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LeBatard's column on Jason Taylor and playing with pain

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!, Jan 13, 2013.

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


    http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/13/v-fullstory/3179926/dan-le-batard-jason-taylors-pain.html
     
  2. 1HPGrad

    1HPGrad Member

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

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    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.
     
  4. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    Agree wholeheartedly.
     
  5. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    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?
     
  6. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    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.
     
  7. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    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 -- hell, 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?
     
  8. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    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.
     
  9. Norrin Radd

    Norrin Radd New Member

    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.
     
  10. podunk press

    podunk press Active Member

    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.
     
  11. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

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

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    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?
     
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