Lincicome: Football is a violent sport. And that's the way we like it
There is no sport without pain, theirs not ours, though I have seen the parking lot at Lambeau Field turn unfriendly for visitors. And risk. Without risk, sports is dancing.
Football is the worst, or the best, depending on your approval and enjoyment of cruelty, brutality and the like. Football finds the beast in all of us until we are reminded, in prime time, that death could shame us all.
I wondered watching the Bills and Bengals huddled around stricken safety Damar Hamlin, medics trying to restart his heart, if any had second thoughts about their jobs. This is the worst that could happen and it could happen to any one of them. Probably not. Sympathy is as temporary as a sigh. And the money is so good.
As good news surfaces on the improving condition of the young Buffalo player, teammates, opponents, the NFL and the world in general can exhale, relieved of alarm and guilt. Time to get back to work.
Nothing will change, nor does anyone really want it to. Huge men will crash into each other, smaller men will break more easily and the team doctor will be standing by with a blue tent to cover concern.
And the NFL will get on with the more pressing problem of figuring out how now to satisfy an unbalanced playoff system.
I recall Reggie White, a notable and dangerous defensive tackle, offering a bounty to teammates for making particularly vicious hits. The irony here is that White was a gentle soul and a man of faith.
"Just because I'm a Christian and a minister," he said, "doesn't mean I won't try to knock a quarterback's head off." That's football, a blessing and a curse.
Vince Lombardi, the last word on all things football, once explained that football is not a contact sport, it is a collision sport.
Every sport supports danger, is fundamentally hazardous. And that is the appeal. A wise man (actually, it was me) once said that when it comes to sport you cannot always tell the difference between violence and commerce.
The NFL is not so concerned about safety. It is more concerned about liability.
Twisted knees. Bad backs. Broken bones. No athlete would trade the beginning for a better end. Broken, addled or in pain, they will say it was worth it.
Football risks can be solved this week. Simple. No pads. No helmets. Play the game without the armor, which is not protection as much as a weapon. Especially the helmet.
Soccer does fine with minimum protection, shin guards mostly. Rugby is as rugged as anyone would want. And it does quite well in some places.
Risk is what makes sports. Even poker players can get paper cuts.
This is how the audience - that's us - likes it. It is how the players like to do it. It is how the game likes to sell it. How TV can create ominous graphics to reinforce it. The tougher the better. And rule changes, tackling techniques, better equipment, on-the-spot medical care and those "concussion protocols" are not going to change it.
Every sport supports danger, is fundamentally hazardous. And that is the appeal. Is this an American issue, this appreciation of violence, this indulgence of aggression and cruelty?
Football is a natural fit, America's grand garnish, a no-brainer, a perfect union, violence and greed, aggression and exaggeration, brutes and sharks, distraction and desperation, the fierce and the phony, the heartless and the soulless, gladiators and glitz, wretched excess and excessive wretchedness, all together on a Sunday afternoon, not to mention the odd Thursday, Monday and Saturday.
Again, irony is not usually a companion of football, but check this out. The Pro Bowl (renamed the Pro Bowl Games) will feature eight skills competitions (who knew there were that many?) and three - count 'em, three - flag football games. Flag football. Like on the campus quad or the recess playground.
This is a long way from the game's beginnings, so brutal that Teddy Roosevelt had to step in and save football. He was for "the strenuous life," he said and "rough, manly sports ... as long as it is not fatal."
Hmmm.