It's time to stop whining about safety

So it looks like we're going to find out what kind of brain injuries Junior Seau may have had, if any, and, as Dave Zirin puts it, the NFL "holds its breath" about the results, it's more than just the league hierarchy that needs to take a long, hard look at itself.

It would be nice if players like James Harrison who insist that hitting with their heads or hitting guys in the head is just the way they play the game could give it another thought now that one of their heroes is dead.

But if would also be nice if fans quit bellyaching over how the NFL has gone "soft" if it tries to actually, you know, keep players safe. Will Bunch wrote a terrific article the other day about the toll football takes on the body and the mind, and it contained this paragraph about the attitude among fans that needs to be overcome.

"Some folks say that these players knew what they were getting into, that they understood they were risking their future health for glory and riches in the present, and that there's nothing that can be done about this problem short of closing down the National Football League."

Which is easy for people like Jobe Morrison to say when they're commenting on stories like the Harrison one above. After all, it's not their lives.

"Harrison is grown up. It's the NFL that needs to grow up and understand fans want smashmouth football. Not pansy football. Not flag football. Football as we kno (sic) it is becoming too soft."

"players and the nfl need to UNDERSTAND this.... Once you sign the contract to step onto the field and play, you UNDERSTAND the consequences. You can't protect players from injuries, it is GOING to happen....... it's your risk. Don't like it? no one wants you around. LEAVE."

But some of the guys whose lives have been affected by the game understand what's at stake.

"Those who are saying the game is changing for the worse, well, they don't have a father who can't remember his name because of the game. I'm pretty sure if everybody had to wake with their dad not knowing his name, not knowing his kids' name, not being able to function at a normal rate after football, they would understand that the game needs to change. If it doesn't there are going to be more players, more great players, being affected by the things that we know of and aren't changing. That's not right."

Who was it who said those words?

One Junior Seau.