I met a former player for the Baltimore Colts. Offensive lineman in the late 60’s to the early 70’s. His fingers pointed every direction of the sun and his knees were shot. I asked him if he would do it again knowing what would happen to him. He smiled with half his teeth gone and told me “HELL YES”.
I’m old - I got to know some of the old Baltimore Colts as well when we lived in Towson - Gino Marchetti and Artie Donovan and Ordell Braase in particular- all they cared about was playing football. They didn’t get paid if they didn’t play and they didn’t make all that much when they did play.
Artie used to say that football was invented to keep coal miners off the streets.