His name was an affirmation of the game he played. Say Ow. He played linebacker in the NFL for 20 years. Not quarterback. Linebacker. He played 268 games and made 1,526 tackles. Maybe that was too many. Just three years after he played his last game, Junior Seau is dead.
Seau took his own life on the same day Roger Goodell handed out player punishments in the Bountygate scandal. Jonathan Vilma was banned, without pay, for the 2012 season. Vilma has played linebacker in the NFL for 8 years. He has played 114 games and made 834 tackles.
The severity of Vilma’s punishment was widely debated in the Google Machine and by Pigskin Pundits and Bobbleheads. Anecdotally, those who thought a full season ban was too much defended Vilma on two points.
First by noting that Saints GM Mickey Loomis was suspended for eight games and assistant coach Joe Vitt was suspended for six; why should a player – who does what his coaches tell him – be punished more than his bosses?
Except Vilma reportedly offered $10K of his own money to see Brett Favre on a stretcher, so, he was making it rain.
I guess the good news for Vilma was that he didn’t have to pay that $10K as Favre took several standing eight counts but still managed to finish the game upright.
The other argument in Vilma’s defense is that everyone was doing it. That’s right. Every NFL team had a bounty program but only the Saints are being punished.
The unmitigated hypocrisy!
Maybe. I don’t think it’s true, but maybe. Some other teams? Three other teams? Okay. I could believe that. Whatever the case, I’m not sure pointing out that others are as guilty as you are is really such a good defense because, you know, you’re admitting you’re guilty.
With the concussion lawsuit and former players exhibiting the post traumatic symptoms of combat war veterans, the NFL had to demonstrate that it takes the safety and well-being of the players seriously. Viewed through the tragic prism of Dave Duerson’s and Junior Seau’s deaths, the punishments seem less than serious. In public life, if Jonathan Vilma offered $10K to hurt someone, what sort of punishment in a court of law might he face? Why would this behavior be protected on the football field?
NFL football is a violent, dangerous sport in any case. Junior Seau played that game with an exuberant and graceful ferocity and we loved him for it. Should anyone be allowed to play that game for 20 years? At what point does the damage done to the brain and the body become a death sentence? Can the game be made safer? I hope so. I hope the answers to those questions are found before too long, before another Junior Seau dies.
May he rest in peace.
So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade…
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