SOME GOOD GUYS
So if you go here, you get to see something really neat--my friend Lindsay Knight, and her son Kash, pose with linebacker Brian Cushing of the Houston Texans.  Cushing is Kash's favorite player; so it was good of him to meet with Kash, have a picture taken, and sign Kash's prosthesis.  And I blog about this both for selfish reasons, and because I think it raises a bit of a larger point.

First, the selfish reason.  Hey, I love football.  And I love the NFL.  We all know, though, that the league has taken some knocks in this past off-season.  Some members of the New Orleans Saints were accused of placing "bounties" on opposing players--you'd get money if a star for the other team got hurt.  Former NFL star Junior Seau committed suicide, and many worry that the many hard hits and concussions that he, and other players, may have taken have had a harsh impact on their health and mental state.  Is football too rough?, many ask.  And then there's the usual off-field issues that current NFL players have had this off-season--getting caught with pot, having run-ins with the cops, getting DUI citations, etc.

But you know, it's important to remember that not everybody in the NFL is a bad guy, is trying to hurt opposing players, or is in trouble with the law.  I think the evidence is clear that the vast majority of NFL players are good guys; it's just that good guys don't make the police blotter and therefore don't necessarily get in the headlines.  It's the guys in trouble who do.  The good guys just go about their business, do their jobs...and sometimes do really nice things.  Like Brian Cushing did.  Good for him; and it's good to be reminded that there are a lot of good guys in the world of football, which...as a football fan, makes me glad.

And indeed, we talk a lot amongst ourselves--we talk about it on my blog--about some of the negatives in life.  I talk about the obstacles we face sometimes, the prejudice that there can be against us, the people who can't deal with the differences we present to them.  But let's not forget, there are plenty of good guys out there in the world, too.  There are persons like Brian Cushing.  Several of you were able to attend the recent Moebius Syndrome conference--because you held fund-raisers and your friends and acquaintances helped you.  I posted the story the other day about Phoebe from the UK, a young lady with Moebius Syndrome, in whose behalf folks were hoping to raise $3000 pounds.  Well, they wound up raising $13,000 pounds...again, because ordinary folks helped out.
So there are plenty of good people out there, too; let's not forget that.

“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.”
Nelson Mandela (born 1918)