The National Football League will open it’s one hundredth season on Thursday night with one of the biggest NFL rivalries in its history as The Green Bay Packers take on The Chicago Bears.
Like the season opener I mentioned here, it will highlight two teams with great reputations over the years and I suspect both to be in contention come December. Yet, as we all know, football is a game folks, it is played at high speed and full brute force is a major part of it. Some players are well over 300 lbs. and bodies clash and hit at high speeds and full force. Injuries will happen, and if you don’t believe it, take a good look at the recent retirement of Andrew Luck, the former now, Quarterback of The Colts.
Twenty Nine Years old is young for a Quarterback to be retiring from the NFL and I do not blame Andrew Luck for doing so, I admire him for it. He did the right thing for himself and his family, he made his money and treated the sport of football as a job he had to do and wanted to do. In the end when your injuries hamper your performance and cause you pain you can not get relieved over a four to five year period like Andrew Luck has, I too, would have hung my shoulder pads and cleats up.
Players in the National Football League should take notice and be aware of the medical conditions of themselves at all times. Doesn’t matter how much money you make or have unless you are well enough to enjoy having it, in the end does it?
I love watching the National Football League Games when I can on Sundays and Thursdays too. The competition is fierce and tough and these teams field great athletes, but they must remember that at times, the money and fame is not worth the lifetime of pain.
Andrew Luck is young at 29 years old and to be retired, but, he has a whole life ahead of himself and he has nothing more to prove to himself or other athletes period. He wants to be healthy again, he wants to have children and a wife and a regular life, and I applaud Andrew Luck for doing what he did. for in retiring when he did Andrew Luck pointed out to all players in the League and in football at all levels, that your life and health and physical well being is worth more than any contract or amount of money someone can entice and tempt you with. It shows, that Andrew Luck at 29 years old was intelligent enough and mature enough to say I have had enough, I have made my money and I am suffering and don’t want to anymore, it’s time to move on. More players should consider what Andrew Luck did, for it isn’t worth it if you get up every morning in pain and anguish, and have to struggle to do normal everyday things, and can’t because of injuries you go playing football.
Football is a sport folks, it’s an entertainment people love to watch in America and around the world, yes a commodity being sold is all. There will always come a time in players lives, when their priorities shift and their health comes first and foremost, and for Andrew Luck to retire the way he did it was smart and intelligent and a way of saying goodbye to a game he loved, without giving up anymore of his health to the pain it could bring him.
With many who retire some go on to be announcers and commentators of the game due to their knowledge from playing it. So they do find a way to make money and a living off the sport they loved to play so much, in the end. Others move on and find other jobs in offices and companies they believe in, in the end, all learn that football is a game, a sport, a passion for them, but it is not worth losing your health to and your ability to live a normal after is vital.
All of the above said about Andrew Luck and his retirement and health problems, is true. Yet it will not make fans like myself or all the others who watch the sport and league stop watching it. We the fans are who it is being played for and for the money the game brings to the players and owners shows that. In the end, players retire all the time and the League keeps going, for it is a gladiator sport that many revel in and enjoy watching and as long as that fact remains, the league will stay in business.
In the end, The National Football League is a business, it’s a profits generating business folks, that is here to entertain, and make money and it does it well, no matter how big the salaries are for star players. Fans will watch, fans will laugh, they will cheer, they will cry and they will fear when their teams chances at the playoffs or Super Bowl rise and fall with each game played. It is a fact of the American sports fans and organizations, it is a fact of life.
So, in the end as a new season begins in The National Football League for its one hundredth year of existence, We all await the battles to come the plays that make us scream and holler and rant and rave and cry even. we all await the tension of the competition and that is what we all love about The National Football League and it’s teams and players.
Onward to a new Season, a new set of playoff games, and in the end a new Super Bowl and a new NFL Champion team in the end. It’s for the glory some may say, others will say it’s for the money, in the end, it’s all entertainment for the masses that love to watch. May all the players do what Andrew Luck did and make intelligent, mature decisions when the time to leave is presented to them. Never should a NFL Player no matter position, or amount of money paid, put their health and welfare and their families well being, at stake just to play a game for money, once injured and hurt and you don’t see a way or time to heal, do what’s right, retire and leave the game behind, it doesn’t last forever it’s for the younger set, not the older set.
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