WASHINGTON POST COLUMN: …Satchel did play football for a local youth league several years ago, but he was just running around and didn’t really see contact. Then last year, with his daddy as assistant coach, he played both sides of the ball. He scored, he intercepted, he tackled — and he fell in love. With compression shirts and shoulder pads. With that football stink, the dirt in his cleats and that sweet pink wristband that let you know he was Satchel from anywhere on the field. With the helmet-smacking, yeah-boy-that’s-what-I’m-talking-about toughness of the game, which came along just as he was earnestly starting to fashion his masculine identity.
He fell in love with a feeling of coming into himself that all his momma’s cheering in the world couldn’t give him.
I’d already expressed my reservations, but now I started reading more about football and concussions. Football and suicides. Football and the effects of the degenerative disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which scientists say is caused by head trauma and which has afflicted famous players including Hall of Famer Tony Dorsett. I started sending articles to my ex-husband.Then came last week’s announcement that San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland was retiring after a stellar rookie season over concerns about head injuries. It felt like another hit to the sport, and it scared me anew… (more)
