What’s up with New York Jets players talking about dying on a football field?
One day after Jets rookie Jamal Adams made headlines by admitting a football field would be the “perfect place to die,” New York cornerback Morris Claiborne essentially echoed his teammate’s comments Tuesday during Jets training camp.
“A lot of people don’t believe me when I say this,” Claiborne told the New York Daily News’ Manish Mehta while discussing CTE and concussions. “But I would die out there on that football field. This is my life. This is what I do. I give it all. I would die out there.”
“If I was concussed that bad where they said you can’t go back out there or you’ll potentially lose your life, I gotta go,” Claiborne added. “I gotta go play. I gotta go play.”
It’s worth nothing Claiborne has suffered three documented concussions in the past 10 years, per the Daily News. Given that history — and the shocking results of a recent study about brain trauma in ex-NFL athletes — you might think he’s prepared to give up football if he suffers another head injury.
But you’d be wrong.
“This is what I do. This is all I know,” Claiborne said. “I might die lying there sitting on the couch. … I don’t want to coach. I want to play football.”
Perhaps Claiborne’s most revealing quote, though, was about what 7-year-old son would say if his father died on the field.
“He would say, ‘Daddy died doing what he loved to do,'” Claiborne said. “‘My daddy was that guy. He did what he wanted to do.'”
If nothing else, you have to admire the passion that guys like Adams and Claiborne have for their professions. Even if other NFL players believe the gridiron is no place to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Thumbnail photo via Noah K. Murray/USA TODAY Sports Images
