Frank: I surprised myself and watched the first half Saturdaynight, but I rely on your judgment as a Green and Gold follower. What did welearn?
Artie: That they can stop shooting their mouths off about theSuper Bowl and start shaping up on defense and special teams. Anyone who didn'tknow the two teams would have thought Clevelandwas the Super Bowl contender, not the Pack.
Frank: That sounds a mite harsh.
Artie: Just showing you the ups and downs of fandom.
Frank: Surely there were some pluses, at least on offense.
Artie: Aaron Rodgers was exceptional, 12 for 13 and a touchdown.Just the timing of his passes, the accuracy and the zip. Holy cow, is he readyfor the season! And his stats mean the offensive line was protecting him wellagainst a lot of blitzes. OK, that's it for the pluses.
Frank: The minuses were obvious. The Browns' long TD drive tostart the game; Ryan Grant's fumble on his first carry to help make it 14-0;three TDs against the first-string defense; a muffed punt and dropped kickoffby rookie Sam Shields.
Artie: The defense and special teams began right where they leftoff last season. But one thing was odd; I started to wonder if there werereferees on the field, especially since the Packers were involved. It was wellinto the second quarter when the first penalty was called.
Frank: Let's call that a half-plus.
Artie: Mike McCarthy will assure us, as usual, that the problemswill be "cleaned up." That terminology always bugs me because there'ssomething delusional about it. You can work on things, but you can't play thisgame again. What came up in specific situations might not happen next timebecause you'll be playing a different team with different schemes.
Frank: Your doubts are in mid-season form.
Artie: Well, if they stomp Seattlethis weekend I'll be back on the Super Bowl bandwagon.
Frank: How about Grant leaving the game after just two carrieswith a shot to the head?
Artie: He did look groggy. I know he said that if it was theregular season he'd have returned.
Frank: But they eventuallydetermined he suffered a concussion, and there's mounting evidence that gettingyour "bell rung" repeatedly can lead to serious brain-damageissues. Ifthis happened on his second touch of the year, how many times will it take toreally hurt him?
Artie: It wasn't a hit where you said, "Whoa, is he gonnaget up?" And the experts are talking more and more about cumulativedamage.
Frank: I don't see how any of these guys isn't taking ahuge risk. Whether you clinically diagnose a concussion or not, the brain hasto be sloshing around whenever there's a solid hit. Do they take any fewershots to the head than boxers do?
Artie: And a lot of boxers wind up with brain damage.
Frank: The NFL has posted strongly worded warnings in all locker roomsabout symptoms that players should look for. And it says this:"Concussions and conditions resulting from repeated brain injury canchange your life and your family's life forever."
Artie: But how many players will heed the signs? It's like usingsteroids; guys like Lyle Alzado and Mike Webster knew the risks but used ’emanyway. And they died relatively young, at least partly because of the ’roids.
Frank: It's a pact with the devil. "I'll give you money,fame and maybe a Super Bowl ring, but my payment will be years taken off yourlife." How many players would balk at present-day success even if they maybe severely brain-damaged at 50?
Artie: Or younger. They found that Bengals receiver Chris Henry,who died in an accident last December, had degenerative brain damage. He wasonly 26 and had never been diagnosed with a concussion.
Frank: Michael Wilbon said on ESPN that the brain-damage issuecould, over 20 or 30 years, actually kill football as a competitive sport.
Artie: That's not being too apocalyptic, if that's the rightword. At the very least, it could drastically change the nature of the game.
Frank: Wilbon said there was no way his young son would ever playfootball. If I had a son, I'd say it too.
Artie: And if enough parents start saying it, and the pool ofyouth and high-school players dries up, where does that leave the sport?
Frank: Football may have passed the breaking point in terms ofthe laws of physics. Mass and momentum and speed—300-pound men moving fasterthan smaller players did 40 years ago.
Artie: Not that other sports don't involve risks.
Frank: There are a lot of concussions in soccer. I rememberreading about studies involving repeated heading of the ball, especially inkids.
Artie: And baseball! Corey Koskie's career ended when he suffereda concussion chasing a fly ball—and his head never hit the ground, only snappedback. Mike Matheny quit because his bell got rung too often on foul tips.Justin Morneau has been out for weeks with a concussion.
Frank: You never know how any brain will react to repeated blows,or even just one. But football takes the risks to extremes.
Oh, the Dire Straits
Frank: So in the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, a Germanguy beat a guy named Bubba in a playoff.
Artie: And a third guy thought he was in the playoff but hewasn't because on the 72nd hole he didn't think he was in a bunker buthe was, and then did something that got him penalized.
Frank: When stuff like this happens, golf lovers often go intorhapsodies about the sacredness of the rules. To me it's just goofy.
Artie: Anyway, the winner, Martin Kaymer, was praised on CBS as asuperbly "disciplined" player. Well, duh! He's a German, ain'a?
Frank: The Bubba, last name Watson, let it rip on the lastplayoff hole and splashed out for double-bogey.
Artie: The third guy, Dustin Johnson, can actually takeconsolation from missing the short putt that he thought would give him thetitle. If he'd made it, the two-shot penalty for the bunker bungle might havesent him into Lake Michigan.
Frank: Of course if he hadn't hit a lousy tee shot he wouldn'thave found out there was a bunker where all he saw was spectators.
Artie: All week the crowds flattened this bunker into somethingthat just looked like Wisconsin lakeshore.
Frank: I guess Johnson was supposed to think, "Sand equalsbunker," and the rules posted in the clubhouse warned there might bebunkers in unlikely places. But wasn't there a PGA rules official on thecourse? Why didn't he say, "Dustin, take a good look"?
Artie: It's up to the player to ask for a ruling. Another ofthose bylaws that uphold golf's supreme integrity, or some such blah-blah.
Frank: So Johnson "grounds" his club before swinging,which is a no-no in sand because it might change the lie. In this case the sandwas so packed that it made no difference—which made no difference to theauthorities.
Artie: That's the official story, but I know the real reason forthe penalty. I was puzzled by the hubbub until I got a good look at Johnson'soutfit. Those low-hung hip-hugger slacks with the white belt—he looked likePeggy Lipton from TV’s "The Mod Squad" in the ’60s. It all becameclear: He's out because they finally noticed he's wearing women's pants!
Frank: Not something the PGA wants publicized, I'm sure.
