War on football: Fighting through pain is a valuable lesson

Now, there are many ways to become a man. But I feel that I learned some skills and attitudes through playing football and wrestling that contribute to the man I am now. One of those is the decision to move past pain and to be able to compartmentalize pain. Of course, real men can weep as well, but you can also continue through injury. This all factors in to how I am a believer that there is a war on football. 

Why a war on football?

Dallas Cowboys request to wear memorial decals denied

Consider Cleveland Brown’s Josh McCown who talked about why he played last week with an injury. Part of being a man or a woman is doing what needs to be done. You don’t want to get up and go to work each day but you do. And there’s a difference between been banged and being seriously injured.

Sports provide life lessons.

One of the times I was proudest of my daughter was when she was speed skating. She hit the wood floor so hard that the audience gasped. She jumped back up and regained her position in the race.  She was eight years old.

I told her I was never more proud of her because she got up and kept fighting. 

You fall and you don’t break. There’s a time to embrace your feelings and cry but there’s also a time to put your shoulder down and push through.

That is so missing in our society.