OT: Cycling has nothing on the NFL

[rpm]

I just got the latest issue of Men's Journal magazine and they have an article on what happens to NFL players after they leave football. It's pretty awful:

--The average life expectancy of an NFL player is 55.
--The average career of a lineman in the NFL is 3 and a half years.
--Virtually all have significant orthopedic injuries. At the age of 52, the great Earl Campbell has to use a walker to get around.
--A shockingly large number of them have significant brain injuries and are living in extreme poverty. The article profiled several.
--The drug that's abused most is actually lidocaine. Guys come off the field with broken ribs and chipped vertebrae and they get shot up with lidocaine and sent back out.
--Reportedly, the coaches with the least sympathy for injury are Tom Coughlin, Bill Parcells, and Bill Belichick.
--The player's union has turned their back on NFL alumni and pays out little in disability benefits.

Doping undoubtedly compromises the health of a number of cyclists, but it's nothing compared to what happens to NFL players. It's all about the money.

[Fixed]

it 's a bad sport but we all watch it ..
cheers :beer:

[swoop]

i don't think the sport is very good for the health of cyclists... especially clean ones that race against dirty ones. there's this notion of secondhand effects of doping... of what it does to the clean guys that have to dig that deep just to stay on.

makes me wonder about clinger (who underneath all the damage is a sweet kid), phinney (for whom i have enormous respect.. that guy was amazing in his day... and is still so articulate and thoughtful... but i wonder how much the effort might have affected his health), pantani, those dutch boys that died in their sleep, crashes like caserteli, saul raisin, jajaj, gord.....

sport... all sport.. is a tough road. but cycling, with its suffering and starvation.. can't be good for you at the d1 level. certanly no better or worse than any other sport.

[slowgoing]

I sat on a plane next to a guy who played ten years as an offensive lineman in the NFL. He was about 48 at the time. He was about 6’-5” and looked to be in great shape, not overweight at all. When I asked him what he does to stay in shape, he said he does some light lifting and goes for slow walks - not because he enjoys it, but because that is all he can do. He is so beat up and in constant pain that he can’t run or even ride a bike. He called the problem “systemic” so that any minor jarring to any part of his body had to be avoided. It was a real eye opener.

[rwsaunders]

Army Rangers and other elite service members suffer from a lot of the same symptoms as ex-football players. Wear and tear on your joints is a very difficult issue to address.

[fiamme red]

Didn't Big Mac play in the NFL? He was still riding double centuries when he last posted here, so he must have gotten off with relatively little damage.

[hypnos]

it 's a bad sport but we all watch it ..
cheers :beer:

Not all of us. Never liked the game myself.

[Jeff N.]

Not all of us. Never liked the game myself.Try watching my Chargers this year. They'll change your mind. GO CHARGERS! Jeff N.

[Ahneida Ride]

Many have eye issues from being smacked around so much.

The strongest guy I ever met was about 6'4" and about 240-245 lbs.
Sweet guy. He could bench press 500 after a night out drinking.

He showed up in the Gym one day with a broken collar bone, after a
game of Division III football.

[Fixed]

bro at least eddy can still ride .....
cheers abby ale :beer:

[paulh]

...these guys.

[Bud_E]

...

--Reportedly, the coaches with the least sympathy for injury are Tom Coughlin, Bill Parcells, and Bill Belichick.
...


I recall a story about Al Davis calling Bob Chandler in the hospital after he had his spleen destroyed in a game to tell him that it was okay -- he could still play football without a spleen.

[Fixed]

...these guys.
only one cat with not enough respect to wear a tie ...
cheers

[swoop]

.

[cpg]

only one cat with not enough respect to wear a tie ...
cheers


Good call! Lemond looks like he wants go badger hunting.

Curt

[Fixed]

yeah bro he's standing next to his 2 buds
:beer: cheers

[Samster]

wasn't cycling once almost exclusively a stadium sport?

[rustychisel]

only one cat with not enough respect to wear a tie ...
cheers

Respect doesn't come dressed up in a cheap suit. Respect is earned, it's presents which come gift wrapped.

This says more about your mindset than it does about the assembled group, IMO.

[stevep]

Good call! Lemond looks like he wants go badger hunting.

Curt


he did though, huh?
i thk they hunted each other.

[BURCH]

This story about Mike Webster is very sad. Many of the linemen from the Steelers dynasty have ended up not much better than him. The NFL is a booming business with tons of money. They need to start taking care of their own.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=1972285

[BURCH]

I love to watch my beloved Steelers play, but have I do have some contempt for the sport. I wish that I could have been the odd ball in school growing up that wanted to cycle or play soccer instead of football.

But growing up in South Western Pa you played football. You played because you loved it and your dad played, your brother played, and there were no other sports that were given any recognition. At age 16, I had a pretty bad knee injury and after 2 knee surgeries and plenty of PT, I am now left with the broken down knee of an elderly person at age 30. If only I had grown up in an area were cycling or rowing were accepted in school.

I can only imagine what the NFL leaves its players with after a career of high speed collisions.

[ss-jimbo]

is now a strong Cat 2 in Florida. He was in a 2 up break that rode away from the field in our race in Tallahassee. His name is Jeff Kopp. I guess cycling agrees with him and football didn't leave him too banged up to compete. He owns a bike shop as well. Here is an interview with him about cycling etc.

http://www.jagnation.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=108