Direckshun
01-02-2008, 05:25 PM
Had to throw this out there.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/peter_king/12/30/week17/6.html
5. I think this is my Enlightened and Unselfish Football Player of the Year: Retired Chiefs running back Priest Holmes. He walked off the field for good on Nov. 21 because of a chronic neck injury. We spoke that day, and the conversation began like this: "Have you heard the wonderful news?'' Holmes asked. "I retired,'' he said. Then the Kansas City running back paused, and he started talking about spending more time with his three sons. "It's a gain as much as it is a loss,'' Holmes said. "You never want to walk away from a job that is so much fun. But as much as it's a departure for me, it's an arrival for another player, Kolby Smith, the same way as when I arrived someone else departed. It's not depressing at all. It's life. It's football.''
Why can't they all be like this? Why can't all retirements of guys who need to walk away happen like Holmes made his happen? The 34-year-old running back who squeezed every ounce of ability out of his 5-foot-9 frame, and told himself he'd walk away from the game forever if he ever again felt the same kind of tingling sensations in his shoulders and arms he'd felt in 2005. And when Holmes did feel those same sensations, nine days earlier against Indianapolis, he did what he vowed he'd do. He told coach Herman Edwards, unemotionally, that he was retiring. "The helmet couldn't protect me,'' he said. "I knew it was time. And that's OK. I loved playing. Now I'll love something else.''
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/peter_king/12/30/week17/6.html
5. I think this is my Enlightened and Unselfish Football Player of the Year: Retired Chiefs running back Priest Holmes. He walked off the field for good on Nov. 21 because of a chronic neck injury. We spoke that day, and the conversation began like this: "Have you heard the wonderful news?'' Holmes asked. "I retired,'' he said. Then the Kansas City running back paused, and he started talking about spending more time with his three sons. "It's a gain as much as it is a loss,'' Holmes said. "You never want to walk away from a job that is so much fun. But as much as it's a departure for me, it's an arrival for another player, Kolby Smith, the same way as when I arrived someone else departed. It's not depressing at all. It's life. It's football.''
Why can't they all be like this? Why can't all retirements of guys who need to walk away happen like Holmes made his happen? The 34-year-old running back who squeezed every ounce of ability out of his 5-foot-9 frame, and told himself he'd walk away from the game forever if he ever again felt the same kind of tingling sensations in his shoulders and arms he'd felt in 2005. And when Holmes did feel those same sensations, nine days earlier against Indianapolis, he did what he vowed he'd do. He told coach Herman Edwards, unemotionally, that he was retiring. "The helmet couldn't protect me,'' he said. "I knew it was time. And that's OK. I loved playing. Now I'll love something else.''