Forgetting why he walked into the room

AP reports this sad story.  As professional football sports fans, we should be very happy the league wants to keep their quarterbacks as safe as possible.  This would always be the humane thing to do, although, the more likely motivation is the broken quarterbacks reduce the quality of play and the fan excitement.  It is enough though, to do the right thing, even if for not the best of reasons.

McMahon to raise money for brain research

CHICAGO (AP)—Former Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon frequently walks into a room and forgets why he’s there. His memory is “pretty much gone,” he says.

McMahon's boisterous lifestyle and reckless choices may well have contributed to his memory loss.

It stems from his 15 seasons in the NFL during a time when quarterbacks did not receive as much protection as they do in the league today.

I caddied a couple of Mondays at Sunset Ridge Country Club in a foursome in which Jimmy Mac played. My wicked Uncle Kunkle would usually take Jimmy Mac plus a pro and I'd get a pro plus a golf equipment salesman.  The big "caddie bet" revolved around Jimmy Mac's "completion percentage:"  The number of holes he would complete before he walked off the course in disgust, not paying is golf gambling debts, and not paying his caddie. One could say his memory was not so hot in those days, either, back in 2000.

One could also speculate, however, and guess that for much of Jimmy Mac's life somebody else picked up after him, took care of all the obligations (short term, fairly trivial) so that he could hone his talents at throwing a football, develop his daredevil side, and ride the tsunami of fame, celebrity and fortune, much to the delight of us all watching a boy trapped in a man's body, playing a gladiator's game, for the purpose of pushing product on an obese, diabetic population who chose to do little more than worship its celebrities and spend hours a day viewing into the boob tube.

“I’m going through some studies right now, and I am going to do a brain scan,” McMahon told the Chicago Tribune. “It’s unfortunate what the game does to you.

“I’ve worked with some neurosurgeons and it’s a very serious thing, man.”

McMahon, who helped the Bears win the Super Bowl in 1986, has decided to help raise awareness of brain trauma by hosting a fundraiser in Chicago, with the proceeds going to educational programs and clinics for area youth coaches.

The 51-year-old McMahon is working with the Sports Legacy Institute, which promotes the study, treatment and prevention of the effects of brain trauma in athletes.

This is a very thoughtful, mature, giving thing to do. Jimmy Mac, you'll always be my quarterback.

“He’s going to become very active and try to get as many former players involved as he can,” Laurie Navon, McMahon’s girlfriend, told ESPN.com on Wednesday.

So, how does it feel, again, to be a 51-year old with a girlfriend (rather than romantic companion or love-support)?

“He feels it’s important to get more information out there. He and others took the blows for the young kids today, and now the rules are changing after they took all the hits.”

No. I call bull shit. They took the blows because they LIKED getting hit, and getting up, and beating the guys doing the hitting. They'd have played the game for a college scholarship and nothing more. They simply love / loved it.  After all, players of this dedication (15 years) love their chosen trade.  But for them, it never had anything about doing something for the kids, until much after the fact.

Navon said the physical toll from McMahon’s playing career has affected his well-being.

 The life choices McMahon made during his football career have had the greater affect on his well being. That's just not so easy to see.

“He definitely gets depressed, because he can’t do what he used to do and wants to do,” she said.

Welcome to "old-timers club," Peter Pan / Jimmy Mac / Boy wonder / Superman.

Better idea:  focus on what you can do now (that you enjoy) and focus on how to do those things better, with more intention.  Focus on the great joy in small things - the smell of the dew on the grass at dawn, the smell of leaves burning on a late autumn afternoon - the smile in your girl friends' eye when you do that one just right thing that tells her just how much you love her; just how much you appreciate her.