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Rumpus Book ClubTaking the Hit
Mike Webster, “one of the greatest players in N.F.L. history,” went on to become a recluse who slept on the floor at an Amtrak Station.
Terry Long, who played for the Steelers, “killed himself four years ago by drinking antifreeze.”
Andre Waters, “a former defensive back for the Philadelphia Eagles,” shot himself in the head.
These “were men with aching knees and backs and hands, from all those years of playing football. But their real problem was with their heads, the one part of their body that got hit over and over again.”
Malcolm Gladwell asks “how different are dogfighting and football?” in his recent New Yorker essay “Offensive Play.”
October 14th, 2009 at 4:31 am
Gladwell doesn’t really touch on the most troubling part for me: the role of the coaches in all this. How can they justify sending players into harm’s way? (“Sending players into harm’s way” may not even do statistical justice to the risk involved.)
More on my blog: http://www.devangoldstein.com/342/football-coaches-conscience/