LeBatard's column on Jason Taylor and playing with pain

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Great, descriptive column on the things Jason Taylor did to stay on the field.

"It is the worst ever," he says. "By far. All the nerve endings in your feet."
That wasn't the ailment. No, that was the cure. A needle has to go in that foot, and there aren't a lot of soft, friendly places for a big needle in a foot. That foot pain is there for a reason, of course. It is your body screaming to your brain for help. A warning. The needle mutes the screaming and the warning.
"The first shot is ridiculous," Taylor says. "Ridiculously horrible. Excruciating."
But the first shot to the foot wasn't even the remedy. The first shot was just to numb the area … in preparation for the second shot, which was worse.
"You can't kill the foot because then it is just a dead nub," he says. "You've got to get the perfect mix [of anesthesia]. I was crying and screaming. I'm sweating just speaking about it now."
How'd he play?
"I didn't play well," he says. "But I played better than my backup would have."

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/13/v-fullstory/3179926/dan-le-batard-jason-taylors-pain.html

 

[1HPGrad]

Tard's the best. And this is one of his best.

 

[Double Down]

A really good piece. Should be required reading for any NFL fan. Love the game, but understand its cost, and what players do to play each week.

 

[MileHigh]

Tard's the best. And this is one of his best.

Agree wholeheartedly.

 

[Boom_70]

A really good piece. Should be required reading for any NFL fan. Love the game, but understand its cost, and what players do to play each week.

Why should it be required reading? Are you saying that NFL fans do not have an appreciation of what players go through to stay on the field?

Is their a story that players should read that would give them a better appreciation of their fans?

 

[Double Down]

I think if you love sausage, Boom, you should at least understand what you're eating. It helps offer some perspective when people think Player X is a pussy if he won't "suck it up" and play through a certain injury. Chances are, he's been sucking it up every week more or less.

 

[Alma]

As with many LeBatard columns, I'm left impressed by the writing and detail and underwhelmed by the perspective and intellectual rigor. Mere sympathy isn't much of an opinion, especially when, by the end of the column Taylor says he'd do it all again and he frowns on people who look after their health. LeBatard more or less genuflects -- as he often does -- at the altar of Pro Athlete, accepting all of his motivations, actions and conclusions as a product of a vicious world.

A better column -- heck, feature story -- says to Taylor point blank: OK, well, what about painkiller addictions? What about suicide? When you say you'd it all again, can you appreciate the message that sends to high school and college football players who aren't as smart as you are, or doesn't have the wife you do? If the game's really going to evolve, don't players have to start acting a little more responsible, and a little less like robots who take every order the franchise gives them?

 

[Boom_70]

I think if you love sausage, Boom, you should at least understand what you're eating. It helps offer some perspective when people think Player X is a pussy if he won't "suck it up" and play through a certain injury. Chances are, he's been sucking it up every week more or less.

But some say that you should never look inside the sausage factory. This story was well done but not a lot of new ground covered.

 

[Norrin Radd]

It was good, but these stories have been around for a long time.

Nice to see them being told more frequently (and honestly), and with this level of detail. People are finally waking up, whereas a decade ago I'm not sure readers and journalists were truly open to seeing this type of coverage all the time.

 

[podunk press]

I thought it was outstanding. Every time a player goes to the locker room "for x-rays," I'll have a greater appreciation for their personal sacrifices.

And it just makes me feel worse for Robert Griffin.

 

[Boom_70]

I thought it was outstanding. Every time a player goes to the locker room "for x-rays," I'll have a greater appreciation for their personal sacrifices.

And it just makes me feel worse for Robert Griffin.

I think of them more as personal choices as opposed to sacrifices.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

I liked it, but subjectively I liked Dave Hyde's column on the same general topic just a bit better:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/um-hurricanes/fl-dave-hyde-commentary-0113-20130111,0,2743127.column

I like Tard and Hyde. Can you imagine having both on the same staff before they became columnists, as the Herald once did?