Carlos Aviles
English 1301
Mr. Kederli
San Antonio College
5/12/15
Journal
“Kill em’! Crush em”! Eat em’ raw!
In this essay the author John McMurtry talks about his personal experience with football and the negative aspects that it brings involving our bodies, injuries and coaches. McMurtry goes into detail on explain the many different injuries that he suffered while playing football at a high school, college and professional level. McMurtry also explains how football fans and coaches can be oblivious concerning the impacts that the players actually absorb during the game and how it seems that they are only satisfied if someone hit hard.
Football nowadays is completely different to football from 30 years ago. Since then there has been many different rules added in order to protect the players more and avoiding as many injuries. Sports analyst always talk about how football has changed over the years and how it makes the football players less aggressive due to all the new rules that enforce safety to football players and the most important man in the field, the quarterback. The quarterback over the years has been getting protected more and more in order to keep them safe from getting injured more often. Its a controversial topic concerning how quarterbacks are getting less and less athletic when it comes to running the ball because they are protected by the NFL rules or how the rules should stand because one bad, late hit to the head can lead to serious or career ending injuries.

Offensive players are not the only ones that are in danger of getting injured when it comes to football games, on the contrary, defensive players run the same risk of getting seriously injured every game they play. When it comes to football there are fundamentals to tackling that are crucial to preventing injury to the head or spine that can be life threatening or that can leave you paralyzed for the rest of your life. Although football just looks like a bunch of oversized men running around slamming each other down, it is not as easy as it seems. Coaches always stress to
“Lead with the face mask” “Do not tackle with your head down.” Tackling someone without the correct fundamentals is actually one of the main reasons that so many football players get injured throughout their career. If a football player tackles with his head down then that leaves your spine in a completely vulnerable spot and thats when paralyzation and take its toll.
Coaches in football like to see their guys be competitive and not be soft in the field. As a coach, of course you care about all your players but you always want them to be the best and to perform at their highest potential. No coach wants to see their players go down in the middle of the game, none the less go to the hospital for playing the sport that they love. Coming from personal experience, in high school our coach considered us a family and we always got taught to compete at our highest level and to always have eachothers back. Throughout the game coaches yell out of excitement not because they want people to end up in hospitals. Same goes with fans that cheer on after a big hit. Fans pay big money to go see their favorite teams play at their highest potential to get their moneys’ worth. When someone gets injured during a game, notice that everyone in the crowd gets silent and clap after the player walks or gets carried off of the field in order to show respect no matter what team they belong too.

In John McMurtry's essay, he compares football to war and explains how similar they are. Football and war are indeed very similar due to the fact that they both require a game plan, tactics and strategy. Like war, football has to have a game plan before the game in order to go in prepared and ready to face your opponent. Football and war have been compared by president
Nixon and President Patton
When someone plays a sport like football, they have to comprehend