Word: waldrep
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Dates: during 1974-1974
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...maudlin response to such a personal tragedy is uncalled for. But Waldrep's story gives us pause. For he represents that occasional, unwanted intrusion of reality into the restricted domain of the sports page...
Thus does Waldrep's accident, and others like it, gain a special poignancy. The unsuspecting reader of the sports page is momentarily jarred from his cliched patterns of thought. Tragedy has found him out, even amid the daily barrage of sports scores. The hoopla that surrounds so much of modern sport seems even more contrived than usual...
Still, no universal moral will be drawn from a young football player's misfortune on an October afternoon. Sports injuries like Waldrep's leave little room for discussion. The only way to eliminate them is to eliminate contact sports altogether, hardly a viable option. Players who love to "hit" wouldn't stand for it, nor would the thousands of armchair quarterbacks who spend their spare weekend hours watching athletes parade up and down synthetic turf. All that can be hoped for in our sports-conscious society is that every possible precaution be taken to prevent serious injury...
...football will continue to be played, and with gusto. For Kent Waldrep, however, the game won't go on. Last Saturday wasn't just another loss, something he could shake off by mid-week. It's just sad, pure and simple, that a young man has been so severely incapacitated while trying to carve out his own bit of gridiron glory...
...dogged pursuers of athletic success, Kent Waldrep puts that shanked punt, that booted ground ball, and that fifth personal foul in proper perspective...