Apples and Oranges

For their first exhibition game Thursday night in Canton Ohio, the Bears played just two regulars.  The opposing Baltimore Ravens also kept most of their starters off the field.  This is normal for football.

In baseball, spring training is all about playing.  The rookies want to show what they’ve got, and the veterans want to show what they haven’t lost.  Nobody wants to get injured, but most everybody wants to play.

In football, it’s almost the exact opposite.  Nobody really wants to play much in the preseason for fear of injury.  What an odd game, at least compared to the one I hold dear.  And, then to read that Vikings’ safety Andrew Sendejo wore a cap in camp with the message “Make Football Violent Again,” well, it made me want to put Sendejo in touch with former Raiders’ safety Jack “The Assassin” Tatum, who made football violent and then some for receiver Darryl Stingley with a tackle in a 1978 preseason game that left Stingley a quadriplegic.  But Tatum died in 2010 from a host of health issues.                  

As I said, an odd game.