Dick Butkus's Influence On Sports

Retirement is a subject that is brought up with a heavy heart. It means that age is getting higher and bone mass is getting lower. It means more sleep and less play. It means that the strong lion that they once were is now a frail flea struggling to keep hold on a dogs neck. No athlete would like to admit that their time to end what they once worked dusk until dawn for is coming up. As time ticks away, their training sessions and countless times they have pushed their bodies to the ultimate test quickly catches up to them. Running down the field soon seems like miles and landing from jumping for rebounds makes their knees feel as if they are about to give out and shatter into millions of pieces. Their breaths seem to be more on demand than

Athletes thirst for a win to a point and where they will say and do things that defeat the purpose of sportsmanship. Continuously acting in this manner can easily give an athlete a very bad reputation, on and off their playing fields. Dick Butkus is a linebacker who because of his bad reputation is now depicted as being “…a caged animal” (Rick Telander) “…with some type of aggressive streak” (Rick Telander). Although this hyperbole exaggerates Butkus’ physical appearance, it proves the impact that his poor decisions had on his superstar image. A few things he is known for is “…[talking] all kinds of garbage” (Rick Telander), “…provoking three separate fights in one game,…[picking] up four personal fouls in an exhibition game,… [and] in one heated skirmish bit…a referee” (Rick Telander). He sees it as “…a way to vent [his] anger” (Rick Telander) but the way the crowd sees it, it is a whole new misconception. Contradictory to what he is known to be, “off the field [Dick Butkus is] quiet, laid-back, calm, [and] relaxed” (Rick Telander). But because his play on the field now haunts him, no one will believe that a submissive side is even possible in him. In the story Gifts That God Didn’t Bring, Larry Bird realized “…[that] there’s nothing [he] can do about it once [he has] done it”. He understands that there are consequences to his actions, ones that he knows he will not be able to change. He

By gravitating away from their natural habitat of training and hard work, their lives begin to feel dull and slothful. Athletes train their whole lives in order to reach success and soon after retirement, all their hard work only seems to be a distant memory. Larry Bird, a former Boston Celtic and World Champion, started his day in the gym at 7 o’clock in the morning and ended it in the gym at midnight. He spent all this time in the gym because “he believes everyone should work [hard]” (John Papanek), regardless of the player’s skill level. “That’s how [Larry] got to be such a good player” (John Papanek). He worked hard so that he could be better than he was the day before. Considering all the time Larry had spent training, the love and the bond he had made with the sport shows why “… he [would not] want it to end” (John Ed Bradley). Alongside being out of routine, retirement also brings a lack of motivation which escalades to laziness very quickly. In the article Broken Promises, Borris Becker talks about how his body ends up “…[looking] drawn, thinner than [it] used to be” (S.L. Price) and his self-confidence that came with the fit body now “…comes and goes” (S.L. Price). The time away from the sport and the way their body responds to it makes the athlete believe that “…[they have] really got nothing [left]” (S.L. Price). They had lost one of their loves and occasionally