WHY EVERY FOOTBALL GAME IS AN ILLNESS, A TRAGEDY WAITING TO HAPPEN
In 2023, we’ve seen Chubb lose a knee, Rodgers blow out his Achilles, Hamlin saved from cardiac arrest — and a Colorado State player threatened — and if this is messing with your mind, stop watching
The union doesn’t have to lie. All the leaders must show is Nick Chubb’s right leg moving forward, with his left leg either separating from his body or falling deep into the Ohio River, and remind running backs they shouldn’t breach deals to prove they’re the most devalued people in sports. As it was, the NFL Players Association wanted them to fib as a negotiating scheme against owners paying them a lowball equivalent of plastic jewelry or a cable TV cord.
Now, Chubb’s grotesque injury becomes the latest anatomical crash to exhibit why mothers never should have told sons to become backs. It also makes us ask, again, whether every football game features a murderous outrage as the calendar carries on. We’re only shortly into the season and, already, the multiple tears of the Cleveland rusher’s left knee came a week after Aaron Rodgers’ new career in New York was disparaged by a torn Achilles tendon. Just as we heard him chart an improbable playoff return — a “speed bridge,” Rodgers said — now we wonder if Chubb’s career is over, which happens months after Damar Hamlin’s heart was revived twice after a blow to the chest.
This as a Colorado State player, a victim of Deion Sanders’ emotional overkill, has has life threatened on a cell phone.
What’s happening, folks, is we’ve possibly seen the end of three players. That’s 2023 for you, just as ESPN simulcasts Monday night games on ABC thanks to the ongoing Hollywood strikes. Hamlin has yet to suit up this season for the Buffalo Bills, which is understandable to those who’ve had heart issues and those who haven’t. Chubb’s shreds, after a cheapshot hit by Minkah Fitzpatrick, came after he ripped apart his MCL, PCL and LCL in the same left knee at Georgia in 2015. And while Rodgers will return, we might see a radical deterioration of a 40-year-old at quarterback. This is the king of sports, the National Football League, with commissioner Roger Goodell marketing his game as a monumental cultural experience long past the woes of the 2010s.
Rather, we tune in to watch a player’s heart muscles stop as delicate ligaments are torn to shreds. Is that what America wants these days, a backdrop so hideous that Joe Buck had to warn an audience? The political warfare is sickening enough. Why not let bodies keep bleeding on a field?
“I am told that the replay of Nick Chubb getting injured is not to be seen,” Buck said on the ESPN broadcast.
“Yeah, we’re not going to show it,” partner Troy Aikman said. “It’s as bad as you could imagine.”
As this was happening, a day after an underpaid Saquon Barkley had a sprained ankle with the New York Giants, another quarterback was rewarded with a record-breaking contract. Patrick Mahomes had his deal restructured by the Kansas City Chiefs, giving him the the most guaranteed money in league history between this season and 2026 — $210.6 million. That means Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow, all of whom had passed Mahomes in average annual pay, now must look up once again at the prevailing Super Bowl trooper. The difference between Mahomes is that he stays healthy, which hasn’t been Burrow’s case this season. He has played with a strained right calf muscle since signing his $275 million deal and probably should be on the bench, which could happen before the Cincinnati Bengals are in the next Monday night swirl.
Why didn’t coach Zac Taylor gather the same whiff that wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase had in preseason? Knowing Burrow is bothered by a problematic hitch, he said he should wait several regular-season weeks before returning. Now, Chase says, “I wish we would have did that (from the) jump. But live and learn. Like I said at the beginning of the season, health is the biggest thing for our quarterback and for the team, period. Stay healthy. We are playing a long season. It's what this whole thing was about for us." With Burrow still playing, it leaves him open to … never mind. Anyone want to see a calf burst? “I’m not sure how it's going to feel the next couple days," Burrow said. “It's pretty sore right now. No telling how it's going to feel. It’s tough to tell. It’s tough to look into the future.”
The trauma is beyond the field. Sunday night, a Patriots fan named Dale Mooney — age 53, father of two adult sons — died after a medical event in the 300 level at Gillette Stadium. At least one fan said Mooney was struck by a vicious punch long before security help arrived. Are you concerned about violence at games? I keep hearing it from fans who’d rather stay home, instead of watching the Colorado-Colorado State madness last weekend.
Did you see the dirty hit on Colorado receiver Travis Hunter by defensive back Henry Blackburn? Soon after the shot, cellphone numbers for Blackburn and his mother were published online. Both were blistered by life-threatening calls. “We're very concerned about our player's safety, as Henry and his family have continued to receive these threats,” athletic director Joe Parker said. “Henry never intended to put anyone in harm's way on the football field. It's not what we teach or coach. We hope that the irrational vitriol directed at Henry stops immediately.”
This would be the unintentional fallout of opponents who make life “personal” for Sanders. That’s what Colorado State coach Jay Norvell did before the game, wondering why Sanders’ mother didn’t urge him to take his hat and glasses off when talking “to grown-ups.” Everyone thinks Sanders’ transfer-portal madness is great for sports. Anyone wonder about what he’s doing educationally in Boulder? Setting up everyone for another on-the-field storm each week? Are you waiting for Oregon 48, Colorado 15 this weekend? I am.
Don’t shoot me.
“Henry Blackburn is a good player who played a phenomenal game,” Sanders said Tuesday. “He made a tremendous hit on Travis on the sideline. You could call it dirty, you could call it, ‘He was just playing the game of football.’ But whatever it was, it does not constitute that he should be receiving death threats. He does not deserve a death threat over a game.
“At the end of the day, this is a game. Someone must win, someone must lose. Everybody continues their life the next day. (Death threats) are very unfortunate. I'm saddened if there's any of our fans that's on the other side of those threats — I would hope and pray not. But that kid was just playing the best of his ability and he made a mistake. I forgive him. CU, our team forgives him. Travis, he's forgiven him. Let's move on. But that kid does not deserve that.”
For now, let’s ponder Chubb, who has rushed for more than 1,000 yards in four straight seasons, including a career-high 1,525 last year. The Browns lost to the Steelers, but their season almost looks worn out by losing their hero. “It f—ing hurts,” defensive end Myles Garrett said. “That's our brother, my brother. Been together a long time. It's a blow for the whole team. We don't want his injury to be in vain. We gotta push on. Just continue to fight.”
“At that moment, it was tough," said quarterback Deshaun Watson, who must perform better without him. “Once we saw the replay, I had a lot of flashbacks to the injury he had back in college.”
“Obviously it's a huge loss," receiver Amari Cooper said. "Nick is the engine of the team. Best player on the team. ... I'm very sad for Nick, sad for this team losing Nick. Not only is it not ideal, it's a tragedy.”
Tragedy. So true.
Football, as we know it in America, never stops delivering distress, suffering and destruction. Seems we talk about it more than ever now. Keep rooting, keep gambling, keep wearing that t-shirt, but this genre is an illness.
I just wanted to remind you of that.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.