The Afternoon After: Head injuries starting to loom large

My weekly thoughts on football. As always, my disclaimer – I really don’t know a whole lot about the sport itself.

Rest in peace

I ran a few miles yesterday on my town’s track, which circles the football field, and the local high school team was practicing during my workout. We coexisted just fine, though I did draw some quizzical stares for the fact I was running barefoot. Frankly, I don’t blame them.

At one point, a high school friend of mine who’s an assistant coach for the team sent one of the kids to the trainer, with the exasperated explanation, “Joey says his head hurts.”

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Get with The Program: Cushing epitomizes steroids double-standard

Looking like Puck from Glee
The least shocking sports news in recent memory came across the other day, when NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Brian Cushing was suspended after testing positive for hCG, which is a female fertility drug that’s often used post-cycle to stimulate testosterone levels. It’s the same one Manny Ramirez tested positive for.

This was unsurprising for a lot of reasons, but primarily because I’ve heard explicit stories about Cushing’s proclivity for using steroids for quite some time.

Five years, to be exact.

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