The Byron Jones Story

[Mr. Scot]

The sad reality is that loads of people, including people who genuinely are old enough or smart enough to know better, trade valuable aspects of their life in exchange for for money.

Sometimes it's your physical health, like doing something that breaks your body down...but it pays you well.

Sometimes it's your mental health, like working at a job you despise so much that the stress hurts you physically...but it pays you well.

Sometimes it's other things like pride, dignity, privacy, family and pretty much always time... but it's okay because it pays you well.

Or at least it's okay until you come to a point of realizing that maybe it wasn't really worth it.

That's just the world

[Basbear]

following scot post and as a contractor, plenty of others destroy their body for much less. 

guys like him, just dont get it. 

talk to doctors and nurses, they will tell you. 

I still hold on to the belief, if Id got on some good PEDs, I could have been some practice squad bouncing guy that just needed a couple years on the 53 and make 600,000 each year......life changing.

Like others I played and had a former dallas cowboy player(my coach), tell my father that I had what to takes to play in the NFL. But I changed that path with work, I had to work. I also choose to race go-carts, just wasnt enough time for football. Even while at college had david garrard ask me to join, but i too into women and booze to go back to football.

Dumb looking back. 

[joemac]

8 hours ago, FugginPoo said:

Eventually the players will be replaced by AI Robots like the rest of us.  No more pain then

Hey now! Robot Lives Matter too!

[joemac]

24 minutes ago, Basbear said:

following scot post and as a contractor, plenty of others destroy their body for much less. 

guys like him, just dont get it. 

talk to doctors and nurses, they will tell you. 

I still hold on to the belief, if Id got on some good PEDs, I could have been some practice squad bouncing guy that just needed a couple years on the 53 and make 600,000 each year......life changing.

Like others I played and had a former dallas cowboy player(my coach), tell my father that I had what to takes to play in the NFL. But I changed that path with work, I had to work. I also choose to race go-carts, just wasnt enough time for football. Even while at college had david garrard ask me to join, but i too into women and booze to go back to football.

Dumb looking back. 

I feel that. I was a very good HS baseball player, and played Division 1 college baseball. Had I known about/had access to PEDs back the. I ABSOLUTELY would have taken them and probably had a chance to play professionally. Hell I had that chance anyways and I was just tall and skinny. 

[Basbear]

23 minutes ago, joemac said:

I feel that. I was a very good HS baseball player, and played Division 1 college baseball. Had I known about/had access to PEDs back the. I ABSOLUTELY would have taken them and probably had a chance to play professionally. Hell I had that chance anyways and I was just tall and skinny. 

I was a great young player and then the others caught up with me. Not going to lie, I didnt enjoy it as much when that happened. *But* i hit another late growth and got back "ahead", then I noticed some of the others gaining........ I went to my still current doctor and asked him for steroids. He told he needed to time to research this and scheduled another appointment. 

I came back and he said "Do you enjoy laying in dirt". I was confused and finally answered " no, not really ". he looked into my familys history and determined Id be long dead before 40 if i got on roids. Just about all the men in my got or had heart issues. I didnt push harder and didnt go against his guidance. 

You could have made a GREAT living overseas playing BB. One of friends had a roommate that was a one. This was many moons ago but we talked about and he got around 115,000 and got EVERYTHING take care of. Like great food daily=free. They gave him some free badass audi and free limo service if needed. Paid for a nice pad and washed his clothes. It was like he a out of country prince visiting. All 1st class stuff/treatment......the kicker was he was a off the bench type player ala like a YCMA all-star.....I couldnt believe it, he did that for years and my friend owned the house in a super pricy area. 

Edited February 26, 2023 by Basbear

[Mr. Scot]

4 hours ago, Basbear said:

following scot post and as a contractor, plenty of others destroy their body for much less. 

guys like him, just dont get it. 

talk to doctors and nurses, they will tell you. 

I still hold on to the belief, if Id got on some good PEDs, I could have been some practice squad bouncing guy that just needed a couple years on the 53 and make 600,000 each year......life changing.

Like others I played and had a former dallas cowboy player(my coach), tell my father that I had what to takes to play in the NFL. But I changed that path with work, I had to work. I also choose to race go-carts, just wasnt enough time for football. Even while at college had david garrard ask me to join, but i too into women and booze to go back to football.

Dumb looking back. 

I think anybody who saw me in high school would have described me as the kind of player who would make a very good coach

[thefuzz]

On 2/26/2023 at 8:35 AM, MHS831 said:

Some of you act as if some young person is even in a position to consider the logical, long-term implications of playing football---you gotta look at the big picture.

1. Since Pee Wees, you have been elite--the talk of the town.  It becomes your identity.  Fans, girls, news articles, etc.  It is addictive.

2. People are drawn to things they do well--the feed off the rush of being really good at something.  You don't work that hard for that long and simply walk away from it.

4. You do not compare yourself to others--you really think you are elite.  The elevator goes both ways--as you rise, you eliminate people along the way (competition).  You don't think about the day you reach the point when you are not able to eliminate people because they are as good or better than you--you have never had that experience before.  Eventually, all athletes die young.  You do not think about that day.  Like death, you know it is going to happen to you, but you do not think it is going to happen to you today.  The arrogance of youth, the blindness of the moment. In your mind, you are invincible, immortal.  It is the mindset of a gladiator, as someone else pointed out.

3.  When I was being recruited by colleges, I had academic offers to go to college without having to play football.  I remember telling my father (who played at South Carolina and in the CFL) "I don't want to turn 40 one day, look back, and regret not playing when I had the tools."  (I did not think about turning 40, looking back and thinking, "Boy, that was dumb!")

Funny, I used to think my life was football.  Now I realize that it didn't start-couldn't start-until football was over.  Life is so ironic.

Played football from 6 or so through high school.  Played at a program that wins a LOT of NC titles...weightlifting class was mandatory if you were on the football team.  You were the talk of the town, and everyone knows your name.  The two a days don't seem as bad because all your buddies are out there with you going through it together.

Then the pain comes.  It starts hurting to play football, instead of it being fun.  Saturdays were hard to get off the couch....Dr. visits, surgeries, pins and casts start popping up.  Pain pills....and this is a 15 year old kid here...

Week long football camps during the Summers at different D1 colleges...concussions.  Lots of them, probably more than 10 or so that I can recall.

I really really hope my son isn't interested.  Looking back, I wish I had never picked up that football.

[shaqattaq]

On 2/25/2023 at 4:53 PM, BIGH2001 said:

Doctors aren’t miracle workers. Put yourself through 200 car accidents a week and you’ll probably be in pain the rest of your life. What the hell is a doctor supposed to do? Own your choice to play pro football. All the risks are now well-known. 

Agree. It's easy to say that no amount of financial reward is worth chronic pain AFTER you've cashed $54M in checks. He knew the risks (we all do) and rolled the dice that he'd make it through his career OK. I hate it for him and anyone else that deals with chronic pain / brain injuries (we all know that's a risk too) at such a young age, but him saying that he didn't foresee the possibility is just not true.