If you asked most parents the question – Would you rather have your son play pro football or smoke?
I’m guessing that every one gasps and says “Are you kidding?”
Most parents would celebrate if you told them that their son would be a pro football player.
But think about it more closely.
For both groups it probably cuts about 20 years off of their lives, but the average football player does it living the last 30 years of his life in near crippled pain and agony. This ex-football player Conrad Dobler just went in for his 32nd knee surgery! Earl Campbell the best running back I’ve ever seen and easily the most physical one too can’t really even walk anymore. How come the government doesn’t have classes warning kids about pro football in kindergarten like they do with drugs and cigarettes?
I really think that a lot of schools think keeping kids off of drugs and cigarettes is more important that teaching kids how to read. You could argue that this is a good thing if you want, but my niece’s seem really terrified that I smoke. I tried to hide it for a long time, but that became almost impossible to do. One of my nieces was convinced after her classes that I was actually smoking crack, not cigarettes.
I’m not saying that you should smoke and I’m actually impressed by the Government’s success at discouraging it, but there’s a hysteria to it that bothers me.
It turns my stomach and it’s a lot of the reason that I can’t possibly let myself care about the sport like I used to.
