Thread: Journal of a Plagued Year - by Ahmad Rashad

VERY VERY VERY INTERESTING READ HERE!

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1126025/index.htm

[size=12pt]JOURNAL OF A PLAGUED YEAR[/size]
Ahmad Rashad
October 18, 1982

Now in his 11th NFL season, Minnesota Viking Wide Receiver Ahmad Rashad has been selected to the Pro Bowl four straight years and currently stands fourth among active players in career receptions (472). Known as Bobby Moore when he was drafted in the first round out of Oregon by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1972, Rashad later played for the Buffalo Bills and the Seattle Seahawks before joining the Vikings in 1976. This summer, at the urging of Sports Illustrated Senior Writer Frank Deford, the 32-year-old Rashad began collecting on tape his thoughts about life in pro football. In Part I Rashad takes us through the early days of the Vikings' training camp, which are clouded over by the issues of chemical dependency and a possible players' strike.

THURSDAY, JULY 29: Who are these guys, anyway?

All right, Frank, here I go again, on the road to my 11th pro football season, my 11th training camp. It's funny, too, because in the last 10 minutes I've passed several old teammates on the highway, guys driving everything from pickups to Mercedes, and we waved but, really, I didn't have any great desire to see them. Understand: I don't mean I dislike those guys; it's just a matter of not knowing them.

People assume that just because you're on a team, you're tight with everybody. But this isn't the Foreign Legion. First of all, any football team is really two teams plastered together�the offense and the defense. And then the players are divided by age and race and status�you know, what position you play and how good you are�and when you take all that into consideration, a guy's lucky if he ever has more than a handful of really close friends.

=Z=

Interesting read.
Thanks.

Found this a bit odd though.

I don't believe that football is violent. I wouldn't play if it was. It's a collision game. And the idea, I believe, is to avoid collisions. In all my time in the NFL, I swear, I've only taken three really hard hits.

"Zeus" wrote:

VERY VERY VERY INTERESTING READ HERE!

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1126025/index.htm

If people aren't reading this, then they are really doing themselves a disservice.
It's a training-camp audio account from Ahmad Rashad in 1982.
Great stuff - like this:

Then, after practice, I went over to Jake's. It's a hangout. Jake's Stadium Pizza is the formal title. Through the years you could always be sure there'd be some players there you could have beers with after practice. Yet this year, I wasn't so sure. All the guys coming off treatment, all the publicity and the paranoia about drugs and drinking. You've got to remember, too, that in football they tag you very quickly; there's a lot of guilt by association. I worried that nobody would dare go to Jake's for a beer.

I was very wrong. We had a good group show up. Steve Dils, Dennis Swilley, David Huffman, John Swain, Terry LeCount, Sammy White�there were a lot of guys there. But best of all, Studwell was there, too. What was great about that was that Scott was one of the guys who'd had drinking problems, but he came along, like always�only now he was tossing down root beers and actually telling stories about what it was like to be at Hazelden, the rehab center. He said one time he was out on the front lawn, which runs down to a large lake, and a boat went by, and all the people on the boat held up beer cans and screamed at the patients. And Scott laughed harder telling that than all the rest of us with our beers. It's important that he came over to Jake's. Whether you happen to drink or not, you have to find ways to stay part of the team.

I didn't remember that about Studwell.


Great stuff - long read - well worth the time.

=Z=

"Zeus" wrote:

"Zeus" wrote:

VERY VERY VERY INTERESTING READ HERE!

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1126025/index.htm

If people aren't reading this, then they are really doing themselves a disservice.
It's a training-camp audio account from Ahmad Rashad in 1982.
Great stuff - like this:

*snip*

Great stuff - long read - well worth the time.

There's a 2nd part, as well:
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1126046/index.htm

=Z=

Excellent read Z.
Thanks for sharing.