Arizona finds itself in the unusual position of being 2-0 after a comprehensive 31-3 dispatch of Miami earlier today. Said result came on the heels of a Miami Herald article in which the Vince Young Situation became the basis for a larger conversation about players’ state of mind. The paper’s Jeff Darlington spoke to a succession of Dolphins, including a guy who knows a thing or two about being pilloried, RB Ricky Williams.
Williams suggests every player deals with some depression when it comes to the competitiveness of football. It isn’t the initial depression that matters, Williams said. It’s the ability to bounce back from it.
”If you’re not depressed after you lose a football game, you’re not healthy,” Williams said. “But how long that depression lasts, and how you respond to it, that’s the more pertinent question.
“For all intents and purposes, football is our lives. Even on our day off, football is thrown at me at the grocery store or anywhere I go.”
Rookie quarterback Chad Henne can remember plenty of times during his up-and-down career at the University of Michigan when the booing on the field carried over to his everyday life. His fiance often dealt with the ridicule when she attended classes, put into the awkward situation of hearing others poke fun at his performance.
”When it gets to the point where it’s really bad, it almost feels embarrassing,” Henne said. “In college, you don’t want to go to class or go out in public. But you still have to face it each day.
Williams doesn’t believe there is enough being done to help players battle with the potential mental problems that can face them.
”I don’t think we’re given a lot of help in doing it, but there’s definitely a way,” Williams said. “I don’t think there’s anything in place to help players deal with it — especially young players like Vince.”
Hall Of Fame running back Jim Brown said the background of a given player — whether he was raised in poverty or without a father — can have an impact on the way that player should be treated later in life.
”I’m just saying, if you’re in a culture with no fathers, you can’t be demanding and rough and aggressive with a player to get through to them,” Brown said. “You’ve got to be understanding and caring. These players have already dealt with the rough times. In some sense, these players are already fractured.”
I just saw one of this site’s authors’ responses to another article’s comments, where you closed comments because you saw too much positive response for someone you don’t like and because someone challenged your belief that the current 20-something generation is obsessed with violence and intensity for its own sake, forgoing intelligent observation. I was surprised to see you would bother having a news-related site with comments, when you are inclined to be incredibly rude and thoughtless in your own comments, and shut down other viewpoints with childish ridicule, even when you are not personally under attack. I was going to read more here until I saw your response. I won’t be saving this link or recommend this site to anyone.
correction: The author of the article was challenging a reader’s comment about people’s obsession with violence in entertainment, not the other way around.
uhh….can you be a bit clearer exactly what you’re referring to? A cursory glance at nearly 5 (fucking) years of CSTB comments will reveal no shortage of viewpoints other than my own and a great deal of indulgence for what I will chartiably call internet trollery.
I’ve closed comments on a handful of occasions, not because I cannot handle criticism or thoughts in opposition to mine. Sometimes it is simply a matter of time management. When a particular comment thread explodes to the point I have to spend the better part of an afternoon moderating comments that are either spam, unrelated personal attacks or the same individual posting the same comment over and over again, I might have to make a decision for the better of the blog. If that strikes you as unfair, by all means, start your own blog and/or take a hike. My conscience is clear.