Aaron even lied about being vaccinated. Turns out he wasn’t, but used some sort of alternative vax method, then alluded to being vaccinated. The first time I heard him on this “show” I wrote a letter to ESPN about how much I hated what they were saying/doing and I’d never watch the show again. Doesn’t mean much overall, but my little protest.
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Wow. Was that after an especially hard hit?
I fucking hate hand egg because of what it does to players bodies and especially their brains (not to mention how, like boxing, brutal violence is inherent to it). It’s popularity is one of those things that truly alienates me from huge swaths of fellow USians.
All I see in that gif is another instance of potential brain damage.
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I don’t think it was a particularly hard hit, as far as it goes for the sport, but it was illegal because it was well after he had thrown the hand egg. Apparently, his reaction was more along the lines of shock that he had been hit at all.
But yeah, I agree with you that football is too violent and hard on the players. Particularly for young players pushing their bodies beyond their limits because they dream of making it to the pros, are all about school spirit, or are just under the thumb of a coach that demands too much. There’s a whole lot of dysfunction wrapped up in football, and probably team sports in general, and players pay the price. Sometimes with brain injuries, sometimes with lifelong pain, sometimes with opioid addictions from trying to deal with that pain.
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The arm up like that is very similar to what is called the Fencing response.
This is what a concussion in play looks like. He absolutely suffered a TBI on that play.
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Yeah, I think you are probably right. The more that I look at it, the more shitty I feel about posting it. Deleted. Sorry everyone. I thought it looked funny, but it’s really not. It’s an illustration of how horrible football is. When @milliefink questioned it and I looked into the meme, I saw that Aaron Rogers had sort of laughed it all off and embraced it. But that’s not really a good indicator that he was OK, is it? For football players, masking brain injuries is essential to staying in the sport.
Thank you for pointing this out. And thank you @milliefink. I’m sorry that I didn’t think a bit more deeply and compassionately about it when you pushed back initially.
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Thank you, and no problem!
I didn’t take offense. I don’t know if you’re in the U.S., but the culture inures us to that kind of violence, doesn’t it, and to other kinds. I try to resist, and stay awake to it.
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Please don’t feel upset or bad about this. This bloodsport is one of the most popular games in the US, its absolutely part of our culture and weaning ourselves of it is gonna take time and effort.
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I do feel bad about it, because I let my distaste for Aaron Rogers’ rhetoric block out my recognition of and compassion for a human suffering. Honest reflection is part of growth. Thank you for helping me along with that.
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Eh, within limits. My brothers and I all went to college on sports scholarships, my middle brother and I for swimming, youngest brother for cross-country. We were talking about this recently. We all have long-term consequences, but we justified it with one traded his shoulder for a college education, one his plantar fascia for PT school and I traded my knee for med school. These were things we may not have been able to do without the financial assistance. And we are all OK with those trades. Now, football is a different story, and trading your mental faculties for much of anything seems like a bad idea. But as one of those “life-long pain” folks you reference, for myself and my brothers, it was a good trade.
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I definitely know a lot of people who wouldn’t have gotten ahead without some level of organized team sports. It’d sure be nice to not have to trade a lifetime of pain and/or debt in order to get an education and establish a career but I suppose that wanders far beyond the point of this particular dolt using his position of good fortune to promote garbage that endangers others.
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Man, I’d love a world where no student had to rely on sports scholarships to reach their educational potential. But I get that it is the world (or country, at least) that we live in. I’m glad that you and your siblings are ok.
I don’t know. It’s a weird decision to put on people we know aren’t ready to make all sorts of big decisions. But high-level athletic achievement starts early. I wish people could do it because they love it and not because of external pressure or because they feel like it’s their best chance and making a better life. And I wish that sports were safer, especially football. No more TBIs for people who haven’t graduated from high school yet would be a great place to start.
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