(Nick/Graham/Magued/Duffy/Niall -- I am sure you guys, and some others here, can superimpose your own names and events over these and understand my message)
Pete - do you remember - in Sweden maybe or it could have been France - when Adam Gardner told me to go to a bunker that was well over the 50 and on a pretty steep downward run?
The problem of being shot on the run was the least of my concerns. The bunker was about 3 feet wide and less than 5 feet from the tape line. On the other side of the tape was a 25 foot drop onto a slab of rugged rock. We determined the best bet was to just line up directly with the bunker, run as fast as I could (in those days that was pretty fast) and just crash into the bunker. This was a thick wooden log bunker and we felt safe it would stop my forward motion.
Do you know that it never occurred to me that it might not be safe to crash into a bunker made of wooden spikes at 30 miles an hour. Certainly I saw the danger in going over the cliff. But it mattered most that if i made it, I'd get to shoot a lot of people and we would win. I did it. It hurt. I didn't die, and the super glue stopped the bleeding. I shot a lot of people and we won. And then drew the same side of the field in the semis and finals. It hurt again. But we won. We ended up losing the tournament on a fluke play by some silly Swedes, but that's another story.
What about some of the stuff that Bruno and Heavy played through?
Did Chino, Dirk G, Shaner, Darryl Trent, LD or Spud ever threaten to not play a game because they thought they might get hurt? If you had heard the Greg Mal wouldn't run to a bunker because he might slip on the wet ground and fall, you would have never believed it were true would you?
Did Marcus Davies ever refuse to play a side of a field because of thorns? I know several times we chose to go through the thorns because we knew some other team would shy away from them.
Those were the days.
I am all for advancing the game. And I've put in the work as opposed to the lip service. I believe I have done my part, and then some, in that regard. But I would really love to see some of these guys play in the conditions that got all this started. I think it would be gut bustingly funny. But above that I believe it would go a good measure in gaining some appreciation for where things are today.
I certainly don't think we stay in the past. I am a firm believer in the "keep moving forward or you start to back up" saying. And I won't ever stop trying to get farther than we got last year, or last week for that matter.
But sometimes I wonder where this is all going, is it worth it, and I can't believe people will threaten to shut down a major event because the grass is too dry, there is dirt on the field, there is a 6" drop in the ground on one side of the field, it's muddy, or - heaven forbid - there is a 2" tall root that is clearly marked with orange paint in the farthest back corner of the field 20 feet BEHIND the back bunker (BTW - these are all actual protests I've been faced with) I swear I had a guy (someone well in this industry) threaten a lawsuit because he fell and twisted his ankle when he ran over a dip in the field. He literally threatened out loud in front of players, spectators, and Jesus to tell ESPN execs about our disregard for players safety and sue PSP because he hurt himself running on a field.
Guys - push for whats right. Have a voice in going forward. But be willing to do more than just point fingers. And, for the sake of this game and where we have come (AND WE HAVE COME A LONG, LONG WAY) be careful of what you wish for, careful of what your reaction to a moment may cost for a while, and careful of where we may be headed with other running things. 'The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence' is on of the most well known and often used sayings on the planet for a reason.
