ticatfan
10-24-2006, 04:20 PM
http://www.tsn.ca/tsn_talent/columnists/chris_schultz/?ID=181062
Should I stay, or should I go.
Is it nobler to continue my childhood dreams and risk the inevitable satisfaction of playing, at the same time causing the destruction of my physical body, or should I walk off towards the sunset with just a slight limp, but happy with my accomplishments on and off the field.
In other words, is it time to retire, or should I come back for another season.
Every team in the CFL has a player who is wondering this right now. If the handful of games left in the season will be their last. Let me tell you, when it's over, it's completely over. It's not like you can play recreational football in pads.
I knew when it was time for me to go, it was mid-September in 1994. Tim Cofield was a very good defensive end/linebacker who was exceptionally gifted with excellent speed and good technique.
We lined up and he destroyed me. I couldn't run block him and I couldn't pass block him. It was a nightmare experienced in real time.
The next day watching film is when I knew it was over. I felt embarrassed, humiliated and inept. I had played 12 years in both the CFL and NFL as well as Division I football in Arizona. I played in high school, grade school and every other kind of school, but I knew my career was over when that film session ended.
I was depressed about how my mind was willing, but my body was worn. I promised myself that I would never put myself in that position again. I finished the season, and when the last game was played, believe it or not in the old Baltimore Memorial Stadium - the home of Johnny Unitas – I knew it was over. I remember taking off my helmet and pads off for the last time.
I also remember walking off the field for the last time. I was happy and sad, but more than anything, I was numb.
I bring up this subject because I wonder about Mike Morreale, Rob Hitchcock and Terry Vaughn in Hamilton, Mike O'Shea in Toronto, Val St. Germain in Winnipeg or Ben Cahoon with Montreal.
How about one of my fovourite players, the 40-year old Fred Childress in Saskatchewan, A.J. 'every injury in the book' Gass, and Ed Hervey in Edmonton. With Dave Dickenson, is the mind willing or is the mind a problem? What a warrior. Then there is Danny McManus in Calgary. Danny is a good guy, but the sidelines can be depressing.
Each of these players, and others, has a very unique and intense history with football. It has been a big part of their life for so long, bigger than marriages in some cases.
Football is addictive because of the emotional highs and lows. These highs and lows are so extreme that after a while you actually enjoy the lows because you know a high is coming.
I would never give advice to people that retire, other than to say it will never be the same so they shouldn't chase 'it'.
While I'm not entirely sure what 'it' is, I can tell you it's a feeling, not something physical. In football, if the guy beside you makes a mistake and makes you look bad, he will learn about it in film session and say something to the affect of 'sorry man, I won't let you down again'.
Outside of football in the 'real world' if someone, through incompetence or inability, costs you something important, they will leave you a voice message and say 'sue me' or something else that defers any accountability for anything.
Football isn't so much a career as it is an experience, and throughout the league every team has a guy that knows the experience is about to end.
Some make a smooth transition immediately, while with others it takes a couple of years to find their way. Some you never hear from again and a minority you hear about for reasons that make the news, not the sports news.
I think I was lucky though. I retired because my body told me to in a very direct way named Tim Cofield.
That's the toughest thing about age and football. Just when you have it all figured out upstairs in your mind, your body doesn't respond to what your mind asks it to do.
Still I have been asked many times would I do it all over again if given the chance.
Absolutely!
With a durable body – a Tim Cofield body - and my brain, I would still be playing.
Should I stay, or should I go.
Is it nobler to continue my childhood dreams and risk the inevitable satisfaction of playing, at the same time causing the destruction of my physical body, or should I walk off towards the sunset with just a slight limp, but happy with my accomplishments on and off the field.
In other words, is it time to retire, or should I come back for another season.
Every team in the CFL has a player who is wondering this right now. If the handful of games left in the season will be their last. Let me tell you, when it's over, it's completely over. It's not like you can play recreational football in pads.
I knew when it was time for me to go, it was mid-September in 1994. Tim Cofield was a very good defensive end/linebacker who was exceptionally gifted with excellent speed and good technique.
We lined up and he destroyed me. I couldn't run block him and I couldn't pass block him. It was a nightmare experienced in real time.
The next day watching film is when I knew it was over. I felt embarrassed, humiliated and inept. I had played 12 years in both the CFL and NFL as well as Division I football in Arizona. I played in high school, grade school and every other kind of school, but I knew my career was over when that film session ended.
I was depressed about how my mind was willing, but my body was worn. I promised myself that I would never put myself in that position again. I finished the season, and when the last game was played, believe it or not in the old Baltimore Memorial Stadium - the home of Johnny Unitas – I knew it was over. I remember taking off my helmet and pads off for the last time.
I also remember walking off the field for the last time. I was happy and sad, but more than anything, I was numb.
I bring up this subject because I wonder about Mike Morreale, Rob Hitchcock and Terry Vaughn in Hamilton, Mike O'Shea in Toronto, Val St. Germain in Winnipeg or Ben Cahoon with Montreal.
How about one of my fovourite players, the 40-year old Fred Childress in Saskatchewan, A.J. 'every injury in the book' Gass, and Ed Hervey in Edmonton. With Dave Dickenson, is the mind willing or is the mind a problem? What a warrior. Then there is Danny McManus in Calgary. Danny is a good guy, but the sidelines can be depressing.
Each of these players, and others, has a very unique and intense history with football. It has been a big part of their life for so long, bigger than marriages in some cases.
Football is addictive because of the emotional highs and lows. These highs and lows are so extreme that after a while you actually enjoy the lows because you know a high is coming.
I would never give advice to people that retire, other than to say it will never be the same so they shouldn't chase 'it'.
While I'm not entirely sure what 'it' is, I can tell you it's a feeling, not something physical. In football, if the guy beside you makes a mistake and makes you look bad, he will learn about it in film session and say something to the affect of 'sorry man, I won't let you down again'.
Outside of football in the 'real world' if someone, through incompetence or inability, costs you something important, they will leave you a voice message and say 'sue me' or something else that defers any accountability for anything.
Football isn't so much a career as it is an experience, and throughout the league every team has a guy that knows the experience is about to end.
Some make a smooth transition immediately, while with others it takes a couple of years to find their way. Some you never hear from again and a minority you hear about for reasons that make the news, not the sports news.
I think I was lucky though. I retired because my body told me to in a very direct way named Tim Cofield.
That's the toughest thing about age and football. Just when you have it all figured out upstairs in your mind, your body doesn't respond to what your mind asks it to do.
Still I have been asked many times would I do it all over again if given the chance.
Absolutely!
With a durable body – a Tim Cofield body - and my brain, I would still be playing.