Farewell to Football (my retirement speech)

I remember being told I would no longer be able to play contact sports like Hockey or Tackle Football and my neurosurgeon assuming it wouldn't be a problem. Little did he know that would be one of the major struggles between my parents, myself and my friends.

I love sports for many reasons and feel like they are a huge part of who I am. Let's look at some reasons.

Competitiveness- my desire to overcome my obstacle. I love the rush I get when competing, the pain I feel after a good workout and the determination I have to improve when I miss a pass, basket or spike. In fact without my competitiveness and sports I wonder if I would still be here(at least in the condition i'm in); without sports I probably wouldn't have gone to the doctor and I doubt whether I would have had the drive to recover like I did. Sports for the most part make me feel good about myself, when I'm having a bad day I like to shoot hoops or toss a football with a friend; it reminds me that I am talented at something. But I'm a natural competitor, (maybe from growing up with someone to always compete with) and so only throwing the football, although fun, leaves something to be desired in me. I want to be able to do it when the pressure is on and my teammates are counting on me.
Team- Working together and being there for people when they need you. I've met and grown to love so many people through being on their team. There is a bond that is created as you depend on them and they depend on you.
Health- This is where I begin to have problems. Sports keep me in shape but my body doesn't seem to like them. I used to love to run but now it gives me a headache, I love competitive team sports but if someone gets injured in a situation that "never happens" it is always me. This also presents a problem because in situations where others go to the sidelines I become to prideful and don't want to show that I'm hurt. I think that I can play through it, the major start of my problems. When someone has knee surgery, shoulder surgery or really surgery on an appendage you can see people tell them to take it a little bit easy as to not re-injure it. They might be told to rest a game while their swelling goes down. But my problem is that no one sees my scar, and no one would initially know if my brain were to get injured(unless it was really bad), I could tell them about the headache I had but once again I have pride issues. You can see when someones knee swells, but you can't see when someone's brain swells. Even though people understand what I went through was serious, because they are not reminded with a scar they can see, I feel like sometimes they forget how careful I need to be and because they do so, I tend to also.

Because I tend to push myself too hard and forget how lucky I am to be alive, I've done stupid things. The most recent was a blow to my mouth which was also a blow to my head. Since that is what my doctor was looking to avoid when he warned against tackle football, it has been advised I give up football. So sadly I'm going to announce my retirement of flag football (don't worry Mom, I was never number 4 and I won't be like Brett Favre). I'll have to take an in depth look to see the other sports I should give up. My efforts will now go into time on the golf course and learning how to play tennis in order to stay in shape, that's what retired people do isn't it.

Note: I know this is a little melodramatic, just give it too me.