by tyler | Mar 12, 2024 | CNN, sport
Here’s a look at the life of basketball player LeBron James.
Birth date: December 30, 1984
Birth place: Akron, Ohio
Birth name: LeBron Raymone James
Father: Anthony McClelland
Mother: Gloria James
Marriage: Savannah (Brinson) James (September 2013-present)
Children: Zhuri Nova, Bryce Maximus and LeBron Jr.
James also played football in high school.
Runs a non-profit organization called The LeBron James Family Foundation, which helps children in his hometown area.
Co-founder of production company SpringHill Entertainment.
Has been named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player four times (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013).
Has been to the NBA All-Star Game every year since 2005.
Named the NBA Finals MVP four times (2012, 2013, 2016, 2020).
Is nicknamed “King James.”
Is the youngest player in NBA history to reach 30,000 career points, and the only NBA player to score 40,000 career points.
Has played for the US national team in the 2004, 2008, and 2012 Olympics. They won gold in 2008 and 2012.
Owned a very small stake in Beats Electronics, which was sold to Apple, Inc. for $3 billion in June 2014, reportedly netting him around $30 million in cash and stocks.
James and a host of other Black athletes and artists founded the political organization More Than A Vote in the run-up to the 2020 election, providing James and others with a vehicle to help register Black voters and turn them out in the November election.
2000 – Helps lead high school team to the state championship. They won the championship three of the four seasons he played.
February 18, 2002 – James is featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the words, “The Chosen One.”
June 26, 2003 – Is chosen No. 1 overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA draft.
2004 – Earns the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy as NBA Rookie of the Year.
August 2004 – Makes his first Olympics appearance for the US national team.
November 27, 2004 – Becomes the youngest NBA player to score 2,000 points in their career.
February 8, 2005 – Is named a starter for the NBA’s Eastern Conference All-Star Team.
February 19, 2006 – Is named to the All-Star Team again and becomes the youngest MVP of the game.
July 10, 2010 – Announces he is leaving the Cavaliers to become part of the Miami Heat.
June 21, 2012 – The Miami Heat win the NBA Finals, marking James’ first championship.
January 16, 2013 – Becomes the youngest NBA player to score 20,000 points.
June 24, 2014 – Chooses to become a free agent.
July 11, 2014 – James tells Sports Illustrated that he’ll leave the Miami Heat for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
December 7, 2015 – Nike confirms that it has signed a lifetime deal with James.
June 19, 2016 – The Cleveland Cavaliers defeat the Golden State Warriors 93-89 in a deciding Game 7 to win the NBA Championship. James is unanimously named the Finals MVP; his performance helps the Cavaliers capture the first major sports championship that a Cleveland team has won since 1964.
May 25, 2017 – James passes Michael Jordan as the NBA’s all-time playoff scoring leader with 5,995 points. Jordan’s record of 5,987 held for 20 years.
May 31, 2017 – Police tell CNN that a racist slur was spray-painted on the front gate of James’ Los Angeles home. At a press conference in Oakland, California, James comments on the state of race relations in the United States. “No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are, no matter how many people admire you, being black in America is tough.”
January 23, 2018 – Becomes the seventh, and youngest, player in NBA history to score 30,000 points.
June 29, 2018 – James decides not to pick up his option for next season with the Cleveland Cavaliers and will become an unrestricted free agent, according to multiple reports.
July 1, 2018 – James, now a free agent, agrees to a four-year, $154M contract to join the Los Angeles Lakers, according to a press release from his agency.
July 30, 2018 – James’ foundation teams with the Akron Public Schools system to open a school that supports at-risk children. Third and fourth graders will make up the inaugural class at the I Promise School, with plans to expand to first through eighth grade by 2022.
November 4, 2019 – James announces that a historic apartment building in Akron, Ohio, is being renovated and turned into transitional housing for families in need at his I Promise School, so students have a stable place to live while they get their education.
August 11, 2020 – “I Promise,” a children’s book written by James, is published.
October 11, 2020 – After the Los Angeles Lakers defeat the Miami Heat, James becomes the first player in NBA history to be named NBA Finals MVP with three different teams.
March 16, 2021 – It is announced that Fenway Sports Group, which owns the Boston Red Sox, has added James as a partner. It becomes official on March 31.
July 16, 2021 – “Space Jam: A New Legacy” premieres, in which James plays intergalactic basketball with the Looney Tunes.
November 21, 2021 – James is ejected during a game against the Detroit Pistons after making contact with Pistons’ Isaiah Stewart in the face. The ejection is only the second in James’ career – the first coming in 2017 for comments made to a referee. Both players are suspended the next day – James for one game and Stewart for two.
March 19, 2022 – Passes Karl Malone (36,928 career points) on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, to become second only to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387).
August 17, 2022 – James signs a new two-year contract with the Lakers, worth $97.1 million, making him the highest-earning NBA player ever.
February 7, 2023 – James breaks the NBA’s all-time scoring record, surpassing Abdul-Jabbar.
January 25, 2024 – James is named to his 20th NBA All-Star Game, passing Abdul-Jabbar for most of all time.
March 2, 2024 – Becomes the first player in NBA history to score 40,000 career points.
by tyler | Mar 11, 2024 | CNN, sport
Here’s a look at the life of basketball player LeBron James.
Birth date: December 30, 1984
Birth place: Akron, Ohio
Birth name: LeBron Raymone James
Father: Anthony McClelland
Mother: Gloria James
Marriage: Savannah (Brinson) James (September 2013-present)
Children: Zhuri Nova, Bryce Maximus and LeBron Jr.
James also played football in high school.
Runs a non-profit organization called The LeBron James Family Foundation, which helps children in his hometown area.
Co-founder of production company SpringHill Entertainment.
Has been named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player four times (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013).
Has been to the NBA All-Star Game every year since 2005.
Named the NBA Finals MVP four times (2012, 2013, 2016, 2020).
Is nicknamed “King James.”
Is the youngest player in NBA history to reach 30,000 career points, and the only NBA player to score 40,000 career points.
Has played for the US national team in the 2004, 2008, and 2012 Olympics. They won gold in 2008 and 2012.
Owned a very small stake in Beats Electronics, which was sold to Apple, Inc. for $3 billion in June 2014, reportedly netting him around $30 million in cash and stocks.
James and a host of other Black athletes and artists founded the political organization More Than A Vote in the run-up to the 2020 election, providing James and others with a vehicle to help register Black voters and turn them out in the November election.
2000 – Helps lead high school team to the state championship. They won the championship three of the four seasons he played.
February 18, 2002 – James is featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the words, “The Chosen One.”
June 26, 2003 – Is chosen No. 1 overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA draft.
2004 – Earns the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy as NBA Rookie of the Year.
August 2004 – Makes his first Olympics appearance for the US national team.
November 27, 2004 – Becomes the youngest NBA player to score 2,000 points in their career.
February 8, 2005 – Is named a starter for the NBA’s Eastern Conference All-Star Team.
February 19, 2006 – Is named to the All-Star Team again and becomes the youngest MVP of the game.
July 10, 2010 – Announces he is leaving the Cavaliers to become part of the Miami Heat.
June 21, 2012 – The Miami Heat win the NBA Finals, marking James’ first championship.
January 16, 2013 – Becomes the youngest NBA player to score 20,000 points.
June 24, 2014 – Chooses to become a free agent.
July 11, 2014 – James tells Sports Illustrated that he’ll leave the Miami Heat for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
December 7, 2015 – Nike confirms that it has signed a lifetime deal with James.
June 19, 2016 – The Cleveland Cavaliers defeat the Golden State Warriors 93-89 in a deciding Game 7 to win the NBA Championship. James is unanimously named the Finals MVP; his performance helps the Cavaliers capture the first major sports championship that a Cleveland team has won since 1964.
May 25, 2017 – James passes Michael Jordan as the NBA’s all-time playoff scoring leader with 5,995 points. Jordan’s record of 5,987 held for 20 years.
May 31, 2017 – Police tell CNN that a racist slur was spray-painted on the front gate of James’ Los Angeles home. At a press conference in Oakland, California, James comments on the state of race relations in the United States. “No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are, no matter how many people admire you, being black in America is tough.”
January 23, 2018 – Becomes the seventh, and youngest, player in NBA history to score 30,000 points.
June 29, 2018 – James decides not to pick up his option for next season with the Cleveland Cavaliers and will become an unrestricted free agent, according to multiple reports.
July 1, 2018 – James, now a free agent, agrees to a four-year, $154M contract to join the Los Angeles Lakers, according to a press release from his agency.
July 30, 2018 – James’ foundation teams with the Akron Public Schools system to open a school that supports at-risk children. Third and fourth graders will make up the inaugural class at the I Promise School, with plans to expand to first through eighth grade by 2022.
November 4, 2019 – James announces that a historic apartment building in Akron, Ohio, is being renovated and turned into transitional housing for families in need at his I Promise School, so students have a stable place to live while they get their education.
August 11, 2020 – “I Promise,” a children’s book written by James, is published.
October 11, 2020 – After the Los Angeles Lakers defeat the Miami Heat, James becomes the first player in NBA history to be named NBA Finals MVP with three different teams.
March 16, 2021 – It is announced that Fenway Sports Group, which owns the Boston Red Sox, has added James as a partner. It becomes official on March 31.
July 16, 2021 – “Space Jam: A New Legacy” premieres, in which James plays intergalactic basketball with the Looney Tunes.
November 21, 2021 – James is ejected during a game against the Detroit Pistons after making contact with Pistons’ Isaiah Stewart in the face. The ejection is only the second in James’ career – the first coming in 2017 for comments made to a referee. Both players are suspended the next day – James for one game and Stewart for two.
March 19, 2022 – Passes Karl Malone (36,928 career points) on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, to become second only to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387).
August 17, 2022 – James signs a new two-year contract with the Lakers, worth $97.1 million, making him the highest-earning NBA player ever.
February 7, 2023 – James breaks the NBA’s all-time scoring record, surpassing Abdul-Jabbar.
January 25, 2024 – James is named to his 20th NBA All-Star Game, passing Abdul-Jabbar for most of all time.
March 2, 2024 – Becomes the first player in NBA history to score 40,000 career points.
by tyler | Mar 8, 2024 | CNN, sport
Here’s a look at the life of basketball player LeBron James.
Birth date: December 30, 1984
Birth place: Akron, Ohio
Birth name: LeBron Raymone James
Father: Anthony McClelland
Mother: Gloria James
Marriage: Savannah (Brinson) James (September 2013-present)
Children: Zhuri Nova, Bryce Maximus and LeBron Jr.
James also played football in high school.
Runs a non-profit organization called The LeBron James Family Foundation, which helps children in his hometown area.
Co-founder of production company SpringHill Entertainment.
Has been named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player four times (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013).
Has been to the NBA All-Star Game every year since 2005.
Named the NBA Finals MVP four times (2012, 2013, 2016, 2020).
Is nicknamed “King James.”
Is the youngest player in NBA history to reach 30,000 career points, and the only NBA player to score 40,000 career points.
Has played for the US national team in the 2004, 2008, and 2012 Olympics. They won gold in 2008 and 2012.
Owned a very small stake in Beats Electronics, which was sold to Apple, Inc. for $3 billion in June 2014, reportedly netting him around $30 million in cash and stocks.
James and a host of other Black athletes and artists founded the political organization More Than A Vote in the run-up to the 2020 election, providing James and others with a vehicle to help register Black voters and turn them out in the November election.
2000 – Helps lead high school team to the state championship. They won the championship three of the four seasons he played.
February 18, 2002 – James is featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the words, “The Chosen One.”
June 26, 2003 – Is chosen No. 1 overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA draft.
2004 – Earns the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy as NBA Rookie of the Year.
August 2004 – Makes his first Olympics appearance for the US national team.
November 27, 2004 – Becomes the youngest NBA player to score 2,000 points in their career.
February 8, 2005 – Is named a starter for the NBA’s Eastern Conference All-Star Team.
February 19, 2006 – Is named to the All-Star Team again and becomes the youngest MVP of the game.
July 10, 2010 – Announces he is leaving the Cavaliers to become part of the Miami Heat.
June 21, 2012 – The Miami Heat win the NBA Finals, marking James’ first championship.
January 16, 2013 – Becomes the youngest NBA player to score 20,000 points.
June 24, 2014 – Chooses to become a free agent.
July 11, 2014 – James tells Sports Illustrated that he’ll leave the Miami Heat for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
December 7, 2015 – Nike confirms that it has signed a lifetime deal with James.
June 19, 2016 – The Cleveland Cavaliers defeat the Golden State Warriors 93-89 in a deciding Game 7 to win the NBA Championship. James is unanimously named the Finals MVP; his performance helps the Cavaliers capture the first major sports championship that a Cleveland team has won since 1964.
May 25, 2017 – James passes Michael Jordan as the NBA’s all-time playoff scoring leader with 5,995 points. Jordan’s record of 5,987 held for 20 years.
May 31, 2017 – Police tell CNN that a racist slur was spray-painted on the front gate of James’ Los Angeles home. At a press conference in Oakland, California, James comments on the state of race relations in the United States. “No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are, no matter how many people admire you, being black in America is tough.”
January 23, 2018 – Becomes the seventh, and youngest, player in NBA history to score 30,000 points.
June 29, 2018 – James decides not to pick up his option for next season with the Cleveland Cavaliers and will become an unrestricted free agent, according to multiple reports.
July 1, 2018 – James, now a free agent, agrees to a four-year, $154M contract to join the Los Angeles Lakers, according to a press release from his agency.
July 30, 2018 – James’ foundation teams with the Akron Public Schools system to open a school that supports at-risk children. Third and fourth graders will make up the inaugural class at the I Promise School, with plans to expand to first through eighth grade by 2022.
November 4, 2019 – James announces that a historic apartment building in Akron, Ohio, is being renovated and turned into transitional housing for families in need at his I Promise School, so students have a stable place to live while they get their education.
August 11, 2020 – “I Promise,” a children’s book written by James, is published.
October 11, 2020 – After the Los Angeles Lakers defeat the Miami Heat, James becomes the first player in NBA history to be named NBA Finals MVP with three different teams.
March 16, 2021 – It is announced that Fenway Sports Group, which owns the Boston Red Sox, has added James as a partner. It becomes official on March 31.
July 16, 2021 – “Space Jam: A New Legacy” premieres, in which James plays intergalactic basketball with the Looney Tunes.
November 21, 2021 – James is ejected during a game against the Detroit Pistons after making contact with Pistons’ Isaiah Stewart in the face. The ejection is only the second in James’ career – the first coming in 2017 for comments made to a referee. Both players are suspended the next day – James for one game and Stewart for two.
March 19, 2022 – Passes Karl Malone (36,928 career points) on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, to become second only to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387).
August 17, 2022 – James signs a new two-year contract with the Lakers, worth $97.1 million, making him the highest-earning NBA player ever.
February 7, 2023 – James breaks the NBA’s all-time scoring record, surpassing Abdul-Jabbar.
January 25, 2024 – James is named to his 20th NBA All-Star Game, passing Abdul-Jabbar for most of all time.
March 2, 2024 – Becomes the first player in NBA history to score 40,000 career points.
by tyler | Feb 14, 2024 | CNN, sport
On Saturday afternoon, as third-ranked Georgia played top-ranked Tennessee in the game of the year so far in college football, I was not watching.
In past years I would’ve been on the couch with my brother, eating pizza and wings, bellowing at the television. Instead I got in the minivan with my wife and kids, and we drove to Zoo Atlanta.
We got there a few minutes before kickoff, when a lot of people were leaving. Who goes to the zoo during the Georgia game? We do, as it turns out, along with an Amish family, the women in bonnets, the men in straw hats.
It was a warm and cloudy afternoon, with yellow leaves falling from the pecan trees. A zookeeper told us there are 100,000 muscles and tendons in an elephant’s trunk. I texted my brother to say I was sorry.
“I miss you,” I wrote. “This is just a thing I’m trying.”
There were lions on a rock, all brothers, we were told, and two were asleep, and the third stood at the edge of the rock, and he kept roaring. It was a lonely sound. We walked away but kept hearing that distant, lonely roar.
I could imagine the sound of the crowd, the brass of the band, the beat of the drums, the feeling that I was a part of something, a joyous participant in one of our nation’s last unifying rituals. A sport both uniquely American and intrinsically violent.
I still remember when Tim Krumrie’s leg shattered. I was eight years old, watching Super Bowl XXIII at my grandparents’ house, and Krumrie, a defensive lineman for the Cincinnati Bengals, stepped the wrong way while trying to make a tackle and suffered a compound fracture. They showed the replay on TV, and we saw the leg shatter again.
The game went on. The game always goes on. That was the lesson I learned as an 8-year-old. Nothing will ever stop the game.
My brother and I were watching two years later when Bo Jackson, one of the greatest athletes of all time, had his left hip dislocated and fractured during a playoff game against the Bengals. Jackson’s football career was over, but the game was not. The Raiders won.
Later that year, Detroit Lions offensive lineman Mike Utley broke his neck when a Rams player fell on him. Although Utley gave a thumbs-up as he left the field, he would be paralyzed for the rest of his life. The game went on. The Lions won, 21-10.
We kept watching. Our teams were the Georgia Bulldogs and the Atlanta Falcons. I clenched my jaw. I ground my teeth. I screamed. There was this deep, guttural sound, too, this command that would emerge most often in those moments when the other team’s quarterback had the ball, and he was eluding our defenders, and he seemed on the verge of throwing or running for a touchdown.
“COME ON!” I would growl. “GET ‘IM!”
It was third and goal, the game was tied, and Washington’s Robert Griffin III was running toward the end zone. But the Falcons got him. Linebacker Sean Weatherspoon lowered his shoulder and smashed Griffin’s head. “Legal hit, good hit, great play by Sean Weatherspoon,” a TV analyst said. Griffin left the game. Suffering from a concussion, he was too disoriented to know the score. The game went on. The Falcons won.
By then it was 2012, and I knew what football could do to a player’s brain. Former Bears quarterback Jim McMahon was only 53 and already showing signs of dementia. His old teammate Dave Duerson, suffering from blurred vision and memory loss, fatally shot himself in the chest at age 50. Postmortem tests showed he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a rare brain disorder that appears to be caused by blows to the head.
The NFL reached a $765 million concussion settlement with more than 4,500 former players and developed a new protocol to detect and treat concussions. The game went on.
Year after year, I told myself I was going to quit. And then September rolled around, and I couldn’t stay away. “COME ON!” I growled at the Georgia defenders chasing Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa during the national championship game in 2018. “GET ‘IM!”
They got him on first down, forcing a 16-yard loss, but he got up. On 2nd-and-26 he threw deep for the winning touchdown. My son cried.
In September, playing for the Miami Dolphins, Tagovailoa was slammed to the ground by Bengals lineman Josh Tupou. I heard about it afterwards. It was a horrible sight. Tagovailoa lay on his back, his fingers stiff and crossed at odd angles, an apparent sign of a brain injury. The game went on. The Bengals won.
This time I was not watching, because I’d finally begun my trial separation from football. I’d been inching toward this decision for a long time. When the Bulldogs’ Lewis Cine hit Florida’s Kyle Pitts so hard in a November 2020 game that I thought one or both of them might be dead, I turned off the TV to protect our children.
Even after that, I kept watching until early 2022, when I finally saw the Bulldogs win a championship. It seemed like a good time to walk away.
On Saturday afternoon at the zoo, as the Georgia-Tennessee game went on, I saw a green anaconda lying motionless in shallow water. I learned that red spitting cobras can deliver a stream of venom into the eyes of an enemy several feet away. My son did not seem to miss football. He was enthralled with the reptiles. I was there but not really there. Back outside, we heard the lion roar again.
Text messages accumulated on the phone in my pocket, a running commentary on the game, keen and amusing observations from people I knew and loved regarding events of which I was unaware. Yes, I felt regret. No, I did not check the score on my phone.
We left the zoo and drove to Shake Shack. I walked in and looked straight ahead, avoiding the game on the suspended televisions, though I caught a flash of Tennessee orange in my peripheral vision.
By now it was clear. No matter how much I missed football, football did not miss me. One week in October, all five of the top-rated broadcasts on TV were either NFL games or pregame or postgame shows. The game would go on. Old players and fans would leave, and new ones would replace them.
Somewhere out there were Tim Krumrie and Bo Jackson, Mike Utley and Robert Griffin, men who walked off the field and men who were rolled off on stretchers. They were sacrificed for me, and perhaps for you, in this country’s most popular form of live entertainment.
We drove home, and I went to my office to start writing. Through the window I could see it was getting dark. More yellow leaves fell from the pecan trees. The room was so quiet. It was almost 6:30, and I did not know the score, or who was winning, or who, if anyone, was broken.
by tyler | Feb 13, 2024 | CNN, sport
On Saturday afternoon, as third-ranked Georgia played top-ranked Tennessee in the game of the year so far in college football, I was not watching.
In past years I would’ve been on the couch with my brother, eating pizza and wings, bellowing at the television. Instead I got in the minivan with my wife and kids, and we drove to Zoo Atlanta.
We got there a few minutes before kickoff, when a lot of people were leaving. Who goes to the zoo during the Georgia game? We do, as it turns out, along with an Amish family, the women in bonnets, the men in straw hats.
It was a warm and cloudy afternoon, with yellow leaves falling from the pecan trees. A zookeeper told us there are 100,000 muscles and tendons in an elephant’s trunk. I texted my brother to say I was sorry.
“I miss you,” I wrote. “This is just a thing I’m trying.”
There were lions on a rock, all brothers, we were told, and two were asleep, and the third stood at the edge of the rock, and he kept roaring. It was a lonely sound. We walked away but kept hearing that distant, lonely roar.
I could imagine the sound of the crowd, the brass of the band, the beat of the drums, the feeling that I was a part of something, a joyous participant in one of our nation’s last unifying rituals. A sport both uniquely American and intrinsically violent.
I still remember when Tim Krumrie’s leg shattered. I was eight years old, watching Super Bowl XXIII at my grandparents’ house, and Krumrie, a defensive lineman for the Cincinnati Bengals, stepped the wrong way while trying to make a tackle and suffered a compound fracture. They showed the replay on TV, and we saw the leg shatter again.
The game went on. The game always goes on. That was the lesson I learned as an 8-year-old. Nothing will ever stop the game.
My brother and I were watching two years later when Bo Jackson, one of the greatest athletes of all time, had his left hip dislocated and fractured during a playoff game against the Bengals. Jackson’s football career was over, but the game was not. The Raiders won.
Later that year, Detroit Lions offensive lineman Mike Utley broke his neck when a Rams player fell on him. Although Utley gave a thumbs-up as he left the field, he would be paralyzed for the rest of his life. The game went on. The Lions won, 21-10.
We kept watching. Our teams were the Georgia Bulldogs and the Atlanta Falcons. I clenched my jaw. I ground my teeth. I screamed. There was this deep, guttural sound, too, this command that would emerge most often in those moments when the other team’s quarterback had the ball, and he was eluding our defenders, and he seemed on the verge of throwing or running for a touchdown.
“COME ON!” I would growl. “GET ‘IM!”
It was third and goal, the game was tied, and Washington’s Robert Griffin III was running toward the end zone. But the Falcons got him. Linebacker Sean Weatherspoon lowered his shoulder and smashed Griffin’s head. “Legal hit, good hit, great play by Sean Weatherspoon,” a TV analyst said. Griffin left the game. Suffering from a concussion, he was too disoriented to know the score. The game went on. The Falcons won.
By then it was 2012, and I knew what football could do to a player’s brain. Former Bears quarterback Jim McMahon was only 53 and already showing signs of dementia. His old teammate Dave Duerson, suffering from blurred vision and memory loss, fatally shot himself in the chest at age 50. Postmortem tests showed he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a rare brain disorder that appears to be caused by blows to the head.
The NFL reached a $765 million concussion settlement with more than 4,500 former players and developed a new protocol to detect and treat concussions. The game went on.
Year after year, I told myself I was going to quit. And then September rolled around, and I couldn’t stay away. “COME ON!” I growled at the Georgia defenders chasing Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa during the national championship game in 2018. “GET ‘IM!”
They got him on first down, forcing a 16-yard loss, but he got up. On 2nd-and-26 he threw deep for the winning touchdown. My son cried.
In September, playing for the Miami Dolphins, Tagovailoa was slammed to the ground by Bengals lineman Josh Tupou. I heard about it afterwards. It was a horrible sight. Tagovailoa lay on his back, his fingers stiff and crossed at odd angles, an apparent sign of a brain injury. The game went on. The Bengals won.
This time I was not watching, because I’d finally begun my trial separation from football. I’d been inching toward this decision for a long time. When the Bulldogs’ Lewis Cine hit Florida’s Kyle Pitts so hard in a November 2020 game that I thought one or both of them might be dead, I turned off the TV to protect our children.
Even after that, I kept watching until early 2022, when I finally saw the Bulldogs win a championship. It seemed like a good time to walk away.
On Saturday afternoon at the zoo, as the Georgia-Tennessee game went on, I saw a green anaconda lying motionless in shallow water. I learned that red spitting cobras can deliver a stream of venom into the eyes of an enemy several feet away. My son did not seem to miss football. He was enthralled with the reptiles. I was there but not really there. Back outside, we heard the lion roar again.
Text messages accumulated on the phone in my pocket, a running commentary on the game, keen and amusing observations from people I knew and loved regarding events of which I was unaware. Yes, I felt regret. No, I did not check the score on my phone.
We left the zoo and drove to Shake Shack. I walked in and looked straight ahead, avoiding the game on the suspended televisions, though I caught a flash of Tennessee orange in my peripheral vision.
By now it was clear. No matter how much I missed football, football did not miss me. One week in October, all five of the top-rated broadcasts on TV were either NFL games or pregame or postgame shows. The game would go on. Old players and fans would leave, and new ones would replace them.
Somewhere out there were Tim Krumrie and Bo Jackson, Mike Utley and Robert Griffin, men who walked off the field and men who were rolled off on stretchers. They were sacrificed for me, and perhaps for you, in this country’s most popular form of live entertainment.
We drove home, and I went to my office to start writing. Through the window I could see it was getting dark. More yellow leaves fell from the pecan trees. The room was so quiet. It was almost 6:30, and I did not know the score, or who was winning, or who, if anyone, was broken.
by tyler | Feb 12, 2024 | CNN, sport
On Saturday afternoon, as third-ranked Georgia played top-ranked Tennessee in the game of the year so far in college football, I was not watching.
In past years I would’ve been on the couch with my brother, eating pizza and wings, bellowing at the television. Instead I got in the minivan with my wife and kids, and we drove to Zoo Atlanta.
We got there a few minutes before kickoff, when a lot of people were leaving. Who goes to the zoo during the Georgia game? We do, as it turns out, along with an Amish family, the women in bonnets, the men in straw hats.
It was a warm and cloudy afternoon, with yellow leaves falling from the pecan trees. A zookeeper told us there are 100,000 muscles and tendons in an elephant’s trunk. I texted my brother to say I was sorry.
“I miss you,” I wrote. “This is just a thing I’m trying.”
There were lions on a rock, all brothers, we were told, and two were asleep, and the third stood at the edge of the rock, and he kept roaring. It was a lonely sound. We walked away but kept hearing that distant, lonely roar.
I could imagine the sound of the crowd, the brass of the band, the beat of the drums, the feeling that I was a part of something, a joyous participant in one of our nation’s last unifying rituals. A sport both uniquely American and intrinsically violent.
I still remember when Tim Krumrie’s leg shattered. I was eight years old, watching Super Bowl XXIII at my grandparents’ house, and Krumrie, a defensive lineman for the Cincinnati Bengals, stepped the wrong way while trying to make a tackle and suffered a compound fracture. They showed the replay on TV, and we saw the leg shatter again.
The game went on. The game always goes on. That was the lesson I learned as an 8-year-old. Nothing will ever stop the game.
My brother and I were watching two years later when Bo Jackson, one of the greatest athletes of all time, had his left hip dislocated and fractured during a playoff game against the Bengals. Jackson’s football career was over, but the game was not. The Raiders won.
Later that year, Detroit Lions offensive lineman Mike Utley broke his neck when a Rams player fell on him. Although Utley gave a thumbs-up as he left the field, he would be paralyzed for the rest of his life. The game went on. The Lions won, 21-10.
We kept watching. Our teams were the Georgia Bulldogs and the Atlanta Falcons. I clenched my jaw. I ground my teeth. I screamed. There was this deep, guttural sound, too, this command that would emerge most often in those moments when the other team’s quarterback had the ball, and he was eluding our defenders, and he seemed on the verge of throwing or running for a touchdown.
“COME ON!” I would growl. “GET ‘IM!”
It was third and goal, the game was tied, and Washington’s Robert Griffin III was running toward the end zone. But the Falcons got him. Linebacker Sean Weatherspoon lowered his shoulder and smashed Griffin’s head. “Legal hit, good hit, great play by Sean Weatherspoon,” a TV analyst said. Griffin left the game. Suffering from a concussion, he was too disoriented to know the score. The game went on. The Falcons won.
By then it was 2012, and I knew what football could do to a player’s brain. Former Bears quarterback Jim McMahon was only 53 and already showing signs of dementia. His old teammate Dave Duerson, suffering from blurred vision and memory loss, fatally shot himself in the chest at age 50. Postmortem tests showed he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a rare brain disorder that appears to be caused by blows to the head.
The NFL reached a $765 million concussion settlement with more than 4,500 former players and developed a new protocol to detect and treat concussions. The game went on.
Year after year, I told myself I was going to quit. And then September rolled around, and I couldn’t stay away. “COME ON!” I growled at the Georgia defenders chasing Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa during the national championship game in 2018. “GET ‘IM!”
They got him on first down, forcing a 16-yard loss, but he got up. On 2nd-and-26 he threw deep for the winning touchdown. My son cried.
In September, playing for the Miami Dolphins, Tagovailoa was slammed to the ground by Bengals lineman Josh Tupou. I heard about it afterwards. It was a horrible sight. Tagovailoa lay on his back, his fingers stiff and crossed at odd angles, an apparent sign of a brain injury. The game went on. The Bengals won.
This time I was not watching, because I’d finally begun my trial separation from football. I’d been inching toward this decision for a long time. When the Bulldogs’ Lewis Cine hit Florida’s Kyle Pitts so hard in a November 2020 game that I thought one or both of them might be dead, I turned off the TV to protect our children.
Even after that, I kept watching until early 2022, when I finally saw the Bulldogs win a championship. It seemed like a good time to walk away.
On Saturday afternoon at the zoo, as the Georgia-Tennessee game went on, I saw a green anaconda lying motionless in shallow water. I learned that red spitting cobras can deliver a stream of venom into the eyes of an enemy several feet away. My son did not seem to miss football. He was enthralled with the reptiles. I was there but not really there. Back outside, we heard the lion roar again.
Text messages accumulated on the phone in my pocket, a running commentary on the game, keen and amusing observations from people I knew and loved regarding events of which I was unaware. Yes, I felt regret. No, I did not check the score on my phone.
We left the zoo and drove to Shake Shack. I walked in and looked straight ahead, avoiding the game on the suspended televisions, though I caught a flash of Tennessee orange in my peripheral vision.
By now it was clear. No matter how much I missed football, football did not miss me. One week in October, all five of the top-rated broadcasts on TV were either NFL games or pregame or postgame shows. The game would go on. Old players and fans would leave, and new ones would replace them.
Somewhere out there were Tim Krumrie and Bo Jackson, Mike Utley and Robert Griffin, men who walked off the field and men who were rolled off on stretchers. They were sacrificed for me, and perhaps for you, in this country’s most popular form of live entertainment.
We drove home, and I went to my office to start writing. Through the window I could see it was getting dark. More yellow leaves fell from the pecan trees. The room was so quiet. It was almost 6:30, and I did not know the score, or who was winning, or who, if anyone, was broken.
