So, I'm watching Inside The NFL. You know, I'm a sportsgeek and my Lightning Bolts romped this week, so I'm enjoying it a lot more than the last three weeks. Then HBO does a feature on the Washington Redskins replacement players that played during the NFL Players Association strike of 1987.
Those guys went from working on the docks to playing in front of thousands of people in a week... they lived a three week dream. And they did it better than anyone. Not only did they go 3-0 in those games, but in the final one they faced the Cowboys.. the real Cowboys. See, Dallas had crossed the line in time to play, and the Redskins players had not. So these "scrubs" were playing against Danny White and Tony Dorsett and Ed "Too Tall" Jones on Monday Night Football. And they won, 13-7. Imagine a high school team beating the Yankees, cause that's what we are talking about. Great human story about some regular guys that lived a dream and where they are twenty years later.
Then they go back to the studio. And Dan Marino in his thousand dollar suit and Chris Collinsworth start whining like babies. Bob Costas goes to Dan Marino, "What about these guys and what they did twenty years ago?" Marino's answer? "They accomplished nothing. They took paychecks out of the mouths of guys with families."
Excuse me? Oh, yeah Dan. You look like they really hurt you. What a jerk. Twenty years later and he is still so bitter against these guys? You want to be bitter at the owners that you were fighting with at a time where NFL players were truly at a great disadvantage compared to their compatriots in MLB or the NBA? Fine. You hold that grudge. I don't think it's all that healthy, but fine.
But these poor guys who made about as much for all three games as you made putting on your jock? Or for about a second and a half of one of your glove commercials? Or your weight loss endorsement that you did after getting fat when you retired at forty? Because we know those scrubs all retired from their jobs at forty,too. Right? Oh, wait... oh yeah, they are just regular guys now. Guys that you won't forgive for chasing the same dream you did. Jerk. Get some perspective.
And don't you dare go bitching to me about the poor guys in the trenches who weren't stars and only played two or three years either, Dan and Chris. Not until you pull out your checkbook and show me the percentage of your six and seven figure incomes you donated to those guys pension fund this year.
Sanctimonious, stuck up, narcissistic, blowhard idiots is what you are.
2 comments:
Sanctimonious, stuck up, narcissistic, blowhard idiots is what you are.
Man, I've been saying that about Marino and Collinsworth for years. But I might be inclined to give Marino a break. I mean, Favre did just break one of his records. And last year, on the pre-game show on CBS, Boomer explained that Manning would never with a Super Bowl, adding, "He is this generation's Dan Marino." While Marino was sitting right next to him. He's a punchline, and he knows it.
Collinsworth is just a dick, though.
I come from an old union family and I've never crossed a picket line in my life. But on this subject, I've gotta say, "Right on, baby."
Stephanie Vaughan
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