Hard Knocks Indeed

I watched Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Detroit Lions a couple of months ago.

Saw something I never saw before.

Comes a time in pre-season when the roster has to be cut from 80 players down to 53. That is a lot of bloodshed.

The players get called in by the coaches one by one, there is a (half-assed) explanation about why they are being cut, the players act tough, handshakes and thank you's all around, and the execution is over.

One guy got called in, the news was delivered and he..........got tears in his eyes and asked "Is there anything I can do?"

Begging for his job.

Sad to watch and painful. I lost no respect for him.

These guys are living life compressed. The vast majority of us live 175 years of pure, slow-moving torture. We swallow our egos, accept compromise that makes our lives invisible, we die and are forgotten.

Football players devote their lives from the age of 5 to getting into the NFL. They work their asses off. They are actually, physically, pursuing a dream. The rest of us only talk about it.

They make it over every fucking hurdle and are told at the age of 20, 21, 22 - you are not good enough.

The dream shatters like Waterford Crystal on concrete.

Life compressed. All the cruelty and irony and false hope exposed in the naked light of day in only twenty years. The rest of us get to lie to ourselves for 175 years.

Which is worse?

At least a football player gets a chance to move on, with plenty of time to pull it off.

The rest of us belatedly dig our heels into the mud as we are dragged towards the grave, while screaming "Wait, wait - give me another chance. Give me more time."

"Please!"