What we witnessed on Monday Night Football was a tragedy and worst case scenario. We all continue to pray for Damar Hamlin’s recovery. It was chilling, sobering, and hard to sleep after witnessing that. Just hoping for an encouraging tweet of news that he was going to be okay. Especially since we all have some sort of attachment and love towards the game of football. At one point or another, most of us in The House were teammates, classmates, and more importantly, friends. We sympathize for all those involved in the game last night.
To us, football is important, it is a way of life. We got all that rah rah character building shit in our back pockets, but a consensus we could come up with after yesterday is we would want our kids to play football if they loved the game like we did and understood the stakes and accepted the risk.
One of us said “if my kid wants to, they can. I wouldn’t be who I am today without football, there wouldn’t be this group chat without football. 1 in a million freak accident happens and it absolutely sucks but for me the lessons, the friends, the bonds and the advancement of safety and techniques for head injuries keeps getting better. I can’t justify telling them they can’t if they want to.”
“I would leave it up to the kid while explaining all the risks and what may happen cause I wouldn’t be me without the game of football BUT there will be a 2 Iron in my child’s hand as soon as they can walk.“
A final brilliant idea thrown around was “Can I get a future on USA soccer for like 4 world cups from now since more people will stop playing football and more of the top elite athletes will start playing soccer.” Fair point considering parents will know their kids knees might still hurt but their brains will not be at risk.
Even though professional football has been the focus of studies, football is consistently only that dangerous and destructive at the FBS/ pro level. Former Division III athletes like us don’t have the power to do enough harm or cannot consistently train to build a physique that is capable of such harm. If you watch the pros consistently there are more missed tackles and people just going in on upper level. Some players seem to just go for the kill shot and don’t wrap up with the technique we were taught to play football as safely as possible.
It was relieving for a lot of us that the NFL and NFLPA agreed to close this game for the time being.
Some schools make their athletes wear extra chest protectors in sports like lacrosse, baseball and hockey due each sports respective risks. We wonder if there will be a revolution in sports equipment in terms of innovation or rules. Consider this scary scene at the top of the list the next time the NFL and NFLPA sit-down in the name of players safety. Some of us are concerned our kids/grandkids won’t be able to play the same version of football we did. Let us not forget all the good the game has provided many of us. How many lives it has changed and how at the end of the day even at the highest level, there is enough respect to come together when a brother is in danger.
We will continue to pray for Damar Hamlin and the mental health of all of those involved.
With Love,
The House
— NFL (@NFL) January 3, 2023
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