This is still a collision sport in which peer pressure virtually demands you play with pain and with broken bones and worry about CTE later in life. You sacrifice your body for the good of the team and the thrill of victory and for your future employment.
The risks are not worth the rewards if there are no rewards.
Meet the 3-11 Giants.
They finally won a damn game and now have to listen to many of their fans root for them to lose to the Redskins on Sunday at FedEx Field.
Just so the Giants can win the second-overall pick of the NFL draft on Chase Young, tank you very much.
Sorry, Giants fans. Your team isn’t interested in Just Lose, Baby.
The 3-13 Giants lost enough in 2017, remember, to draft Saquon Barkley with that precious second overall pick.
“[Young is] a heckuva player, and obviously not only Giants fans but any fans of any team that’s not doing that well this season, would love to have a player like that,” Barkley told The Post.
“But I don’t think anyone’s mindset in this locker room or this team is to go out there and lose these last two games.”
Barkley entered the NFL with bright-eyed visions of bringing the Giants back to glory. He is 8-22, same as coach Pat Shurmur and general manager Dave Gettleman.
“It sucks, I guess you could say it’s stressful because of all the hard work that we put in,” Barkley said. “I have a positive mindset, that’s the type of person I am, so I just try to find the positivity in all the negative things. If anything, it’s probably molding me into being a better player.”
Barkley may have been touched by the hand of God, but that didn’t make him immune to the high ankle sprain that played tricks on his mind and compelled him to subconsciously protect it when he returned from the injury. You just don’t show up as a physical freak and withstand the rigors of such a violent sport.
“It’s a lot of wear and tear on your body, but you also put a lot of time, money into keeping your body up to par,” he said. “It’s not easy, but it’s what you sign up for, it’s what you love to do.”
Sterling Shepard, who welcomed his second daughter on Tuesday, has endured two concussions this season.
“If you were here to see how we have to prepare, and some of the stress we put our bodies through throughout the week, mentally and physically, then I’m sure your mind will quickly change on going out and playing a game to lose,” Shepard told The Post.
“We’re never gonna play to lose.”
They sign up for fame and fortune and knowingly risk life and limb.
“Serious stuff goes on out there,” Shepard said. “It’s not for play. I mean, yeah, guys are risking everything out there.”
Shepard was targeted 11 times by Eli Manning last Sunday and caught nine passes for 111 yards.
“Your body takes a beating, especially on the turf,” he said. “It’s a little better when you’re on the grass, it’s a little bit softer landing, but it’s cement underneath the turf. Landing on that knees first, it’s tough getting out of bed that next morning.”
The heavyweight battles in the trenches are veritable dances of belligerent elephants that are not for the faint of heart.
“It’s really on Tuesdays, the second day after the game is really when you start feeling sore,” center Jon Halapio said. “My body is pretty sore but as sad as it to say, you just get used to it.”
But you never get used to the losing.
“When you just keep losing over and over,” Halapio said, “it definitely takes a toll on you mentally. That’s when the locker room just rallies around each other and just keeps on pushing.”
A Giants win over the 3-11 Redskins would give their division rivals the inside track to Chase Young.
“My goal is to win this game, and I’m 100 percent sure everybody in this locker room feels the same,” Halapio said. “It’s normal for fans to think that way, but as actual players in the locker room, we’re not tanking for no draft picks, we’re trying to win the games.”
Ref;nypost.com
