Reply #95: Most of the time i agree with you, DG...

[americanstranger]

...but I gotta disagree here.

Back in the early 90s, I was friends with a number of players for the NY Jets - Boomer, Lageman, Sweeney, Washington. They'd come out and see my band play pretty often, because my drummer's brother was an equipment handler for NYJ.

Those guys worked as hard, if not harder, at their jobs than anyone I've ever met. The conditioning and training, long practices, and in Boomer's case the studying, were full-time jobs that not many humans could take on and not die.

I used to talk to Sweeney (a center), and he'd tell me about not being able to get out of bed the day on Monday as a result of the punishment his body took on Sunday.

These guys are all on borrowed time as far as their careers go - even if they don't suffer a career-ending injury, they're only able to play for a few years before their bodies won't take any more.

And to the extent that I ever talked politics with any of them - Lageman was pretty conservative, but by no means an asshole. Boomer and Sweeney were actually on the liberal side. And none of them would turn away a fan if they were in a bar we were playing and that fan came up to ask for an autograph or a handshake.

To me, proclaiming that all pro athletes are this or that is like saying all (insert ethnic or religious group here) are this or that - people are people, and there are wide differences in politics no matter what field they're working in.

Your chosen profession does not make you an asshole, per se. I know people in perfectly 'respectable' jobs who are much bigger assholes than the pro athletes I've known.

Figured I'd speak up. Continue to disagree if you want.

- as