Football in America

Sports Illustrated wrote a little something about football. It is very long and you may not agree with everything being said, but it’s an interesting read.

In Chapter 1 of the article, RS. Sophomore Hunter Renfrow mentioned something that really got my attention. From the article:

7 concussions? Playing with a concussion during high school? That really makes me concerned for Mr. Renfrow’s future.

Other than that, Renfrow and Thad Turnipseed, Clemson’s Director of Recruiting are quoted briefly talking about Clemson football culture and philosophy.

In terms of where I think football is, I think it’s doing fine - it’s going to be this country’s favorite sport for quite some time. I think there are many things that could be better about it (such as no-contact at a young age, sharing some of the wealth with players, getting rid of No-Fun League archaic rules against celebrations and other things, less commercials and stoppages of play in games, no more Thursday Night Football, a stronger union/CBA for NFL players, the list goes on). But I will always love football, sadly enough, even despite the scandals and the sad truths we are learning about concussions and CTE.

Would I ever let my (hypothetical) children play? No. Not contact football. Flag football or touch football? Sure. Is this hypocritical of me? Yes, because given the chance you bet your ass I would have wanted to play football in high school, college, and the NFL.

Anyways, it was an interesting piece that made me think, but here are some more Clemson-y news items:

• Deshaun Watson may not have won the Heisman, but he and four others were named AP All-Americans. Watson and Carlos Watkins were named second-team All Americans. Christian Wilkins, Ben Boulware and Cordrea Tankersley were named to the third-team. In all, 7 different Clemson players have been named to some All-American team (admittedly, some of those teams are from questionable sources).

• Old friend Vic Beasley had himself a day on Sunday:

Beasley had 3 sacks, a forced fumble, fumble recovery and touchdown against the Rams. Yeah, it’s the Rams, but that’s still a great day. Always good to see one of our own excel in the NFL. Beasley’s been having a great year with 13.5 sacks and 6 forced fumbles, both of which lead or tie for the NFL lead.

• On the injury front, it seems like Scott Pagano and Richard Yeargin will be able to play in the Fiesta Bowl. Unfortunately Jake Fruhmorgen is still out indefinitely. Trevion Thompson will be out the rest of the season with a fracture.