I read a story this morning on who athletes have a hard time retiring. It fits Nasser to a T. The late 80'a and 90's were his time. This is why so many refuse to let it go.
Bill Reynolds: Ted Johnson’s plight should be cautionary tale
07:53 AM EST on Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Former Patriot Ted Johnson is facing an uncertain future.
You can’t read about the unfortunate travails of Ted Johnson, the former Patriots linebacker, in last week’s Boston Globe without feeling sorry for him.
Here is a 34-year-old whose life has unraveled, a man who has severe depression, is addicted to amphetamines, has been through both a publicized domestic abuse incident and a divorce, and has spent time in a psychiatric hospital. A man who once walked among the kings that are the Patriots around here, but who now faces an uncertain future.
At one level, it’s one more reaffirmation that football takes its pound of flesh on too many of its former players. From the countless stories of ex-players who need knee replacements too soon, to the endless examples of former players whose bodies betray them at too young an age, many of the players come to pay dearly for those Sunday afternoon cheers. It’s the game’s dirty little secret. Johnson is just the latest example, and there’s no denying it’s tragic.
He blames it all on a number of concussions he had while playing football, a story further complicated by the fact that he claims Bill Belichick all but forced him to play in 2002 after he had suffered two concussions within a matter of days.
And that’s where Johnson’s story gets complicated.
Johnson was not some 15-year-old high school sophomore when all of this took place, told by some tyrant coach to either play or not be on the team anymore. He was an NFL veteran, an adult, someone who already had made more money than most people make in a lifetime. He didn’t have to play, didn’t really have to be forced by Belichick to do anything he didn’t want to do. In short, it was his decision.
That’s not to say it was an easy one.
There’s no denying the fact it’s hard to walk away from sports. It’s the reason why there are countless leagues. In a variety of sports, full of adults who carry around in their heads the echoes of long ago. It’s the reason that one of the themes that runs through American literature is the portrait of the aging jock looking for a second act. It’s the reason why so few professional athletes ever seem to retire gracefully anymore, always hanging on for one more comeback, one more contract, one more season.
And it’s not just the money, as powerful a lure as that is. In many ways, sports is an addiction, and about as difficult to quit. For the overwhelming majority of athletes, sports is all they know. It’s how they’ve defined themselves since they were kids. Sports have shaped the way they view the world. They have long become accustomed to the cheers, to the limelight, to the adulation, to all of the perks that come with being a professional athlete. They’re going to walk away from all of this into some unknown future?
Not many of them are, that’s for sure.
Instead, they are going to cling to it like a drowning man to a life raft. It’s the reason Roger Clemens will pitch again, even though he’s staring at an AARP card and certainly doesn’t need the money. It’s the reason Michael Jordan came back to play with the Wizards, even though he had to know that all he was going to do was tarnish his own legend. It’s the reason Curt Schilling has changed his tune about retirement.
And I suspect it’s the reason Ted Johnson kept playing, even though he knew he shouldn’t, regardless of Belichick’s supposed role in all of this. For Johnson had to know that this had become a dance with the devil for him, that he had taken too many hits to the head, had too many concussions, and that one day he was going to have to pay some terrible price for it.
That leads to another point, a byproduct of this sorry tale.
For people who make their living with their bodies, too many seem to have such disregard for them. From the steroid use, to playing with painkillers, to being pioneers in the brave new world of performance-enhancing drugs, too many athletes seem to be walking some personal plank, lured there by the promise of money, celebrity and a culture that almost genuflects in front of them.
So maybe it’s not too surprising that Johnson kept playing, when, in retrospect, it had become apparent that he shouldn’t have been. Not that he could have known what awaited him so soon after his retirement. But he’s become a cautionary tale, no matter how the rest of this unfortunate saga plays out.
“I don’t want anyone to end up like me,” Johnson told Jackie MacMullan of The Boston Globe.
Words to remember.
Haunting words.
Words that remain after the cheers are gone.
Words that should be chiseled on the lockers of every NFL player.
In many ways, sports is an addiction, and about as difficult to quit. For the overwhelming majority of athletes, sports is all they know. It’s how they’ve defined themselves since they were kids.
In many ways, sports is an addiction, and about as difficult to quit. For the overwhelming majority of athletes, sports is all they know. It’s how they’ve defined themselves since they were kids.
