How many hundreds of popular songs have passionately given voice to this sentiment?
New York Jets Jamal Adams pledged his life, not in service of a loved one, but to express passion for the game of football. In light of the recent CTE survey, it has created controversy far beyond the intent of a young man getting his first taste of the NFL, overwhelmed by the thrill of it all.
Athletes have died on the field of play, and not just in the NFL. But there’s nothing noble about it. Players recognize the risk, but they don’t go on the gridiron intending to die. You can get struck by lightning on the golf course. Is there something heroic about that?
It amazes me how seriously we take proclamations from kids barely above puberty. As if the phrase, “out of the mouths of babes”, legitimizes the nonsense routinely spewed by young jocks. And poets. And other celebrities, worthy of their acclaim or not.
Pledges of life sacrifice are not be taken literally. We need to find another way to express our passion. If you made such a pledge to another in the heyday of your youth, reflect on whether you’d be willing to cash that check today.
The fact is we don’t know how we would react until confronted with that ultimate decision. It’s passed through my mind while walking my dog on the side of a busy street, cars whizzing by. If one of them swerved unexpectedly, would my impulse be to step into its path to save my dog? Would I be judged as brave or stupid? Or both? I don’t know and hope I never find out.
Secret Service agents must default to that position if the president is threatened. That’s the real world. We can’t conflate playing football with that awful responsibility. Chalk it up to the blissful ignorance of youth and hope that others, even more unseasoned, do not follow that credo. The adults in the room need to speak up.
I recently read a piece by the husband of a woman who had died of cancer. He was offended by stories of those who had “conquered” the disease by sheer force of will. He said that his wife had a great positive attitude and had fought with every fiber of her being before succumbing. His point was that if winning this battle connotes bravery, losing must imply at best, an unseemly lack of resolve. Call it what you will, but recognize real courage versus false bravado.
Mostly, we have no real answer as to why some people survive disease and serious accidents while others do not. A lot of it is what we call luck, since we can’t know for sure. Even the most learned physicians shrug when asked. The same regimens that save one life fail to preserve another. Fate cannot be denied, whatever it is.
