[apballin]

Originally Posted by Colts And Orioles

o


Ward has decided to continue playing ..... and I'm not surprised.

Some may wonder why Ward, whose $100 Million in career earnings (in addition to the pension that he has coming top him someday) will likely give him financial security for life, would continue to play such a violent game when he has already won a Super Bowl title, been an All-Pro, and has a solid legacy secured would risk his health to continue playing. While the risk-reward of continuing to play professional football doesn't seem worth it to most people, it reminds me of something that my Uncle Jimmy told me when Billy Conn was asked why he went for the KO of heavyweight champion Joe Louis when he led comfortably on all of the judges' scorecards and was assured of a victory if he simply survived the last 3 rounds of the fight.

Billy Conn was a great, 169-pounbd boxer who was the light-heavyweight champion of the world. Joe Louis was a 205-pound brutal puncher who reigned as the heavyweight champion of the world for a record 12 years (1937 through 1949.) When Conn challenged Louis for his heavyweight title, he was thoroughly outboxing the legend for the first 12 rounds of their 15-round fight. In the 13th round, Conn inexplicably went for the knockout, and chose to go toe-to-toe with Louis. Late in the round, Louis caught up with Conn and put him down for the count to just barely retain his world championship. Several days after the fight, Conn explained why he went for the KO when he had the title and immortality in the cusp of his hands. He said, l "I got here by being an Irish tough guy from Pittsburgh. I ALWAYS went for the knockout under any and all circumstances, and that's how I got where I was, challenging Joe Louis for the most prestigious world championship in all of sports. I wouldn't be here in the first place if I was the kind of guy who would play it safe in the second place ...... so the reason why I went for the knockout instead of taking the easy win is because that's who I am, and that's what I do."


Similarly, in my rat's ass of an opinion, the reason why Charvarius Ward is choosing to continue playing professional football in spite of what seems to be the more prudent decision to retire and protect his long-term health is because that is who Charvarius Ward is, and that is what Charvarius Ward does.

o

That’s all fine and dandy Darius Leonard was a hell of a football player too and that’s also what he “did” until he became a shell of himself and the Colts tried to convince him to retire and he decided he is who he is and tried to continue playing and we see how that worked out.

I hope I’m dead wrong about Ward but he definitely wasn’t the same player after the concussions and he was definitely shying away from tackling so I’m not very hopeful that he will amount to anything at all next season