Our moralizing about warriors

[The Macho King]

I'm shocked more people don't. I work toward the top of my field (at least for my experience level), and get paid well, but also not "one year's wage will let me retire and live comfortably for the rest of my life" well. If it did, I'd work a couple of years, get the bankroll together, and then park most of it in an index fund and live off of that for the rest of my life.

 

[Beauner]

regarding Luck and Nash, and really anyone else... their situations aren't the same at all. Luck had a constant cycle of being hurt, rehab, and coming back. Not just your normal couple-week injuries either. He battled hard to come back and while his physical health probably played into his decision, it was probably much more about his mental health. I couldn't imagine his mindset when he's constantly working to get healthy only to get hurt again. And again. and again.

Nash is completely different, and I'm kind of shocked and disgusted at OP's feelings towards him. He has concussion issues and the next one could be devastating, you never know. He's not young anymore, has made his money and no one can blame him for wanting to retire with some semblance of health left. He has a family. Who the hell are we to judge him for retiring, especially what we know about CTE and effects of concussions.

 

[Midnight Judges]

Barring extreme circumstances, it's almost always a mistake to personalize things and attack player's personalities. You can't possibly know for sure what they are going through. Even if it's not injuries it could be depression or other things that don't show on the surface.

At least the OP is introspecting on it - which is a good first step.

 

[Sadekuuro]

It really is hard to deprogram old habits after decades. When I see a devastating hit with significant contact to the head, I still immediately think "wow, great hit!" before I process it consciously, wince, and realize it crossed the line.

 

[Roboturner913]

I hate when I keep seeing people ragging on "Colts fans" because of the reaction. I live in Colts country and I see way, way, way more people on my Facebook with "well that sucks, and I hate it, but I wish him well" type reactions than there people throwing hissy fits and calling him disloyal or whiny or not-tough or whatever. Actually I've only seen one or two of the latter.

There were like 500 people left at the end of that game and of those 500, maybe let's say half of them were booing. Big whoop. Aside from the culture warriors, who are gleefully grasping at this opportunity to "own the mils" there's not much meat on the bone with this narrative.

I do know that pretty much anybody here, if finances allowed, would love to retire early and pursue their passions, so you can't really take issue with a sportsball guy doing the same thing. Just because he has public visibility does not make him accountable to the public.

 

[sr edler]

It's tougher to retire if you haven't got any serious interests outside of hockey (or whatever sport you're doing for a living). Both Bure brothers retired kinda early (around 29–31) but Valeri now runs a wine cellar in California and Pavel's got his law degree. It's probably tougher for a guy like Jagr who seems only into hockey (and gambling), that's probably a big reason he sticks around until he's 47. Gambling seems like a pretty risky (and potentially destructive) hobby unless you know how to cheat the system.

This "love for the game" thing can also be a "scared of the outside world" thing.