Posted on 05/14/2015 8:13:20 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Patrick Venzke only recently turned 40, but even though his face looks youthful, his body is ravaged. He suffers terrible backaches, his left shoulder is wrecked and he also has knee trouble. “It’s the price I paid to pursue my dream,” he says as he drags himself up the steps of a café in Essen, Germany.
Venzke became the first German national to make a National Football League roster when he signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars in April 2001—although he was never fielded in any of the team’s games. […] After a year in Jacksonville, Venzke moved to NFL Europe, where he played for Rhein Fire in Düsseldorf and Frankfurt Galaxy. He also had a spell in the Indianapolis Colts and Philadelphia Eagles squads. Today, he describes American Football as Darwinism run riot. He lost count of the number of times he threw up during training. He retired in 2011.
Football is a game that rewards aggressive behavior. Ever since medical experts established an increased frequency of brain damage amongst NFL players, Venzke has been seriously worried. He’s married and lives in Idaho, where he works as a realtor. In Germany over Easter to visit his father, Patrick Venzke got in touch with Spiegel to suggest an interview. He arrives with a notebook, in which he’s jotted down some thoughts about what he wants to get off his chest. “When I was still playing, I wouldn’t have been in a position to give this sort of interview,” he says. “It would have cost me my career.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
Wait a minute? Soccer pros don't train hard enough to puke?
He never even played?
Yeah, and soccer is a bathhouse romp.
I guess he learned the hard way that this isn’t Europe - and that REAL MEN play football in the US.
“The brute strength in the NFL is like nothing he’s ever seen, and dwarfs college play. That is a scary thought.”
I still remember a pick-up basketball game that I played with the starting lineup of ESU. Yep, THEY WERE HUGE, and this was college, and this was decades ago. I can only imagine what it’s like today.
My incident was maybe 25 years ago, so same goes here. They act like idiots and grandstand and get into all sorts of trouble but at the end of the day, they are incredible athletes, and their bodies are aged by 40.
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