Having coached youth sports for many years, I can tell you that people-boys and girls, of all ages-react to the same injuries/pain in far different ways. Whether I was coaching little kids or teenagers, in practice and games the same player or players would be the one(s) to get injured every time. A few players were so tough that they took things the most injury prone would have to be helped off the field for, without flinching. Much of it is mental. Whether Favre had chemical assistance or not, he took the same kinds of hits that the Chris Chandlers and Matt Staffords do, and they missed time while he kept on playing.
Lol at the notion of Vick ever being benched. That will never happen, no matter how poorly he plays. If somehow the team summons the courage to make a change, they will engineer a fake injury so that it looks as if that's the reason for the switch, not subpar play.
I coached youth football years ago, I have seen many of those kids come through the high school I am at. Those kids that play through the pain throughout their life, are sometimes the ones that wind up constantly injured later on, like this one kid who had a ton of scar tissue in his knee because he just kept playing on it. Its good to be tough, but its better to be tough and have great awareness of your body and recognize when something is off. What has been proven by Hillis constantly trying to play on his hamstring well before it was healed? this kept him off the field for much longer last year. He might have had a chance to make it somewhat of a good year if he just waited.
It really isn't in the best interest of White players to play through pain in the long run because we have seen the nfl find a way to screw them over anyway and pretty much all White players know how to earn a living outside of football. So based on my experience at some point those players you criticize now might have played through pain in the past and already mentioned, some things you can't play through, although I think mcl tear was a bad example, it can be done depending on how severe or not (technically a sprain can mean a small tear), wear one of those big braces and pain pills, if it is an injury that occurs while you are already pumped up and playing then much easier to finish that game out, people have done it with worse . Maybe a lil stupid? yes.
I think what would really reduce injuries later in life is stop getting kids to play so young. The kids that had obnoxious parents putting them out there at 5 years old when they (most) aren't totally ready thinking somehow their kids will have some kind of edge in the long run (most all want their son that they swear has a rocket arm put at qb even though they barely pass at that level) are usually the same kids that are out of football by the time they are in high school or just enough to make it through high school. I was one of those kids, although I insisted on starting when I was 5 because my brother was playing in another league while being 5 years older than me (although he started at 5 as well), the league I played in was more strict by weight limits than age. I still have a bad knee. My back was already bad before my car accident and suffered other injuries that I played through, gimpy for a month because I toughed it out (chemically assisted) in a losing effort in the first round. I was tough just enough to get my ass handed to me every single play. The backup, even though he was a little scrawny would have been better out there. Yeah, that was a great decision.
Almost everyone in my family started at a young age and all were out by high school after being banged up so many times, not really caring about an athletic scholarsip, just focused on academics or a trade, except the cousin who started playing his last year of junior high. The cheapskate dad who never wanted to pay the small fee, the one that keeps a good deal poor blacks from playing until later.
While I enjoy seeing White players out there toughing it out no matter what, in the end the NFL doesn't give a crap about them now and especially won't when they are out of the league and could end their career regardless of performance or health (look how Drew Bennet and Mike Furrey quietly faded out), so what is the point if they are going to be like a gimp later on in life? because in the NFL the force you are hit with is so much stronger than the lower levels and the injuries that players receive are more likely to affect their quality of life long after football, especially special teams where so many of our players have to serve their racial apprenticeship to maybe get a shot to compete for a starting job 5 years down the line.
[video=youtube;LSS10h0BKig]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LSS10h0BKig[/video]
Watch that video. Was it all really ****ing worth it to sacrifice himself as a special teams demon for 7 years only to have fans appreciate what he contributed for one play in that entire time span? Before that there was the annual cut Steve Gleason for insert no name afflete that supposedly had limitless upside. He shouldn't have had to play special teams his entire career. He was talented enough to start at safety and better than the starters most years, and if it weren't for him getting his story out there and being good friends with several members of the Saints organization nobody would have even remembered his name because before all of the als stuff many people started retelling the blocked punt story with the name of the new White special teams demon/safety whose name is...doesn't really matter because he will never see the field for a meaningful defensive snap after showing he was better than the starters in camp and a great contributer on special teams even recovering the onside kick for the Saints Superbowl win, but still don't know your name because a black player was credited for it (yes out of football now).
Gleason won't even get to see his ****ing son grow up. DWF: "Way to go Steve for toughing it out all those years... sucks your dying and **** but we'll never forget that play man, although we probably will unless we pass the statue they made of it, and even then we won't bother reading what it says but hey you might come up in a conversation where we are wondering who the hell was that White guy who punched that Panthers player in the nuts, but we probably won't bother looking that up either, well what the hell why not its just a click away on my iphone and its always cool to see someone punched in the nuts, hey you want a hot dog, we have beer that you can have but you look pretty wasted already, oh yeah I forgot you had ALS sorry bro, hey remember the time you helped Jonathan Cassilas get the ball on the onside kick? yeah that was cool, what not you? can't really understand what your saying your mumbling all retarded, partying hard today! keep it up I'll catch you later..WHO DAT! (because I literally forgot who that was 5 seconds later)" which is what the typical Saints dwf would say if they ran into Steve, because most sure as hell don't care enough to write a few words of apreciation, except for people who had their own loved ones diagnosed with ALS and of course care more about raising awareness and finding a cure or a way to slow it down for their own loved ones rather than the actual health of Gleason.
So you're right, come on Whites, tough it out like Favre, keep popping more of those pills to maybe play long enough to finish your racial apprenticeship only to find out that minor thing in your knee 5 years ago is actually completely screwed with tons of scar tissue and/or multiple other issues start catching up with you like Kevin Curtis with the hernia, the thing in his calf, wait, yeah his knee wound up being completely screwed too after what was supposed to be a minor scope only for his career to end with him being released after being put on IR for something with his hand, not even the decency to keep him for the year after geting back to football shape by 2011 when he had cancer in 2010, that should be some big story right? well maybe if he were black, becaue they'll bring in one of Schiano's black pets who can't walk a roster spot although no salary, they are sure to give him a job, perhaps at a made up position but hey hopefully those White players managed to run fast enough to receive tons of head trauma serving as White Special Teams Demons for those few years they toughed it out. I mean especially the few White starters at skill positions, you really have to tough it out to make sure bigunreal wins in fantasy football, yeah he still never figured out the reason its all rigged, so he never wins it all in fantasy football.
Honestly, I think many of the injuries conerning the body comes from not going all out when you play. The NFL is too busy trying to change the game to prevent concussions, or rather the chance of getting sued later for concussions when all they have to do is design a new helmet. A cyclyst that hits a car head first is less likely to receive damage than two players hitting helmet to helmet at full speed. They really can't figure it out?
I think I will be done with the NFL for a little while if Hillis truly gets no shot the rest of this season, I know its just one position but thats what I like to see, a White guy running with the ball. Everyone has their favorite positons, usually what they played growing up. Although I blocked quite a bit I also got to run with it in the offense we ran. I guess 2010 spoiled me, actually was pumped to watch an NFL game.
btw Vick will be benched if he continues like this, but the league has to find another black to start somewhere first or at least right around the same time, perhaps Weeden has a bad game and they decide to put Seneca Wallace in.