Some Intersting Football History for Super Bowl Sunday

Here’s some interesting information I’ve come across about the history of football. I hadn’t paid much attention to football until 1972. I was a track guy, and could give you stats on lap breakdowns and distances jumped and thrown, sprint times etc. of world class track athletes. What happened in 1972 was the Miami Dolphins. A perfect season. (I lament my New England Patriots had a longer winning streak than the Dolphins, have more games in a season, but didn’t win the Big One that year.)

A perfect season. No loses and winning the Super Bowl. Here’s an interesting tidbit. The average offensive lineman for the Dolphins then was 260 pounds. The national all-star high school team average for offensive linemen is 310 pounds.  Damn.

The concussion issue is being dealt with, and I think with good results. There are, I think, 2,000 NFL players. They’re all super well compensated and have the highest quality medical care both on and off the field. There are about 3 million kids playing the game, and there are somewhere between 50,000 to 60,000 concussions a year. From various sports articles I’ve read, it seems this is being addressed, though I can’t determine effectiveness.

A little history I just learned is pretty stunning. At the beginning of the 20^th century there was a move to get the game outlawed. Players were allowed to punch each other. Fighting was pretty much allowed. Broken noses, broken arms, and in 1905 nineteen players died.

College football was a nasty business too. Didn’t know this either, but there were players called “ringers” that were professional football players that would suit up and play on college teams. Turns out Theodore Roosevelt called several football officials to the White House and told them they need to clean up their act. They did, and that pretty much launched the modern era of the game. 

Secularism, Teresa, Tebow

Two religious items have come up in the news this past week, Mother Teresa and Tim Tebow. Secularists and neo-Atheists are protesting the religious expressions of life, love, and compassion.

Mother Teresa is to be placed a postage stamp; Nobel Peace Prize winner (given she wasn't an anti American Statist this is monumental), and the safety net for thousands of the poor. The protest is about her being a religious figure. There's criteria number 9: "Stamps or stationery items shall not be issued to honor religious institutions or individuals whose principal achievements are associated with religious undertakings or beliefs."

Secularists and Atheists say her religious status should keep her off the stamp. It amazing that's the issue, and not an appreciation of one human being's personal sacrifice and organizing brilliance that brought safety, health, love, and compassion to so many. What's important?

The criteria is ridiculous and serves intolerance and bigotry. The argument that it violates separation of church and state is specious since we're constantly told the the Post Office is a private, self supporting company. There's also the problem of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X being on stamps; both were ministers. King's whole approach was from Scripture, which he quoted often. Should they be removed?

Tim Tebow, college football great, is presenting a pro-life message with his mother in a Superbowl commercial. All the Secularists and neo-Atheists are in a fuss about this too. There's been an unwritten rule for Superbowl commercials that political and social advocacy ads not be allowed. CBS has changed this. Like Teresa, the message has a religious foundation, and so must not be allowed in public. Gloria Alred is suing, based upon conjecture and not fact, showing the Statists, Feminists, and neo-Atheists are so upset they are making stuff up to stop this story of courage, love and compassion. Tebow's mother said her doctor advised her to abort her child because of some disease she had, and she said no, and gave birth to Tim.

Though anti-religious bigots do their best to quash the free speech of those that disagree with them, I think both sides are being short sighted. Tebow and his mother along with Focus on the Family are opening the door for Leftist propaganda in this venue in the future. As much as I agree with the pro-life message, Statists in the future will have yet another venue to propagate their lies. Are you ready for commercials bashing America, praising Castro and Chavez, Islamofascists, and other Statist dictators, along with all the other horrible things they support? I'd just as soon keep this one on the side lines, and stick with the unwritten rule of no advocacy ads. I just want football and stupid funny commercials for three hours.

I do wish the National Organization for Women (a really small group of less than 500,000; Concerned Women for America have over 2 million members, which doesn't get coverage in the Jurassic Press because they are Conservative), militant neo-Atheists, groups like the Freedom from Religion Foundation, would just give it a rest. Just quit whining, complaining, and protesting every little thing that doesn't fit their intolerant bigoted belief system.