Borland's decision should embolden others who want to quit
Chris Borland ignited a football firestorm this week by announcing his retirement from the NFL.
This simply doesn't happen. A 24-year-old emerging star doesn't just quit the game. Imagine if Kyle Fuller or Kyle Long quit on the Bears at a similar age.
Borland's decision led alarmists to fear that the sport is going to run out of players. How silly. For every player abandoning football early because of health concerns, countless others will be eager to take his place.
The real message here is that not playing football is OK. It's OK for NFL-quality players to quit. It's OK on the college and high school levels, too. And it's OK in youth leagues.
The perception has been that only a quitter quits football: That every macho man, macho teenager or macho sixth-grader should play the game if talented enough.
In our football-crazy culture it takes as much guts to reject the game as to embrace it.
A recent focus has been on parents who decide to not permit their kids to participate in this cruel exercise.
An equal focus should be on parents who feed their own fantasies by pushing their children onto the field.
Some kids play only to please mom and dad, or maybe to not disappoint them. Now an actual NFL role model essentially indicated to them that for whatever your reason, you don't have to play if you don't want to.
With the concussions issue magnified these days, Borland decided his long-term health is more valuable than immediate gratification.
Borland, a 49ers' linebacker, didn't recommend that others give up football.
Still, the implication is that it's OK to do so.
A kid might not want to play anymore just because he doesn't want to play anymore. Playing might not be fun anymore or fulfilling anymore or as rewarding anymore as playing the oboe, programming software or driving an 18-wheeler.
So what's new here? Isn't this a free country? Can't a person choose whatever activity he prefers?
Sure he can. So can she. Except, permeating this skewed culture is the notion that you'd be nuts to turn down a chance to be an NFL player despite the jeopardy.
The pay is fabulous, the cheers are addictive and the chance to play in a Super Bowl is tantalizing.
Anyone who doesn't want to strive for those benefits must be a freak and maybe even be un-American, right?
No, wrong. Different people have different perspectives and different priorities, including self-preservation.
People admired Pat Tillman when he gave up a lucrative NFL career to volunteer for the U.S. Military but many still don't understand why he did.
A lot of soldiers defending freedom, they figure, would rather play football. So would a lot of doctors who cure diseases and a lot of teachers who teach lessons.
Overall, many in many worthwhile occupations would rather play football despite how relatively trivial a pursuit it is.
Considerable pressure - peer, parental, personal - is applied to football players to continue playing football whether they want to or not.
Most NFL players would play as long as possible and worry about the consequences later. Football isn't what they do, it is who they are and what they want to be.
A good guess, though, is that increased knowledge about brain trauma is tempting many to get out sooner than later.
Chris Borland retired early and now others - younger and older - can see that it really is OK to move on.
mimrem@dailyherald.com