Professional Football

The Best Game Ever:Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL By Mark Bowden Atlantic Monthly, 279 pp., illustrated, $23There are lots of best games ever, and lots of books about them. There's the one about the Pittsburgh Pirates beating the New York Yankees in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series ("The Best Game Ever," by Jim Reisler). There's the one about the 1957 triple-overtime NCAA championship basketball showdown between North Carolina and Kansas ("The Best Game Ever," by Adam Lucas)

Now that Brian Banks has been exonerated of a rape conviction that put him in prison for five years, the one-time prep football star has a message for NFL coaches: Give him a chance. After Thursday's emotional court hearing during which Banks broke down in tears, the 26-year-old said he wants to pursue his interrupted dream of playing professional football. Appearing Friday on NBC's "Today" show, Banks said he just wants a chance from an NFL team. "I think that any team that gives me an opportunity will be really impressed with what I can do despite all of what I've been...

America has spoken. Professional football is our favorite sporting pursuit. The NFL is King. The NFL is Emperor. The NFL is Untouchable. What does that say about us as a nation that we have chosen as our favorite sport a game that not only routinely maims and cripples its participants, but also leaves a disproportionate percentage of them with serious cognitive impairment? We casually accept the notion that football is inherently violent, perhaps even borderline barbaric.

America has spoken. Professional football is our favorite sporting pursuit. The NFL is King. The NFL is Emperor. The NFL is Untouchable. What does that say about us as a nation that we have chosen as our favorite sport a game that not only routinely maims and cripples its participants, but also leaves a disproportionate percentage of them with serious cognitive impairment? We casually accept the notion that football is inherently violent, perhaps even borderline barbaric.

Super Bowl Sunday is such a familiar part of the American cultural landscape that it might seem silly to ask how the Super Bowl — and professional football in general — ever came to be played on Sunday in the first place. But rewind the clock far enough, and the juxtaposition would be shocking. To the Puritans who helped found the nation, Sunday was the Sabbath (divinely transferred from Saturday). In their minds, the Sabbath's prohibition on work extended to play as well.

Many of you will be jumping to conclusions today. You'll read the statement put out by the Patriots yesterday indicating that Tedy Bruschi will sit out the 2005 season, and you'll make the leap that he's retired from football. Don't do it. There's enough evidence he believes he can resurrect his career. "It's a very personal decision," said longtime Patriots linebacker Willie McGinest. "I've never pried into Tedy's business about it. I know how much he wanted to play, and whatever he decided he had to decide for his family.

Now that Brian Banks has been exonerated of a rape conviction that put him in prison for five years, the one-time prep football star has a message for NFL coaches: Give him a chance. After Thursday's emotional court hearing during which Banks broke down in tears, the 26-year-old said he wants to pursue his interrupted dream of playing professional football. Appearing Friday on NBC's "Today" show, Banks said he just wants a chance from an NFL team. "I think that any team that gives me an opportunity will be really impressed with what I can do despite all...

The football had a different flavor to it. A seven-game pack of Patriots season tickets cost $35, and the combined salary of the team, all 35 players, was $330,000. There were only five coaches. After regular-season games, players often stayed on the field and mingled with fans. Some even picked up a date. In their makeshift locker room in East Boston, players sat on milk crates watching 16-millimeter game film. There was no screen to show the images, just a white sheet hanging from the ceiling that covered water pipes.

Ask yourself this: What's the most important position on a professional football team? Quarterback? Oh, really? Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson have Super Bowl rings. Dan Marino and Peyton Manning do not. To borrow a phrase from another sport, Nuf Ced. The answer is that there isn't one. If anything, it might be left tackle. Ty Law seems to think the answer is cornerback, which is certainly his right. He also thinks he is the unquestioned best cornerback in the NFL, which is also his right.

Tedy Bruschi intends to play professional football again, and we should not be surprised. How many times do we need to be reminded that for 99 percent of our high-level athletes, the operative explanation of their very essence is, "Once a player, always a player"? And Bruschi is most definitely a football player. He is such a highly unusual player that the Patriots are not, and could never be, the same without him. For Bruschi brings more to the team than mere statistics. Someone else could be found to make tackles from the linebacker position.

Super Bowl Sunday is such a familiar part of the American cultural landscape that it might seem silly to ask how the Super Bowl — and professional football in general — ever came to be played on Sunday in the first place. But rewind the clock far enough, and the juxtaposition would be shocking. To the Puritans who helped found the nation, Sunday was the Sabbath (divinely transferred from Saturday). In their minds, the Sabbath's prohibition on work extended to play as well.

The football had a different flavor to it. A seven-game pack of Patriots season tickets cost $35, and the combined salary of the team, all 35 players, was $330,000. There were only five coaches. After regular-season games, players often stayed on the field and mingled with fans. Some even picked up a date. In their makeshift locker room in East Boston, players sat on milk crates watching 16-millimeter game film. There was no screen to show the images, just a white sheet hanging from the ceiling that covered water pipes.

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. - The overriding message we take away from Jim Rice’s Hall of Fame induction weekend is this: He cares. Boy, does he care. During those long years of what would have to be called rejection, he always offered the stiff upper lip, never acknowledging the disappointment or indicating that getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame would change his life. He had put up the numbers, he would tell us, and if they weren’t good enough, tough whatever. But now we know the truth.

The Best Game Ever:Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL By Mark Bowden Atlantic Monthly, 279 pp., illustrated, $23There are lots of best games ever, and lots of books about them. There's the one about the Pittsburgh Pirates beating the New York Yankees in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series ("The Best Game Ever," by Jim Reisler). There's the one about the 1957 triple-overtime NCAA championship basketball showdown between North Carolina and Kansas ("The Best Game Ever," by Adam Lucas)

Tedy Bruschi intends to play professional football again, and we should not be surprised. How many times do we need to be reminded that for 99 percent of our high-level athletes, the operative explanation of their very essence is, "Once a player, always a player"? And Bruschi is most definitely a football player. He is such a highly unusual player that the Patriots are not, and could never be, the same without him. For Bruschi brings more to the team than mere statistics. Someone else could be found to make tackles from the linebacker position.

Many of you will be jumping to conclusions today. You'll read the statement put out by the Patriots yesterday indicating that Tedy Bruschi will sit out the 2005 season, and you'll make the leap that he's retired from football. Don't do it. There's enough evidence he believes he can resurrect his career. "It's a very personal decision," said longtime Patriots linebacker Willie McGinest. "I've never pried into Tedy's business about it. I know how much he wanted to play, and whatever he decided he had to decide for his family.

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. - The overriding message we take away from Jim Rice’s Hall of Fame induction weekend is this: He cares. Boy, does he care. During those long years of what would have to be called rejection, he always offered the stiff upper lip, never acknowledging the disappointment or indicating that getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame would change his life. He had put up the numbers, he would tell us, and if they weren’t good enough, tough whatever. But now we know the truth.

The same type of brain damage identified in 14 deceased professional football players has been pinpointed in veterans who endured bomb blasts in Iraq and Afghanistan - a finding that raises concerns that numerous other military personnel may be vulnerable to similar long-term impairments. An international team of researchers led by Boston scientists said in a study published Wednesday that they discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in the brains of four veterans after their deaths, including three who had survived explosions from improvised explosive devices.

Ask yourself this: What's the most important position on a professional football team? Quarterback? Oh, really? Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson have Super Bowl rings. Dan Marino and Peyton Manning do not. To borrow a phrase from another sport, Nuf Ced. The answer is that there isn't one. If anything, it might be left tackle. Ty Law seems to think the answer is cornerback, which is certainly his right. He also thinks he is the unquestioned best cornerback in the NFL, which is also his right.