PROFILES IN RESPECT: THROW BACK

The NFL draft is this week and as I spend my evenings sitting on my butt watching Path to the Draft on NFLN two things occurred to me.  First it’s still weird when I stop and think how quiet it is in my house when there’s no one around to cry and complain, second is how different the modern NFL player is from those of the past. 

Football players were very different before the Super Bowl era, before 32 teams, before all the multi million-dollar contracts! Many had one, two, or even three jobs on top of their duties as “Pro” Football players.  I say “Pro” because up until the late 20s professional football was a joke in the public eye.  Poorly organized and shady in character the league struggled to build a concrete foundation among the world of American Professional Sports that was dominated by baseball and boxing.  Red Grange changed that…and ushered in the modern era of big name players, making big money.

Players in the old days often played injured.  It wasn’t uncommon for a halfback to play on a broken ankle.  Playing with pain was commonplace and often accepted with reverence.  Teams played a regular season schedule along with various exhibition games during the season.  The Chicago Bears once played 8 games in 10 days.  It's amazing when you consider that the average team roster was around 18 men playing both ways, and often hurt. 

Players in the old days were predominantly white too!  Very few African American players played, and often under severe scrutiny.  In today’s game the teams are made mostly African American players.  Most of today’s players have no idea what it’s like to overcome the bigotry and racial stereotypes that African American players endured.  Imagine being black in the 20s and trying to break in with a team of all white men who mostly were from southern universities.  The landscape has changed for African American players.  Overcoming racial prejudice has been replaced by overcoming culture and surroundings.  The gang bang/ thug mentality has overtaken the humble man just trying to play a sport he excels at despite the color of his skin.

Up until the 1960s the unanimous choice among purists as the best all around football player wasn’t a white man, or a black man, it was a red man, a term almost forgotten today due to the harsh eraser of political correctness.  Jim Thorpe was an American Indian, a red man!  He was a star athlete for Pop Warner at Carlisle, an Olympic Gold Medalist, and a Canton Bulldog.  Jim Thorpe was a great all around athlete regardless of his color. 

Football, modern or vintage is a sport of trials and tribulations.  In its purest form it is a competition of strength, intelligence, skill, and will.  Football is a blind sport that cares not the color of a man’s skin, the social background he emerges from, or his political and ideological views.  Football only cares about the competition, overcoming fear, winning and losing, being men!

Today’s players regardless if they’re black, white, red, yellow, or even purple should study the history of their sport in their spare time away from million dollar houses, fast cars, drugs, women, sponsorships etc.  One would hope they get an appreciation for the men who laid the bricks for the foundation the Modern League is built on.  Maybe then they would be a little hesitant to ask for more money, milk injuries, or give a little out of their multi-million dollar salary to help less fortunate people, people who are very similar in background to them.

Jockstrap Diaries-September 2007