Steve Christilaw: Human cost of football must be weighed seriously
It wasn’t anything near the big deal the game is today. Most of the rabid fans came disguised as empty seats at the L.A. Coliseum and my dad stumbled on the game almost by accident. It wasn’t appointment viewing.
We weren’t Green Bay Packers fans, but we saw a lot of them back in the day. We followed them as much out of loyalty to Jerry Kramer, from Sandpoint and the University of Idaho, as anything else.
And I have to admit, my memories of the game have been augmented by Kramer’s memoirs, “Instant Replay” and “Farewell to Football.”
Max McGee’s one-handed touchdown catch in front of Fred “The Hammer” Williamson is even more memorable because of the fact that he had a horrendous hangover and was wearing a borrowed helmet because he’d left his own in the locker room. That and the fact that Williamson is more famous for playing Dr. Oliver Wendell Jones in the movie “M*A*S*H.”
The second and most memorable was a pass play where the Green Bay line crashed down on Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson and he loosed a wobbly, desperation pass that Hall of Famer Willie Wood pounced on at midfield and returned to the 4-yard line.
It was a great play. The pass was badly underthrown and Wood, a graceful as well as forceful athlete, broke on the ball and wove his way up field.
The sad thing about this play is that while I, and others of my generation, remember it, Willie Wood, 79, does not.
The New York Times published a heartbreaking story about Wood last week. The image of a man who was a tremendous physical specimen in my memory sitting slumped in a wheelchair tears at the heart. And the fact that the man in the wheelchair doesn’t remember that he is considered one of the very best to have ever played the game brings a tear to the eye.
Before the Wood story came out, there was news about Kenny “The Snake” Stabler’s posthumous diagnosis of level 3 CTE – chronic traumatic encephalopathy – the brain damage caused by a series of blows to the head, including concussions.
It’s the basis for the Will Smith movie “Concussion.”
As a Seahawks fan, I never liked the Raiders, but you couldn’t help but like the swaggering, left-handed gunslinger that the Snake was. He wasn’t pretty to watch, but boy was he good at winning. You had to respect the man.
Level 3 CTE is pretty bad, and the more we come to know about the damage concussions do to the human brain, the more you have to wonder about the price athletes pay to excel at their sport.
I am concerned that the human cost of playing the game of football is far, far too high. The athletes who suffer from CTE are too great a price to pay for our entertainment. The spillover cost to the people who love them and who pay that price, too often, with their own lives, is beyond endurance.
And then the next day came the news that Earl Morrall had suffered with Level 4 CTE before his death – the highest level of damage.
My favorite team as a kid was the Baltimore Colts and Johnny Unitas was my favorite player. He was the anti-Joe Namath. Instead of long hair and white low-top cleats, Unitas stuck with his flat-top haircut and black high-tops. Whether he threw an interception or a touchdown pass, he walked off the field the exact same way. I can safely say that the man never once dapped in his entire life.
In 1968, my hero was injured in the final exhibition game and Morrall came on to lead the Colts to a 13-1 record and a berth in the Super Bowl. If Unitas was my favorite player, Morrall was 1A.
Knowing the ordeal he faced in his final years breaks my heart.
And finally, in the second half of the 50th Super Bowl came the news that Marshawn Lynch was hanging up his cleats.
I have gotten such a kick out of watching Lynch, and I am going to miss him.
There has never been an ounce of pretense about Marshawn. He is who he is and he never once tried to be anything else. As an athlete, he is unique – an incredible mix of balance and power that combined with an amazing mental toughness. At times, he was virtually unstoppable.
I have no doubt he loved the Seattle fans who embraced him as much as they loved him. And there is no athlete I have ever seen who left more of himself on the field every week.
As hard as he has played the game, and as much punishment as his body has absorbed over the years, I hope he leaves the game at a time when his body will allow him a happy and comfortable retirement.
I wish Marshawn a retirement filled with the young people he adores and all the Skittles his heart desires. And I pray that it’s a retirement free of the horrors of CTE.
Contact Steve Christilaw at steve.christilaw@gmail.com.