Earl Campbell & The Damage Done



Being a rock'n'roll fan isn't necessarily humbling (so long as you don't actually own any Stone Temple Pilots albums) because these days, your favorite artists just get older and older alongside you. Sometimes, they actually pass you.

It's a little different for followers of professional sports, as the idols of your youth will inevitably succumb to the ravages of age and end up staggering around --- a vivid reminder that you're either no better or you're next. Unpleasant stuff, either way.

This phenomena is particularly harsh in the case of the NFL, where George Blanda aside, there aren't too many Jesse Orosco's or Mark Messier's to point to. The average NFL player lives to some ridiculously young age --- 37, I think --- for a trained athlete. Though the training in question generally involves subjecting oneself to terrible physical pain and then doing everything imaginable to mask the symptoms. Much as I love watching 22 guys in spandex killing themselves for my entertainment, I can't help but feel uneasy. Consider the case of former Houston Oilers RB Earl Campbell. From today's NY Daily News and Tim Smith :

With the aide of a gray metal cane, Earl Campbell hobbled to the steps as two men helped him reach the stage at the Super Bowl Media Center.

It was an image that contrasted starkly with the one of the punishing rusher who flattened linebackers like a runaway freight train.

Campbell is one of six NFL Hall of Fame players from Texas who will participate in the coin toss for tonight's Super Bowl. On this day last week, Y.A. Tittle and Ollie Matson, at least two decades older than Campbell, sat on the other side of the podium. They were downright spry compared to Campbell, who is only 48 but looks older because of his halting movement and gray hair and beard.

The whole scene - the gray-haired Campbell feebly walking with the cane and sitting next to Hall of Fame players much older yet more mobile - was a jarring juxtaposition of the image of Campbell that I have in my head. It was as harsh as I imagine it would be to try to tackle a thundering Campbell in his heyday.

Is a Super Bowl ring worth the physical damage that NFL players inflict upon themselves and others? Are the series of concussions and the long-term effects suffered by Eric Lindros worth the price of his future away from hockey?

Ask any NFL player, even those who pump steroids and HGH into their bodies, and they will tell you that it is. Ask their families, the ones who have to care for them, whether it's worth it and I guarantee you'd get a different answer. After seeing Campbell, I would say it's not worth it. Nothing on this Earth is worth the loss of health and vitality.

Campbell said he wouldn't trade his experiences in college and in the NFL for anything. He does not blame football for his current condition. To do so would invalidate his trip to fame and glory.

"I don't think that there's anything that football did to me one bit," Campbell said.

In his plain-spoken Texas way, Campbell defended his running style.

"I came from a family of seven boys and four girls," he said. "I was the only one that couldn't sing or dance. The only way I could get into the end zone was running north and south. I don't think that took a toll on my body."

It is the same as Muhammad Ali saying boxing didn't contribute to his Parkinson's disease.



On the bright side, any set of circumstances that might take Jack Tatum off this mortal coil sooner rather than later, cannot be considered a bad thing.

Posted: Sun - February 1, 2004 at 12:50 PM      

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