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Beautiful writing about a beautiful game.

Did you not see Cam Newton
Splattered all over the Superdome turf
And Dante Fowler Jr. slam Tyrod Taylor’s head
So hard into the EverBank Field grass that he sent him
Straight into concussion protocol?

You can still crush quarterbacks.

Did you not see Travis Kelce
Absorb a skull shot so vicious
It left him wobbling like a dazed boxer?

You can still hammer receivers.

It’s football. A lot of us fell in love with it
In part for the violence, and the violence remains.

*****************

Not much has changed through the years
Besides the size of the beast. It’s big guys
Banging into each other for three hours,
Giving and receiving sub-concussive hits nobody talks about.

Watch the Steelers and Jaguars smash heads
Sunday at Heinz Field. You’ll see a game
As violent as any they played in
1960s, ’70s, ’80s or ’90s.

Whatever’s been lost in gratuitous savagery
— a Dick Butkus clothesline tackle — is more than
Compensated for by greater size, strength and speed.

The 60 mph collisions from 1970 are 90 mph now.
And it’s not Volkswagens anymore. It’s 18-wheelers.
Ben Roethlisberger is bigger than Dwight White was
When he played for the Steel Curtain.

Margaret Soltan, January 12, 2018 11:50AM
Posted in: poem, sport

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