Badger of Honor
Fansided

Social Media Reacts To Chris Borland ESPN The Magazine Feature (Explicit Language)

By Jon Rzepecki

facebooktwitterreddit

Chris Borland was probably a better rookie linebacker than most in the history of the National Football League. It isn’t an overstatement – he was headed in Luke Kuechly territory. Then he retired.

This all happened due to concussions. Not the ones Chris Borland was diagnosed with, but the ones he felt he suffered over his long football career. According to a recent ESPN The Magazine feature by Steve Fainaru and Michael Fainaru-Wada, Borland said he received at least 30 concussions while playing football.

And yes, his football career was long. Don’t let his rookie status fool you. Most football players play at least 9 years before entering the pros if they make it at all. Age requirements can put a kid in pads from 8 or 9 years old. Speaking from experience, I played in 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades before a redshirt year in college.

I wasn’t even that good and yet I still spent roughly 40 percent of my life training and practicing for running into another human being at full speed with the intent to move him a couple of yards against his will.

So when people get mad on social media at a guy with knowledge that they don’t have, on a subject like concussions they may never have experienced, and with the anger that should only reserved for war crimes, you know things have gotten way out of hand.

Let’s dissect some of the vitriol here.

Reactions to Chris Borland’s ESPN Mag article (Jon Rzepecki screenshot)

What you see is just a swath of the dozens of comments on the “NFL on ESPN” post. This doesn’t even cover the actual original article or other aggregators posting about the story.

Right at the top is the most pathetic example of people not knowing when not to speak. Oscar Geovanni says that Borland retired because the players were too big. Yes, that’s why everyone in the NFL is a giant. It’s just a mix of humungous men going up against similar Jolly Green Giants. I doubt Mr. Geovanni is even bigger than Chris Borland (5-11, 248 playing weight) who was as scary as they come at the line backer position.

Heck, I’ve got nearly a foot and 25 pounds on the guy and I’d be scared of him.

Then we get to “Manimal Honcho” who, while not overcompensating for anything at all, is saying Borland should just man up. “Your words are just a reflection of our ‘mamby pamby’ society …”

First off, it’s “Namby-pamby” and second, since when did not getting a concussion mean someone is weaker than another? Are you not a man if you’re not winning the nonexistent “whose got more bodily maladies” locker room game? Moving on.

This gem from Dustin Bolzle, “Espn … your agenda is showing.”

Yes, because all sports stories have to be about who won or lost a game. It’s not like the players have lives or meaningful impacts off the field. How dare ESPN report on an actual issue involving aspects of daily life of our modern-day gladiators.

The last one irks me some. Nick Condit said Borland is out of line for speaking against how far the NFL has come in terms of teaching kids safer ways of playing football.

You mean the safer rules that only take 90 minutes to get certified? The program that Hall of Fame head coach John Madden ardently disagrees with? Yes, let’s continue putting helmets on preteens and telling them they’re OK to run at Timmy so long as they wear their hard plastic or metal helmet and don’t spear him in the chest.

And we haven’t even taken the train to Twitter town yet.

Everyone who plays is not an automatic millionaire. Guys might miss out on an extra zero based purley on if they’re drafted on a Thursday or a Friday. Next.

But it’s not all bad.

Wait, most of it is.

This comes with a lot of baggage on his profile, namely the part where Aaron Herandez should be freed.

Yes, because being rich will make having 30 concussions easier?

There are literally so many of the one’s above that the next one I will share actually gets lost, but needs to be RT and FAV a million times over.

You go civilized human!

Everyone I listed before, aside from those two moments of decency, should be blocked. Same with this guy, who jumped straight to Antichrist.

As Facebooker Eric Eyre said up earlier, for every Chris Borland there will be 10 young guys who want his roster spot right away.

The same holds true outside the game.

For every Lindsey Adler and Hawks Chronicle, there are 10 other guys just waiting to shit on an educated and life-altering decision.

Next: Chris Borland Retirement Announcement

More from Badger of Honor