Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Like We All Didn't Expect This From a Football Team?

Courtesy of our Yankee/Red Sox/Patriots/Cowboys loving fans in Bristol, we get this.

I feel really, really bad for David Givins. He was a pretty good third receiver who parlayed time with New England into a nice little contract with the Tennessee Titans. Turns out, he had a major defect that formed in his knee and needed to be fixed, but it wasn't. So in the end, he blew it out so bad, that he has no chance at ever returning to the No Fun League.

So of course, because this is the NFL where contracts are only contracts as long as the owners say they are, he has lost most of the money he would have earned over the course of his contract with the Titans, as well as any further contracts he would have signed.

That said, the crux of this story isn't so much the tragedy of Givins' injury, but the way he is alleging it happened. Apparently, there was a memo circulated among the training and coaching staffs that told of Givins' knee issue and that the best course would be to shut him down and fix the knee. What happened instead is that the information was withheld from Givins and now he has lost his livelihood and the ability to play the sport he has a passion for.

Honestly, I am getting pretty sick of all this "win at all costs" bullshit that pervades the Gridiron more than any sport I can think of. Look, I want warriors out there on my teams just as much as the next guy, but not at the cost of their future. Even from the purely selfish point of view, doesn't it make more sense to make sure the guy can heal up and play 3-4 more years for your team as opposed to playing right now and then being useless after 3-4 games? I am sure the Dodgers' Hong-Chih Kuo can pitch through a few games of his elbow turning blue, but I seriously doubt he will pitch for as long.

Then again, I suppose this shouldn't be a surprise with American Football. After all, we have kids dying in brutal high school practices, where millions and even billions aren't at stake. We seriously need to change our mentality here, because this kind of treatment is unacceptable.

For the record, this lawyer hopes Givins not only gets his contract paid out, but also the constitutional limit for punitive damages.

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