Rage

The stories run rampant all the time. Tank Johnson. Pacman Jones. Rae Carruth. On and on and on.

Sometimes the stories are bigger, sometimes they barely hit the national media radar. Regardless, it seems that football players are generally involved in more arrests and violent behavior off the field than any other athlete.

With the recent arrests of FSU football players Joe Surratt and Geno Hayes (both pictured above), it brings to mind how brutal the game of football is and what types of feelings and emotions it brings to its players.

In Surratt and Hayes' case late last week, the players were involved in an altercation outside a popular Tallahassee bar. Alcohol was involved. Eventually, the players got into it with the Tallahassee Police Department officers on duty outside the bar. There is a claim that it appears Surratt also hit an officer and Hayes needed to be Tasered.

What the players did was irrational, unacceptable, and unfortunate for all parties involved including bystanders.

Fights at bars happen all the time because liquor can get the best of anyone.

That's not the point here.

What's important is understanding the physical prowess and mental thoughts of a football player. Kids are taught at a very young age to act with rage and force on the field to tackle their opponent, lay a huge block on a defender, or otherwise use force to "win each individual battle."

While it is no excuse for what Surratt or Hayes did, nor what any other criminal does, football players are predisposed to use force and have altercations because of what they are taught while excelling at the entertaining, yet rage infested, game.

Bill Romanowski is a great example. At times, he would get so out of his mind with fury, that he would spit at opponents or fight teammates in practice. Not logical, just crazy.

But crazy is a trait that is needed when throwing your entire body around for the cause each and every hit, down, week, and season. Without that little bit of extra edge, a player would be at a disadvantage against opponents.

Of course, the best players (& people) can control that emotion and compartmentalize it on the field.

Unfortunately for some, they live their daily lives with it and can't separate what happens on the field from off it.

It's sad that a sport so entertaining, can so greatly affect people physically (see Kevin Everette, Mike Utley, and a slew of others), mentally (concussions and long term issues like Alzheimer's), and psychologically (Ray Finkle!).

Most people feel athletes are overpaid. However, when you think about it, if any athletes deserve the overpayment for their services and effort, its the football players who kill their bodies day in and day out while taking years off their life with each tackle or hit.