(S4) - Weekend PT #2 - Old School Football

[ExemplaryChad]

The truth is, if I had played football in a different era, say the 1940’s, my life would probably be a lot shorter. While concussions were less common because people protected their heads better with those near-nonexistent helmets, there would be a lot of other factors to consider. Smoking and drinking on the sidelines were commonplace because people weren’t aware of the dangers these activities posed. I would probably have cirrhosis and lung cancer by 28 and be dead by 30. This is not because I’m a smoker or drinker now, but the toll on my body would have left me few other options that long ago. Prescription drugs at the time could have presented a whole new set of problems…

On the field, I would like to think I’d be a slightly smaller version of myself. Without the modern advances in nutrition and fitness that we have access to now, I wouldn’t have been able to pack on as much mass as I have. That part is fairly easy to predict. The harder thing to predict, however, would be what sort of impact the different time period would have had on my mental game. Without film as readily available to study, I would have been looking at stills and trying to come up with my own diagrams -- not to mention the fact that coaches might not have been nearly as receptive to my suggestions and insights. Yeah, my place would have been different, but I have no idea what it would have been.


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