You are viewing a single comment's thread from:

RE: Sporting memories: Getting traumatized on the football field

in #sportstalk5 months ago

Just so you know this is about American football, not the one that most people call "real football."

ApeGorillaGIF.gif

Not really... I've grown to rather enjoy the US version of the sport.

You mention rugby at the end and your story resonates with my time playing rugby... probably up until a similar age! It's amazing how a single tackle (in my case, an illegal one) acts as a message to go and do something else!

For me, I played Rugby at school (as well as football, hockey and in the summer, cricket and tennis). I was average-good at most of them (excluding tennis) and played for the school team. The rugby coaches highlighted me as somebody to watch... I was small but didn't mind the rough stuff. I played Scrum Half (probably the quarter back equivalent). My dad hated me playing rugby - "do you want cauliflower ears?" he'd often ask.

One of my favourite plays was to throw a dummy pass and go blind side of the scrum - essentially where there were fewer players. On one occasion that I did this, their No. 8 (always the biggest mofo on the team) peeled off and clotheslined me - right across the throat like something from WWF. Completely illegal but that was the day I said "Nah, maybe my dad's right".

Sort:  

wow, what a story! Certainly their No. 8 knew that he would get busted for this?

Rugby and American football are definitely sports for people that don't mind getting hurt every now and then but I've seen even professionals get "knocked" and not ever really be the same from that point forward. It happens in all manner of sports and I think that you and I probably made the correct choice by leaving these sports in our rear-view mirrors rather than just "man up" and end up with chronic injury problems that haunt us for all of our lives.

The cool thing about cauliflower ears is that these days people just presume you are an MMA fighter and nobody will mess with you.

Certainly their No. 8 knew that he would get busted for this?

I think I got a foul. It was 30 years ago when all sports were rougher than they are now!

The cool thing about cauliflower ears is that these days people just presume you are an MMA fighter and nobody will mess with you.

Ha ha! If only...