Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Being in Shape

I heard a good point on the radio today. It started with the beaten-to-death topic of Mike Vick "throwing it all away." That got me thinking, exactly how much did he "throw away?" Sure, he threw away his money, his good name, but how hard did he work to get all of it? Sure, Mike Vick obviously has a ton of natural talent, but how hard did he have to work to get where he got?

Football players, compared to say, basketball players, work pretty damn hard. You never hear an NBA coach saying in the pre-season, "Wow are we in shape!" They always say, "We need more game simulation and game conditioning." or some crap like that. On the other hand, football players, if they are not in shape, will either get physically destroyed or fired in pre-season. No guaranteed contracts, an ultra-violent sport, strict roster limitations. A football player today would be crazy to fall out of shape.

Speaking from my field of expertise, elite distance runners are in shape 365 days out of the year, even though we only expect 3-4 good races out of them in that same period of time. I am sure soccer players work out year round, even Beckham must be doing windsprints in the offseason, as that sport can take it out of you quick.

But baseball players, come on, they do conditioning runs in spring training!! Football players, they do conditioning runs to weed out the slackers.

So, I am sure Mike Vick worked pretty hard to get to his level of on-field excellence, and to me, that would be a pretty tough pill to swallow. Busting your ass for so long, all to get it taken away from you.

Although losing 130 mil sucks too.

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