Comments on: Thugs in Sports http://www.setzler.net/2007/08/25/thugs-in-sports/ Life in Black and White Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:38:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Ted Byrne http://www.setzler.net/2007/08/25/thugs-in-sports/comment-page-1/#comment-338 Ted Byrne Sat, 25 Aug 2007 17:13:51 +0000 http://www.setzler.net/2007/08/25/thugs-in-sports/#comment-338 Trenchant thoughts John. They've sparked a couple in my noggin. 1) It is very hard to play a sport at a world class level. 2) The demands are for a uniquely physical talent and 3) Particularly in team sports, and in football in particular, there are memory demands that would make a pre-med student tear up. 4) The ballet of interactions which not only change instantaneously, but brutally reward mistakes go well beyond mere reflexive or muscle memory learning. I've come to conclude that pro football players in particularly are very... if uniquely... intelligent. When you get to Vic's level as a quarterback... the totality of the package he has to bring to the game is ... well the word awesome understates it. I have always thought that colleges should have to pay for athletes with rewards well beyond tuition, book, and living grants. Why Vic abruptly becomes worth millions upon graduation is not odd. He was worth millions before, but the college/university captured that profit - sharing little with him. It is the essence of exploitation. However, intelligence and talent nowhere preclude the existence of an evil seed. Evil, unsupressed, deserves punishment independent of the other abilities in a person's package. Punishment, or its threat, is an incentive to supress the dark side. The question in Vic's case is not the need for necessary punishment... but rather the extent of that punishment and how far it should go beyond a corrective dose and how far it should extend into society's revenge as a result of its loathing of the act. But... I blather. Thanks for sharing... Ted Trenchant thoughts John. They’ve sparked a couple in my noggin.
1) It is very hard to play a sport at a world class level.
2) The demands are for a uniquely physical talent and
3) Particularly in team sports, and in football in particular, there are memory demands that would make a pre-med student tear up.
4) The ballet of interactions which not only change instantaneously, but brutally reward mistakes go well beyond mere reflexive or muscle memory learning.

I’ve come to conclude that pro football players in particularly are very… if uniquely… intelligent. When you get to Vic’s level as a quarterback… the totality of the package he has to bring to the game is … well the word awesome understates it.

I have always thought that colleges should have to pay for athletes with rewards well beyond tuition, book, and living grants. Why Vic abruptly becomes worth millions upon graduation is not odd. He was worth millions before, but the college/university captured that profit - sharing little with him. It is the essence of exploitation.

However, intelligence and talent nowhere preclude the existence of an evil seed. Evil, unsupressed, deserves punishment independent of the other abilities in a person’s package. Punishment, or its threat, is an incentive to supress the dark side. The question in Vic’s case is not the need for necessary punishment… but rather the extent of that punishment and how far it should go beyond a corrective dose and how far it should extend into society’s revenge as a result of its loathing of the act.

But… I blather.

Thanks for sharing…

Ted

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