NFL Great Jim Plunkett says 'My life sucks' at 69

[ShockTalk]

NFL great Jim Plunkett says 'My life sucks' at 69.http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/...cid=spartanntp

"The report said Plunkett has endured 18 operations and lives with artificial knees, an artificial shoulder and debilitating pain in his surgically repaired back."

Yet, the sport continues to thrive on the big stage. I have noticed more players retiring early, however.

[pogo]

Well the Colosseum had gladiators for 400 years until public tastes changed and the Empire was in decline.

[Taisner]

That sucks, but it's like that with a lot of sports. Just look at lots of the old boxers. Most of them can hardly finish a sentence.

[shockmonster]

Well the Colosseum had gladiators for 400 years until public tastes changed and the Empire was in decline.

At least 50% of gladiators lives just ended (no sucking to it) and if they were Christians vs Lions (later on Christianity became acceptable), it was closer to 100% so the comparison isn't equal but I get your point.

[jdshock]

That sucks, but it's like that with a lot of sports. Just look at lots of the old boxers. Most of them can hardly finish a sentence.

First of all, welcome to the board.

Football is almost certainly the worst of the big 4 sports, with hockey being a close second. Boxing and MMA are probably worse than football and hockey, but they're also much smaller sports. If you have to rely on boxing as your alternative example, that's not a good sign for football.

[MoValley John]

Bull riding.
Auto racing.

Lots of risk in lots of sports.

[Aargh]

It's been a while since I was in high school, but we had football coaches who offered a steak dinner to the entire defensive line if they could get the other team's quarterback out of the game and unable to return.

That's the time frame when Plunkett was going through high school and college, and I'm certain he was targeted by opposing teams through both. There was serious intent to injure the opposing team's best players.

[rrshock]

It's been a while since I was in high school, but we had football coaches who offered a steak dinner to the entire defensive line if they could get the other team's quarterback out of the game and unable to return.

That's the time frame when Plunkett was going through high school and college, and I'm certain he was targeted by opposing teams through both. There was serious intent to injure the opposing team's best players.

Coaches were still doing that in the 90s and then there was the New Orleans Saimts scandal a few years ago with that stuff.

[shockmonster]

During Plunkett's era, QB's weren't protected like they are today. Plunkett played 15 years in the NFL. Lenny Dawson played a long time too and was fortunate not to have as many injuries. Joe Namath had bad knees and Bob Griese didn't. There are trade offs to all aspects of life's decisions and fun, fame and wealth when Plunkett was younger was probably more attractive to him then. Growing old is difficult and sometimes bad health goes with it. My sympathies go to Mr. Plunkett's bad fortune