OT: Jim Plunkett is a Complete Physical Wreck
Definitely not an advertisement for playing professional football:
"His body is a patchwork of medical magic: Artificial knees, an artificial shoulder and a surgically repaired back. After 18 operations, Plunkett’s activities have been reduced to golf and light workouts at home on a Crosstrainer."
Also appears to have some brain-injury-related issues emerging. Lots of people his age are in poor physical health (my dad was a mess at 69, for instance), but it's hard to imagine his huge list of conditions is unrelated to his long, violent football career. There's a great quote in the article: Playing football is like "getting in 50 car wrecks a week for 20 straight weeks a year."
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/08/04/jim-plunketts-painful-journey-my-…
The man must have been sacked 10,000 times in his football career starting at Stanford and by playing for some of the worst NFL teams ever, including NE Patriots ('71-'75), 49ers ('76-'77) and the Oakland Raiders ('78-'86).
Half of his injuries were caused by practicing live during the week vs. his own teammates at Oakland.
With the Oakland Raiders, Plunkett had to practice against freaking DLs Lyle Alzado, Reggie Kinlaw, Howie Long, LBs Ted Hendricks, Matt Millen and Jack Squirek and hard hitting DBs Lester Hayes and Michael Haynes.
I'd trade him one of those knee surgeries for Michigan winning the '72 Rose Bowl...
Very sad to hear--Jim Plunkett was my first sports hero.
After Stanford football games he had to run to the locker room (which was separate from the football stadium) through a gauntlet of kids (including me) seeking autographs. Eventually he started running through the Stanford band as cover because he was just too damn popular!
It was Plunkett-to-Vataha in every sandlot game.
We moved East the same year he was drafted by the Patriots and they were my new favorite team. It was hard to watch him get crushed very Sunday. I'm sure it felt worse to him.
By that, I don't mean I am glad Jim Plunkett has to take an opioid to play golf, has pain in multiple areas, etc -- but as many have mentioned, I have family relatives who are the same age, who didn't play 20 years of football, and are going through the same thing, if not worse.
The list of surgeries is long, the pill boxes are full, and the aches, pain and numbness are legion.
The body is a machine. You try to take care of it the best you can, but for many, many reasons it starts to fall apart after awhile.
August 5th, 2017 at 10:12 AM ^
playing football, and the physical toll it takes on person who plays it professionally for a long time. It also can affect those who haven't played their whole lives.
Where are all the articles about the 55 year-old cement worker who can hardly walk anymore from the decades of manual labor? Or the 70 year-old farmer who can't pour a glass of milk from a gallon because the years of endless work have rendered his hands riddled with arthritis?
The fact is this world is full of people suffering the effects of their labors. I have a lot more sympathy for regular folks who probably worked as hard- or harder, for a much longer period of time, and for a fraction of what most athletes made in less than a season of their sport- than retired athletes.
Don't get me wrong- all those who suffer such things deserve our compassion. Athletes are no different than others who suffer.
I always remember a reporter who asked Sparky Anderson if he felt bad for the struggles Alan Trammell was having during a stretch of the season. Anderson replied, "Don't feel sorry for these men- they're being paid millions to play a game."
Probably a good thing they've, you know, advanced in everything from protective padding and helmets to rules implimented for safety.
playing in a viscious league of literal headhunters like Jack Lambert, Ed Too Tall Jones, Mike Singletary, Chuck Cecil and Mean Joe Green had nothing to do with the head injuries.
Choices.
If your head is huge and has own it's weather system, then why would you cram it into a an undersized, under-padded lunch pail, soup bowl helmet like that?
I was watching the commercial from the website and forgot what I was doing for a bit. Football players make a fortune. I sacrafice my body too. Like a professional athlete? no but I don't make jack shit compared to them. Every football player could work at home depot if they chose to.