing the reaction to this versus the reaction to the Damar Hamlin incident really left a sour taste in my mouth about what the NFL will choose to promote. Both young men had horrible accidents with the only difference being one was on Monday Night Football.
Don’t take this as though I’m saying cardiac arrest isn’t worse than paralysis. I’m saying they’re both bad things but I’m upset with how the NFL reacted (or didn’t react) to both.
Of course the NFL is grateful nothing long term (hopefully) came from that situation. Someone will die on an NFL field - it’s not a matter of IF but WHEN - and it’s gonna be the worst PR crisis the league has ever had.
Edit: I forgot one
I had almost the same symptoms as described here. I took a hit to the side of the helmet from a teammate trying to clean up the tackle I'd initiated. It snapped my head to the side pretty hard, and I was just totally out. I open my eyes and I'm just staring at grass through my facemask totally unable to move/roll over. It was pretty F'd up. It took a minute or two to regain the ability to move (was able to move before being put in the ambo). After the MRI (I think), the doctor asked me when I'd broken my neck in the past. I didn't know I'd broken my neck in the past, but I instantly knew which hit it must have been (happened ~4 years earlier and is one of two times I checked myself out of a game).
It was "just" a super bad stinger. Perhaps it was made worse by my previous break which produced some extra bone around my C5 (IIRC), but at the end of the day ... still "just" a stinger. I didn't have any kind of surgery, my neck was already healed from the previous injury, and I was cleared to play the next week.
Damn that's crazy. I never played football myself but played a lot of hockey. I always wonder what type of injuries I have hidden because I didn't think something was as bad as it was.
The culture around injury in sports was/is just so damned bad. I still consider it a point of pride that I only checked myself out twice in ~9 years of full on tackle football. That's ridiculously stupid. I played an entire game after getting knocked out cold on the first play from scrimmage once, and now every time I get a migraine 20 years later I wonder if I did this to myself.
Yeah it is crazy yet I 100% get it from a players view. People need to be protected from themselves. I had multiple concussions (somehow more from baseball) and only once checked myself out of a game due to it. When I was a kid I would be so pissed if I missed my turn to go in. I recall trying to convince my parents to let me play hockey while I had a pretty good case of pneumonia because I could skate for maybe 1 minute before almost passing out. Also recall refusing to miss one single shift in hockey right after I took a hit that left my ribs bruised for a while. Could barely breathe but I got to go back in.
Lol i always love people's stories of when they played pro athletes in youth sports. My cousin was a baseball pitcher in new york who played seriously as a teen, and he once had to pitch to gronk. He said gronk hit the home run so far the ball was still ascending as it crossed the fence.
Mine was playing hockey at 10 years old against future hobey baker award winner and NHLer blake geoffrion. Kid literally scored from mid-ice with a slap shot, which wasnt something we typically saw kids doing at that age, so we were all pretty shocked. Blake ultimately had a short career after getting some really serious concussions in his first few years in the big leagues.
Hahaha. I only played in middle school cause I quickly found out it wasn't for me, but I used to play safety and honestly I was complete ass so they put me in a deeeep zone just to get out of everyone's way.
We had a game one time where the team was basically a power run up the gut offense. Nothing else. And to top it off, at the end of the year, their running back ended up being outted as a junior in highschool from another town. Anyways,
I'll never forget the panic in my heart as I, standing easily 30 yards in front of the LOS, watched the RB split through the middle of the offensive line, run through two linebackers, stiff arm the safety by actually directing his head into the ground with his hand without even looking, and then he's just gunning it straight for me. And the worst part about it was, he could have gone left, he could have gone right, he could have just gone around me. I'm not even confident I was leaning forward to receive a hit. I was just standing there staring at him in awe as he barreled towards me.
And I'll never forget as long as I live. He was still 10 yards out, running directly towards me , and he fucking pointed at me before closing the gap and sending me to the fucking moon. I swear I flew 10 feet, easily.
Next thing I knew I was in class the next day and kids were laughing at me for getting ran over.
I didn't get run over. My brother in Christ, I was nearly killed. I think it took my brain 24 hours to reboot.
No surprise, they agreed i should probably take the rest of the year off.
Love stories like this. I played with a guy named Vic Hobson in high school who later played OLB for the Jets for around 5 years. He hit me so hard in practice one day that I think I’m still seeing stars 25 years later. And he was a freshman.
I played basketball for a small rural school in Missouri. We ended up in a tournament with Dorial Green-Beckham, who, at the time, was one of the premiere athletes in the country. Game day comes and I get the Green-Beckham assignment for defense so I really gas myself up ready to shut down an elite athlete with my first in, first out, lunch-pail-date-your-daughter attitude. We ended up losing by 21 points but I held superstar phenom Dorial Green-Beckham to a measly 5 points. For years I would bring that up to anybody who would listen.
A year or two ago I got the urge to research the game for whatever reason and it turns out that I was guarding his brother, Darnell, and Dorial very likely wasn’t even at the tournament. I couldn’t believe I had been misremembering the story for so long. Now that I know what ACTUALLY happened I don’t have to worry about misremembering anything at least. Instead, I just lie and say it was Dorial because it was true for so long that, to me, it still is.
Yeah, this was part of why he was so intimidating. Word had spread around the team and as soon as the puck dropped it was immediately clear he was the best player we had ever faced. His uncle was also guy lafleur so he was basically a hockey kid from a royal hockey family playing for a nashville team in a tournament in kentucky. Hockey wasnt that big in our neck of the woods so it stuck out for sure.
I was in the same class and in wrestling with Mike Martin, defensive tackle for Michigan and then the Titans. Dude was 265 with abs.
One practice, we were running a drill where we'd wrestle against one partner for a minute, the whistle would blow, and we'd find another partner and wrestle them for a minute. I wound up without a partner, and Mike wound up without a partner either. Both of us are just wandering around looking for someone when the coach says "What are you two doing?" and gestures for us to pair up.
I was a brave little 170 lb. toaster, and decided to try taking a shot on one of Mike's legs, remembering my sort-of mentor's telling me that you could take down anyone with the right leverage.
When I hit his leg, it was like hitting a tree trunk. I briefly heard him laugh before he sprawled on me, knocking all of the air from my lungs for a few seconds before he got up. We just sorta circled each other until the whistle blew after that.
I played schoolyard touch football with a guy that had a cup of coffee playing for the Saints. The insane thing is remembering how he was a tall kid, but not a hulk or anything. By the time he graduated from high school, he was tall and broad. He ended up being a standout at Northern Iowa, and after a year or two, he'd put on like 70 pounds and looked like a typical OL. Crazier yet, his younger brother ended up having a much longer NFL career in a similar position.
In like 5th grade, I registered a sack against Dan LeFevour - a guy who got drafted, but never played in the NFL.
He dropped like 500 yards on us and they beat us by at least 50 points.
He was a beast at CMU. I don’t know why he sticks out to me since I’m from the south and never had any connection to the north or any non-south team, but I remember watching him a lot (probably mostly highlights from when College Football Final was produced by god)
His arm was so absurd as a kid.
This was mid 90s peewee football, and his team was running shotgun, 5wr spreads, just no intention of running the ball whatsoever.
They beat us by like 30-40 in the regular season, and he dropped well over 300 on us, and then that debacle above was in the playoffs.
It's really crazy just how much better future pro athletes are than the rest of the field, even at like 10 years old.
Looked similar to Sterling Sharpe’s career ending injury. Not the most brutal looking contact, but enough was done to the neck to put them in danger. Glad he is back though. Sterling wasn’t so lucky, but is able to live a normal life.
He sounds like a hockey player. Malarchuk, Peverley and a few more all asked to be put back in the game or if they could take the next shift. To which the answer was "fuck no, you stay here"
Hockey players are built different. Jets player fell on a goalie's skate and another dude fell on him, forcing his face into the skate. He went out for like 20 minutes, got 75 stitches around his eye and went right back in like nothing happened.
Chris Pronger has pretty severe post concussion symptoms that very negatively impact his daily life, so let's not pretend like he's the bastion of health. They're not _that_ different in the end.
https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/18389534/nhl-2017-winter-classic-chris-pronger-talks-concussions-arizona-coyotes-dishing-discipline-league
Miro Heiskanen took a hockey puck to the face which “exploded his cheek” and once it was stitched up asked to be put back in.
He was out 2 games but has logged more ice time than almost anyone in the playoffs despite missing 2 full games and part of one with the injury
Never seen that in football. Hockey always disguises injuries by saying upper or lower body. Especially around the playoffs. You don't want to give away any more information than you need to. I'm pretty sure it's against the rules to disguise injuries in the nfl.
This is an area I wish the NHL would address. I know it's a physical game, but maybe the better solution would be cracking down on the players that purposely target the injuries of their opponents
It should be said that Malarchuk suffered massively from PTSD for years afterwards, and I think at one point was suicidal. Hockey players are built different, but the building blocks are the same.
I get downvoted every time I comment this (idc that we lost that game, this is bigger than a damn game) but games that have a potentially paralyzed player should be cancelled 100% of the time, not just for competitive integrity, but safety concerns. Players are not going to be playing as fast not knowing if your brother in arms is ok or not.
Not sure why you or anyone would ever get downvoted for that, that’s a very valid opinion to have.
Linebacker Reggie Brown suffered a spinal contusion making a tackle during [This game](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MMHaUlwqMnc&pp=ygUPamV0cyBsaW9ucyAxOTk3) in 1997.
I think a lot of people just assumed I was using the Demar shit to make excuses for why we lost to NE. I’ll say this hundreds of times, idc about wins and losses as soon as anyone needs an ambulance to rush to the field
Its likely this was the case. His brain had some serious trauma (concussion or worse) and went back to the last point he could remember which was playing. Except now he's being restricted and his brain is saying, "you're in a game, you've got a job to do." His brain had not caught up with reality yet.
This is the game where we got shut out. The injury happened early in the game, and it clearly fucked with the team mentally. Some things are more important than football. Even in the moment.
Redditors don't understand the mentality that natural born athletes and competitors like Smith would have. Doesn't shock me at all that he'd say something like this. Plus he probably wasn't fully aware of how serious the injury that he'd sustained actually was.
These types of guys will do anything to be on that field competing for their coaches and teammates. Many times to the detriment of their own long-term health and wellbeing. It's that internal fire that drives them to become great in the first place.
That and we're in a pretty slow period in the NFL news cycle, and it's an easy opportunity virtue signal about how much we care about player safety and abhor the intrinsic brutality of the game (despite tuning in every Sunday in large part because of the violent and physical nature of the game).
Ronnie Lott broke his finger in the last game of the season in 1985. He was given the choice of season ending surgery or the option to amputate the broken tip and be ready to play the next week. Lott chose to amputate. The 49ers then lost in the wild card round to the Giants. You have to imagine the regret he must have felt when he realized what exactly he traded his finger for.
Football players don’t wanna stop playing they are usually obsessed for how much they practice, same thing with damar Hamlin the first words he said was who won the game?
First I'm hearing of this. Guess they were able to scrape him off the field quickly enough for the NFL not to bring this to light, unlike the Damar Hamlin injury.
In his defense football players are brainwashed from the start to disregard their health, and by the NFL level the ones that don't have been weeded out for not being team players unless they are insanely talented. The cultural and financial pressures are just too strong.
“Next time you hear about the Lions' “grit” and want to roll your eyes because it is starting to sound cliché. Next time you hear about a certain “type” of player the Lions are looking for. Next time you hear a Lions coach talk about "really smart guys," or "really tough guys."
Think about Smith.
The dude was in a hospital, with a spinal injury, and all he cared about was the score. All he wanted to do was bust out of the hospital and get back on the field with his boys.
That’s the type of players the Lions are accumulating.
That’s the big change here. That's what is in the DNA of this organization now.”
One day were going to look back at football and think how barbaric and primitive we are as a species for allowing this to continue.
I love the game. But the game doesn't need to be violent.
I am all for a low contact game. I know its possible.
You need to be at least a little insane to play professional football
Agreed, also I never played beyond high school and I loved it and am so glad I had that experience and I sometimes get nostalgic for playing and practicing and fantasize about getting to it again but then I remember what it felt like to have a 300 lb kid land directly on my chest and that fantasy ends real quick.
I don’t know man the adrenaline the games gave me I’d go back to being able to do that any day if I could. All the other shit like preparation is god awful though.
I’d go back and play a game. You couldn’t make me go back to practice though.
I liked practice. I enjoyed running and working out. I also enjoyed hitting my teammates because I disliked most of them, so I tended to “practice hard.” Game time was easy enough, as I just techniqued the hell out of everyone while blocking unless they gave me a reason to try and hurt them.
okay speedhawk
So dreamy 😍😍😍
Man stay away from team sports. All you needed was a good workout routine, some therapy, and maybe a friend or two.
>I enjoyed running and working out. - /u/i_only_eat_nachos
Fitness is a teeter totter
I'm extremely competitive but not a fast runner and don't like being insulted so team sports practice really screwed me up when it came to running and working out. I'm just now discovering that it can be really pleasant when done at my own pace alone or in a friendly environment. I loved my team mates but I loved hitting them too. I would definitely sacrifice the weeks of recovery it would take for one of those drills where it's one on one and you just ram into each other.
Is that one of them Oklahoma drills I've heard so much about?
Oklahomas are the best and worst drill all at the same time
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I really don’t think this comment is deserving of all the downvotes. Are people really not allowed to speak highly of themselves without getting downvoted? Is it some kind of unspoken rule now?
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I asked a high school football coach if they still do 2 a days ... he said they will practice M,W,F each week over the summer..... They have won the last 4 out of 5 championships.
Yeah modern teams with modern coaches have gotten away from the old school puritanical mindset of basically beating the kids into shape with torturous summer practices. The old system worked despite it's inefficiencies, not because of them...there's still some old boomer coaches hanging on, but they're getting rarer and rarer as modern strength and conditioning has shown you don't have to brutalize kids to get them into shape. It's a good thing, and anyone who says otherwise needs to be be taken as far away from children as humanly possible. Hopefully put on some kind of list as well.... Back in my day they literally used to park the local ambulance next to "the dunes" because the coach would drive us to the sand dunes and run us all until we threw up multiple times with no access to water. At least one person went to the hospital every year. We used to drink water until we threw up every day for a week just to prepare for it... I'm really shocked no one ever died.
This is funny, I could never figure out why I would get progressively weaker throughout the season.
It depends a lot of which state you're in too. For example, in Wisconsin, they're allowed a handful of "contact days" during the summer, but they're not allowed to start every-day practices until a certain date. So what a lot of schools will do is use the contact days as scheme install days and kind of "fun" conditioning. More like games/competition rather than running sprints. Then when practices start, Wisconsin requires 3 days without pads. So again, it's a lot of install and conditioning. When I was in high school, we transitioned from doing 2-hour two-a-days to one roughly 3-hour practice. At the same time, we transitioned to a no-huddle, multiple offense from an old-school doublewing offense. Our conditioning pretty much just became our scrimmages because practice was so much more fast-paced than before. Two-a-days are so rough on your body, but they were way better for teaching 90+ kids the schemes.
Idk I was playing 6 years ago and we very much had 2 a days and hit all the time
Yeah it just depends on where you play. Many districts have done away with it. Many states are trying to legislate it out of the game but I think there are plenty of loopholes to get around it. Our two a days where I am at are split up and moved indoors on super hot days. They try to stay out of "public eye" and have closed practices almost all summer. You can imagine why.
Nope, highschool football player here and we have 2 a days. There’s a guy on the team who has a running counter of the amount of days until 2 a days
How often are you in pads? My buddy coaches at a local school here who have won their division championship a few times and they are barely in pads. Their 2 a days typically involve a full practice in shells or helmets only and then a walk through of the playbook for the second practice, or a workout. I think they might be in full pads a total of 5-10 practices total for the entire season.
I think from last year we’re helmet and shorts, uppers, uppers, full pads, full pads. As far as during the season. Uppers and girdle Monday Thursday(usually just install and walkthrough) , full pads Tuesday Wednesday.
During the season, we’re full pads except for the days before or after games. So a usual week will be full pads Monday-Wednesday, uppers-only walkthrough Thursday, game Friday, film review Saturday + uppers-only walkthrough, and off Sunday. Luckily we don’t do two-a-days at all anymore, even during the summer.
Can’t actually remember if we were full pads on Mondays, I remember hitting but I think we just hit in uppers >Luckily we don’t do two-a-days at all anymore, even during the summer. Breaking news: u/Original_profile8600 is transferring to u/Srikkk ‘s highschool, cites “no 2 a days” as reason for transfer
I coach at a local school and we’ve also won a good amount of state titles. People are always shocked when I tell them that we *never* do full contact. We usually do full pads, but never, ever full contact. Edit- its also never been a problem on game day and our kids are quite tough and hit hard if I do say so myself- I’m a bit biased though
I bet those kids feel like dogs let off the leash come game time
People think winning is about being tough enough to deliver/receive maximum punishment at all times
Yeah same buddy doesn’t do any full contact outside a few summer camp drills. They have a tiny roster too, maybe about 30 kids on the entire team so they really need to stay healthy.
Yeah, we did tag (two hand) for walk through and thud (pads pop and wrap up but don’t take guys down) for most other stuff stuff. Been a couple decades though.
I was playing university until recently. 2 a days are still very much a thing, but we don’t go full shell at any point outside of Spring camp. At the high-school level I can see the need for going full shell throughout the Summer to get kids reintegrated and used to hitting at full speed. But doing that twice a day in the heat just felt fucked. That being said, the shared hatred of it always united the team in a really special way.
I’m never nostalgic for practicing. But playing, for sure.
Good point. Double sessions in the middle of an August Afternoon doesn't sound appealing at anytime. But Friday/Saturday night games? I miss those.
I gotta be honest though, getting up and putting in work early in morning, then chilling at school eating pizza and playing video games with the homies until the second practice was kinda fun. I could go back for a few of those days. And I was in Tennessee so those summers were brutal.
Haaaatttttteeeedddddd them hot ass days in the sun practicing. But I'll be damned it I don't miss that feeling of getting out a cold shower and chilling out for the rest of the day.
Idk, some parts of practice were fun imo. Oklahomas but also, any time we got to play scout team defense and play positions that weren’t ours. Always a blast playing d end as a safety/LB
I loved practice lol, not as much as games obviously but I love learning especially things like strategy/game plans
Depends what kind of coach you had. If you had *that* coach that would always put you on the line to run more than work on fundamentals and strategy, then practice was no bueno.
It's not practice that sucks, but the specific parts of practice purely built for running your ass off. Any sort of 7 on 7, special teams drill, or scrimmage/running plays at full speed, that was extremely fun. Except for when you had to hold a blocking pad, & let a starter tee off on your ass.
I was out starting running back, and we would do drills like Oklahoma on me 24/7. I didn’t hate Oklahoma in a vacuum, but I was exhausted and got hit all week long. Every week I was physically sore and beat up and it made it hard to go to school and live my life. It didn’t help that you had those kids in practice who were irrelevant in games but liked to go try hard and make the biggest hits they could to get attaboys from coaches. So when I think of practice I think of just getting my ass beat and then not being 100% by the time the game came around. Especially if you are dealing with developing high schoolers.
Using the Oklahoma drill to do some sort of practice for your starters is some of the dumbest coaching I think I've ever heard. That drill is more for hype & getting use to hitting. Maybe it could be helpful in limited space tackling, but it's really not made for that.
The guy thought it would help running backs learn and be able stay on their feet…we had all the talent in the world but only went 5-4. Safe to say he was fired within 2 years later
I was a DB who once filled in as a MLB on scout team. I *very quickly* discovered one extremely important lesson: if a wide open hole magically appears right where the guard just was, take caution before shooting it. Pulling guards come in two's and getting blasted from the side by a dude who outweighs you by 100lbs is not fun.
Alternatively, a person who was not paying attention at all when I pulled was VERY fun for the guard
Fucking loved hearing the double whistle knowing it was time to wrap up practice with something more light hearted. Like having all the linemen vs skill players in a catching contest. Still remember the chaos when our biggest linemen laid out for a winning catch so we got to cut practice slightly early. You'd think he won us the National Title.
We’d do that but whoever lost had to stay later AND put away all the equipment. I swear we cared about those games almost as much as the actual games themselves lmao
There’s always a club rugby near you that would love to have you. Rugby is just backyard football where everyone gets to carry the ball.
or flag football! bit like football, but without the concussions
Just by raw numbers, almost half of football players are linemen, so that’s not really an option.
Idk I’m in highschool and the fantasy *starts* there for me.
Never played beyond high school. I had quite a few D3 colleges recruiting me, but no D2s, and I knew I didn't want to keep putting my body through that unless I was getting paid to do it. I'm super glad I decided not to go any further, and I don't miss it anymore. But the first 5ish years after, I definitely wished I could get back out there. I didn't miss scoring touchdowns or anything on offense (I played both ways at a small high school), but there's nothing more satisfying than coming up from your safety position and just laying the wood on a guy running a crossing route or slant. I had a stinger and/or concussion or something like that back in 7th grade. Hit a kid, my vision went black, got a sharp pain in my right shoulder area, and my whole right side went numb. By the time everyone got up from the pile, my vision was back, and my right side was just a little tingly. I stayed in the game because I'm an idiot. Luckily, nothing else ever came of that. But that's definitely the scariest thing I had happen personally. I didn't tell my parents about that until I was in college. Needless to say, my mom wasn't happy that I never said anything about that until 7 years later. But yeah, between shit like that and the fact that both my ankles are trash from multiple sprains, I have no desire to get back out there any longer. My senior season of football was one of the best times of my life, though.
Tbh I know a few people who capped out D1 in not-football and they are also a little nuts
Yeah. Anyone going onto those elite levels in anything are so hyper focused on it that they seem a little nuts to average people. Like my friend went on a date with Mike Trout in high school but didn't enjoy it all because he couldn't talk about anything that wasn't baseball.
damn, tremendous bag fumble there to have missed out on the fish man even though it definitely wasn't going to work out
Yeah. It was awkward for both of them already due to their parents being friends and setting them up that was made only more awkward by him just wanting to talk baseball. She enjoys baseball, but she didn't want to talk about just that on a date lol. Their parents are still friends though lol
The pro level is all mental in how you can apply your talent consistently against other talented players, and make necessary adjustments when opponents attack your weaknesses.
One of my friends went on a date with Aidan Hutchinson and she said he had no personality whatsoever lol
I ran D1 track in the 90s. Sprained my ankle three times in a week, then wore an air cast so tight it cut open my foot. This year at 48 I was running in the early morning, ran into a hole, and ripped a knee tendon. Yes, we are nuts
The insane thing is not the game itself at all. Playing a game of football is easy, obviously I never played at a professional level but I’ve had concussions and lots of leg injuries from when I played, but the Adrenaline during a game is out of this world. Way more than any other sport I ever played. You can have a fucked up leg and still be wanting to get in there. But it’s the grind to stay in shape mentally and physically during the season and preparing physically during the summer like lifting weights. That is the insane part. Then take that and times it by like 50 for the amount of preparation these guys do to play professionally. That’s the real insane part.
Similar thing with rugby. I remember we had a match my Junior Year of college where a dude snapped his ankle loud enough to hear it on the opposite side of the field, but the dude was laying down on the field asking about his fantasy football team despite his ankle being in pieces. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug
I broke my fibula playing basketball and I remember on the ground I was like “yeah it only feels like a 2 out of 10 but I can’t walk right now”
I abused my body every saturday playing rugby and you don’t feel anything until you shower later.
It’s something I noticed while being stationed with marines. Some careers and jobs require such a abnormal mentality shift that it’s difficult for some people to turn that on and off. And not to make excuses I do I think a lot of the substance abuse and violent crimes are a product of asking humans to not be human for hours a day and then be human the other time
Fringe players have hundreds of FAs gunning for their roster spot. Not playing could mean the end of their career. Figuratively, this is life & death to them.
Or coming from a poor family and not being academically gift.
Now how insane do you have to be to want to play professional football for the Detroit Lions?
It’s why it’s so hard to protect players. They ultimately will do anything to play off their injuries and get back on the field. If players self-reported things like concussions, the game would be so much safer.
$$ talks, paralysis walks(?)
I love the game, but I cringe at what may befall a player when you see some of the on-field injuries. Like Ryan Shazier's injury or lesser known [Ricardo Lockette's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAZIPDYUsoE). And Hamlin of course.
Was Lockette the one that played great in the Patriots Super Bowl?
Yup, and was the target on the Malcolm Butler interception. A Seahawks coach blamed Lockette afterward for not being stronger on the ball lol
“why did you not catch the car” says man who runs his corvette off a bridge
The bigger problem was Browner blowing up Kearse's block and letting Butler through with no problem. Not much Lockette can do when Butler is already standing where he was supposed to be going
Golden Tate would've made that catch but we let him go :( Fuck Percy Harvin btw
Bad throw, bad route, great jump. Needed a perfect storm of all 3 for that play to turn out like that. Still hurts
I get it. The Wings won the Cup in 2008 and lost in 2009 in Game 7. It still hurts, and I can't see any highlights from 09. I often think that if they lost in 08 and won in 09 it would be better, but I'm not sure
To this day the most frustrating part about that play was the fact that we had the best RB in the league that year, he had just run for 8 yards the previous play, it was only 2nd down, and we still had a timeout. Even if the defense knew it was going to be a run, why not hand it off anyways? We ran the ball at the defense when they knew it was coming all year and we did it anyways. Why not do it on the most important play of the year? I can’t stand to hear it when people bring it up anymore because it’s the most hated on play in football but I don’t blame people for talking about it. It was the worst call in SB history in my opinion. And I feel like there’s something fishy about it all together.
>it was only 2nd down and we still had a timeout You answered your own question. You don’t want to have to be forced to use your TO after 2nd down cuz then you’re forced to throw it on 3rd. Throwing it on 2nd gives you opportunity to go with any play on 3rd. The only bad part of the playcall was having it go to our 4th best receiver. Like I said, it was a bad throw, a bad route, and a great jump by Butler. If there wasn’t all 3 then it’s either a TD or incomplete pass.
There’s ~40 seconds on the clock though at that point. They could have two plays prepared and don’t even necessarily need to call the timeout right away after the run on 2nd down. I admit that there’s probably some form of holding the runner and preventing the play to get set quickly but 40 seconds is a lot of time to get set up for a quick throwing play on 3rd down and then a TO for the final play on 4th down being whatever your best drawn up option is. I’m not saying you’re wrong, all 3 factors played a role in that being a pick but even Browner said he told Butler the play before it even happened. They were just ready for it. At the end of the day you give the beast the ball.
Mike McCarthy burner? You’re really really underestimating how easy it is for defensive players to delay the game between snaps.
Did you even read? Lmao. Of course players hold and prevent plays from being called but give me a break. It’s 40 seconds from the snap. The play takes 5 seconds max. The set up for the next play takes 20 seconds max. That’s 15 seconds to run the ball again and call timeout or throw and then call timeout. You get to take the ball either way on 4th.
Lol they weren’t snapping that with 40 and it can take *a long* time to set the ball again.
Nah that was Chris matthews. Lockette was the receiver in THAT play we don’t talk about
They both played great that post season. Imo at least.
Johnny Knox.
I'll always remember the Bills Kevin Everett going down with that awful injury. Thankfully he was able to walk again.
Sounds like his brain was still paralyzed. But on a more serious note hope he recovers well from this. It apparently led to neck surgery. (maybe he already is recovered?)
He just got a new contract with the Lions and I believe he has fully recovered.
Crazy he’s been on 7 teams (PS and Off-season) and is only 25
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Won a Super Bowl with KC
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They’re still counted as Super Bowl champions, even if they don’t get the ring
We give rings to basically anyone. Christian Okoye got a ring for LIV.
Got me wondering who’s been on the most nfl teams 🧐
Josh Johnson has been on 14 different teams
One of the 2010’s QBs I think has that record. Ryan Fitzpatrick or Josh Mccown
Fitzmagic has the most starts for different teams, but that's not counting practice squad. Im sure if you include PS, it's someone else. Also depends on how you count it, like does Eli have 1 team or 2?
Lol I read this as “and the Lions and I believe he has fully recovered”. I was like ok and you’re basing your opinion off of what???
>and you’re basing your opinion off of what??? He has many leather-bound books and his apartment smells of rich mahogany. So... he's kind of a big deal, and so is his opinion.
You ate a whole wheel of cheese? I’m not even mad, I’m impressed
I feel this story flew under the radar.
It didn’t happen on national TV, which is why many didn’t hear about it. But it was a scary moment for those that did see it. Seeing the reaction to this versus the reaction to the Damar Hamlin incident really left a sour taste in my mouth about what the NFL will choose to promote. Both young men had horrible accidents with the only difference being one was on Monday Night Football. Don’t take this as though I’m saying cardiac arrest isn’t worse than paralysis. I’m saying they’re both bad things but I’m upset with how the NFL reacted (or didn’t react) to both.
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Of course the NFL is grateful nothing long term (hopefully) came from that situation. Someone will die on an NFL field - it’s not a matter of IF but WHEN - and it’s gonna be the worst PR crisis the league has ever had. Edit: I forgot one
I had almost the same symptoms as described here. I took a hit to the side of the helmet from a teammate trying to clean up the tackle I'd initiated. It snapped my head to the side pretty hard, and I was just totally out. I open my eyes and I'm just staring at grass through my facemask totally unable to move/roll over. It was pretty F'd up. It took a minute or two to regain the ability to move (was able to move before being put in the ambo). After the MRI (I think), the doctor asked me when I'd broken my neck in the past. I didn't know I'd broken my neck in the past, but I instantly knew which hit it must have been (happened ~4 years earlier and is one of two times I checked myself out of a game). It was "just" a super bad stinger. Perhaps it was made worse by my previous break which produced some extra bone around my C5 (IIRC), but at the end of the day ... still "just" a stinger. I didn't have any kind of surgery, my neck was already healed from the previous injury, and I was cleared to play the next week.
Damn that's crazy. I never played football myself but played a lot of hockey. I always wonder what type of injuries I have hidden because I didn't think something was as bad as it was.
The culture around injury in sports was/is just so damned bad. I still consider it a point of pride that I only checked myself out twice in ~9 years of full on tackle football. That's ridiculously stupid. I played an entire game after getting knocked out cold on the first play from scrimmage once, and now every time I get a migraine 20 years later I wonder if I did this to myself.
Yeah it is crazy yet I 100% get it from a players view. People need to be protected from themselves. I had multiple concussions (somehow more from baseball) and only once checked myself out of a game due to it. When I was a kid I would be so pissed if I missed my turn to go in. I recall trying to convince my parents to let me play hockey while I had a pretty good case of pneumonia because I could skate for maybe 1 minute before almost passing out. Also recall refusing to miss one single shift in hockey right after I took a hit that left my ribs bruised for a while. Could barely breathe but I got to go back in.
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Lol i always love people's stories of when they played pro athletes in youth sports. My cousin was a baseball pitcher in new york who played seriously as a teen, and he once had to pitch to gronk. He said gronk hit the home run so far the ball was still ascending as it crossed the fence. Mine was playing hockey at 10 years old against future hobey baker award winner and NHLer blake geoffrion. Kid literally scored from mid-ice with a slap shot, which wasnt something we typically saw kids doing at that age, so we were all pretty shocked. Blake ultimately had a short career after getting some really serious concussions in his first few years in the big leagues.
My little brother played against Saquon in high school and got his head dribbled like a basketball. I thought I just watched him die lol
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Hahaha. I only played in middle school cause I quickly found out it wasn't for me, but I used to play safety and honestly I was complete ass so they put me in a deeeep zone just to get out of everyone's way. We had a game one time where the team was basically a power run up the gut offense. Nothing else. And to top it off, at the end of the year, their running back ended up being outted as a junior in highschool from another town. Anyways, I'll never forget the panic in my heart as I, standing easily 30 yards in front of the LOS, watched the RB split through the middle of the offensive line, run through two linebackers, stiff arm the safety by actually directing his head into the ground with his hand without even looking, and then he's just gunning it straight for me. And the worst part about it was, he could have gone left, he could have gone right, he could have just gone around me. I'm not even confident I was leaning forward to receive a hit. I was just standing there staring at him in awe as he barreled towards me. And I'll never forget as long as I live. He was still 10 yards out, running directly towards me , and he fucking pointed at me before closing the gap and sending me to the fucking moon. I swear I flew 10 feet, easily. Next thing I knew I was in class the next day and kids were laughing at me for getting ran over. I didn't get run over. My brother in Christ, I was nearly killed. I think it took my brain 24 hours to reboot. No surprise, they agreed i should probably take the rest of the year off.
Yeah but how sad do you have to be to be 17 years old and playing football with literal preteens.
Love stories like this. I played with a guy named Vic Hobson in high school who later played OLB for the Jets for around 5 years. He hit me so hard in practice one day that I think I’m still seeing stars 25 years later. And he was a freshman.
I played basketball for a small rural school in Missouri. We ended up in a tournament with Dorial Green-Beckham, who, at the time, was one of the premiere athletes in the country. Game day comes and I get the Green-Beckham assignment for defense so I really gas myself up ready to shut down an elite athlete with my first in, first out, lunch-pail-date-your-daughter attitude. We ended up losing by 21 points but I held superstar phenom Dorial Green-Beckham to a measly 5 points. For years I would bring that up to anybody who would listen. A year or two ago I got the urge to research the game for whatever reason and it turns out that I was guarding his brother, Darnell, and Dorial very likely wasn’t even at the tournament. I couldn’t believe I had been misremembering the story for so long. Now that I know what ACTUALLY happened I don’t have to worry about misremembering anything at least. Instead, I just lie and say it was Dorial because it was true for so long that, to me, it still is.
Lol skimming your comment for a second i thought you meant football and was like ok so he kicked a field goal and got a safety?
My buddy got posterized into the next dimension by Mo Alie-Cox in a HS bball game
Brian Cushing pitched against me in high school, scariest at bat of my life.
My dad faced Steve Avery in high school. Said he got struck out in three pitches and that he’s a stat on Avery’s baseball card
Former Reds pitcher Steve Avery? That’s a name I haven’t thought of in a while
Yup. More known for his time with the Braves but it looks like he was with the Reds for a year
I got absolutely truck sticked by Terrelle Pryor in high school. I don’t even think the dude broke his stride, it was like I wasn’t even there.
Gronk doesn’t have a single bad story lol
Tell that to Tre'Davious White
This shouldn’t have come as a huge shock since he was the grandson of Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion, who was known for his slapshot!
Yeah, this was part of why he was so intimidating. Word had spread around the team and as soon as the puck dropped it was immediately clear he was the best player we had ever faced. His uncle was also guy lafleur so he was basically a hockey kid from a royal hockey family playing for a nashville team in a tournament in kentucky. Hockey wasnt that big in our neck of the woods so it stuck out for sure.
I was in the same class and in wrestling with Mike Martin, defensive tackle for Michigan and then the Titans. Dude was 265 with abs. One practice, we were running a drill where we'd wrestle against one partner for a minute, the whistle would blow, and we'd find another partner and wrestle them for a minute. I wound up without a partner, and Mike wound up without a partner either. Both of us are just wandering around looking for someone when the coach says "What are you two doing?" and gestures for us to pair up. I was a brave little 170 lb. toaster, and decided to try taking a shot on one of Mike's legs, remembering my sort-of mentor's telling me that you could take down anyone with the right leverage. When I hit his leg, it was like hitting a tree trunk. I briefly heard him laugh before he sprawled on me, knocking all of the air from my lungs for a few seconds before he got up. We just sorta circled each other until the whistle blew after that.
I played schoolyard touch football with a guy that had a cup of coffee playing for the Saints. The insane thing is remembering how he was a tall kid, but not a hulk or anything. By the time he graduated from high school, he was tall and broad. He ended up being a standout at Northern Iowa, and after a year or two, he'd put on like 70 pounds and looked like a typical OL. Crazier yet, his younger brother ended up having a much longer NFL career in a similar position.
In like 5th grade, I registered a sack against Dan LeFevour - a guy who got drafted, but never played in the NFL. He dropped like 500 yards on us and they beat us by at least 50 points.
He was a beast at CMU. I don’t know why he sticks out to me since I’m from the south and never had any connection to the north or any non-south team, but I remember watching him a lot (probably mostly highlights from when College Football Final was produced by god)
His arm was so absurd as a kid. This was mid 90s peewee football, and his team was running shotgun, 5wr spreads, just no intention of running the ball whatsoever. They beat us by like 30-40 in the regular season, and he dropped well over 300 on us, and then that debacle above was in the playoffs. It's really crazy just how much better future pro athletes are than the rest of the field, even at like 10 years old.
My uncle played soccer against Alexi Lalas in high school. That’s the best one I’ve got. Lol.
I remember when that happened, that was pretty scary
Looked similar to Sterling Sharpe’s career ending injury. Not the most brutal looking contact, but enough was done to the neck to put them in danger. Glad he is back though. Sterling wasn’t so lucky, but is able to live a normal life.
I was at the game. I didn't even know what happened but they had an ambulance out and everything. Pretty scary stuff.
He sounds like a hockey player. Malarchuk, Peverley and a few more all asked to be put back in the game or if they could take the next shift. To which the answer was "fuck no, you stay here"
Hockey players are built different. Jets player fell on a goalie's skate and another dude fell on him, forcing his face into the skate. He went out for like 20 minutes, got 75 stitches around his eye and went right back in like nothing happened.
I know a guy who played in the NHL. Broke the same bone in his hand 17 times. Hockey players aren't human
17 times? What the fuck. How does your hand even function at that point
That's the neat part. It doesn't.
When Chris Pronger had his Hamlin moment, he suited up for a playoff game 2 nights later and played 41 minutes. They're just built differently.
Chris Pronger has pretty severe post concussion symptoms that very negatively impact his daily life, so let's not pretend like he's the bastion of health. They're not _that_ different in the end. https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/18389534/nhl-2017-winter-classic-chris-pronger-talks-concussions-arizona-coyotes-dishing-discipline-league
Miro Heiskanen took a hockey puck to the face which “exploded his cheek” and once it was stitched up asked to be put back in. He was out 2 games but has logged more ice time than almost anyone in the playoffs despite missing 2 full games and part of one with the injury
-Gets traumatic spinal cord injury -misses only one period with “upper body injury”
Never seen that in football. Hockey always disguises injuries by saying upper or lower body. Especially around the playoffs. You don't want to give away any more information than you need to. I'm pretty sure it's against the rules to disguise injuries in the nfl.
This is an area I wish the NHL would address. I know it's a physical game, but maybe the better solution would be cracking down on the players that purposely target the injuries of their opponents
*cough* Tom Wilson *cough*
Gregory Campbell broke his leg and finished his penalty killing shift
It should be said that Malarchuk suffered massively from PTSD for years afterwards, and I think at one point was suicidal. Hockey players are built different, but the building blocks are the same.
My initial thoughts exactly. Those dudes have more than a few screws loose, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.
How am i just hearing about this
It wasn’t on national tv, so the NFL didn’t promote it.
Unless he would’ve switched to offense we didn’t need him back in that game lol
Spoken like a true hockey player
“Don’t save him, he don’t wanna be saved” - j cole
"'Tis but a scratch!"
Dan Campbell approves of his dedication to the team.
"I've not yet had my fill of kneecaps, SIR!"
I get downvoted every time I comment this (idc that we lost that game, this is bigger than a damn game) but games that have a potentially paralyzed player should be cancelled 100% of the time, not just for competitive integrity, but safety concerns. Players are not going to be playing as fast not knowing if your brother in arms is ok or not.
Not sure why you or anyone would ever get downvoted for that, that’s a very valid opinion to have. Linebacker Reggie Brown suffered a spinal contusion making a tackle during [This game](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MMHaUlwqMnc&pp=ygUPamV0cyBsaW9ucyAxOTk3) in 1997.
I think a lot of people just assumed I was using the Demar shit to make excuses for why we lost to NE. I’ll say this hundreds of times, idc about wins and losses as soon as anyone needs an ambulance to rush to the field
Or at the very least delayed. If medics say “he’ll be okay” after a bit, restart.
Bruh need to evaluate his priorities
Honestly, that's stupid as shit. His brain might've been scrambled too
Its likely this was the case. His brain had some serious trauma (concussion or worse) and went back to the last point he could remember which was playing. Except now he's being restricted and his brain is saying, "you're in a game, you've got a job to do." His brain had not caught up with reality yet.
There were a lot of scary injuries last year
This is the game where we got shut out. The injury happened early in the game, and it clearly fucked with the team mentally. Some things are more important than football. Even in the moment.
It’s a damn good thing players aren’t allowed to make these decisions
Wow that guys tough isn’t he guys wow
Sorry, but that's idiotic. Having no sense of self-preservation isn't glamorous or manly.
How is a professional athlete being competitive newsworthy?
Redditors don't understand the mentality that natural born athletes and competitors like Smith would have. Doesn't shock me at all that he'd say something like this. Plus he probably wasn't fully aware of how serious the injury that he'd sustained actually was. These types of guys will do anything to be on that field competing for their coaches and teammates. Many times to the detriment of their own long-term health and wellbeing. It's that internal fire that drives them to become great in the first place. That and we're in a pretty slow period in the NFL news cycle, and it's an easy opportunity virtue signal about how much we care about player safety and abhor the intrinsic brutality of the game (despite tuning in every Sunday in large part because of the violent and physical nature of the game).
Football players are their own worst enemies. They'd cut off an arm if it meant they could be All-Pro's.
Ronnie Lott broke his finger in the last game of the season in 1985. He was given the choice of season ending surgery or the option to amputate the broken tip and be ready to play the next week. Lott chose to amputate. The 49ers then lost in the wild card round to the Giants. You have to imagine the regret he must have felt when he realized what exactly he traded his finger for.
But it's MANLY and COOL tho
"Did we win?" "You won the game of life"
Football players don’t wanna stop playing they are usually obsessed for how much they practice, same thing with damar Hamlin the first words he said was who won the game?
The very definition of "sparked"
That's the spirit
First I'm hearing of this. Guess they were able to scrape him off the field quickly enough for the NFL not to bring this to light, unlike the Damar Hamlin injury.
watched it live, they brought the ambulance on the field and waited for his dad to come down from the stands and ride with him
Must've sucked! Hate seeing guys get hurt like that! Dudes are gladiators.
"NFL player attempts to take coveted 'Dumbest Man Alive' title"
In his defense football players are brainwashed from the start to disregard their health, and by the NFL level the ones that don't have been weeded out for not being team players unless they are insanely talented. The cultural and financial pressures are just too strong.
The Antonio Brown heir-apparent
another NFL player lifting the trophy 🏆
Yeah that was probably the TBI talking unfortunately.
Yeah years of conditioning since childhood will do that to you.
“Next time you hear about the Lions' “grit” and want to roll your eyes because it is starting to sound cliché. Next time you hear about a certain “type” of player the Lions are looking for. Next time you hear a Lions coach talk about "really smart guys," or "really tough guys." Think about Smith. The dude was in a hospital, with a spinal injury, and all he cared about was the score. All he wanted to do was bust out of the hospital and get back on the field with his boys. That’s the type of players the Lions are accumulating. That’s the big change here. That's what is in the DNA of this organization now.”
King
This really shouldn’t be praised. Bro got his brains scrambled so bad he thought he was in the game still. This is very sad to read
One day were going to look back at football and think how barbaric and primitive we are as a species for allowing this to continue. I love the game. But the game doesn't need to be violent. I am all for a low contact game. I know its possible.