Sports Images

Ah, memories, especially around sports,
just what a young boy finds so appealing.

Later in life I watched two professional
athletes being interviewed and what they
shared explained so much of my failure
in attempts to be one of them.

First, a professional football player
was told that his performance seemed to
be accomplished with such ease that the
interviewer thought even he could do it.
The athlete responded, “That’s a good
definition of a professional. Doing
something with such ease that anyone
thinks they could do it too.”

Second, a professional baseball player
was asked if he ever felt any anxiety
when the ball was hit toward him. He
said, “No. It is the opposite. I want
every ball hit toward me because I
believe I can handle it.”

When I played junior high football I
could never make it look easy and I was
rarely played. When I played Little
League Baseball I hoped that the ball
would go anywhere but near me.

I started as a shortstop because it was
the position of my favorite Detroit Tiger
player Harvey Kuehn. But the coach soon
moved me to right field because few Little
Leaguers ever hit the ball to right field.

And a statistic which leads to a more
realistic view of one’s self. Of all the
young men who play high school football only
1% play in college. Off all the young men
who play college football only 1% play in
the NFL.

Another statistic. Of the over 100 brains
of former NFL players which have been
donated to a study on concussions 99% had
signs of having been concussed.