Member-only story
Keep Pounding
Luke is Retiring & I Don’t Blame Him
In the book 33 Strategies of War, Robert Greene draws attention to a distinction made by Erwin Rommel. Greene says:
“The great German General Erwin Rommel once made a distinction between a gamble and a risk. Both cases involve an action with only a chance of success, a chance that is heightened by acting with boldness. The difference is that with a risk, if you lose, you can recover: your reputation will suffer no long term damage, your resources will not be depleted, and you can return to your original position with acceptable losses. With a gamble, on the other hand, defeat can lead to a slew of problems that are likely to spiral out of control. With a gamble there tend to be too many variables to complicate the picture down the road if things go wrong. The problem goes further: if you encounter difficulties in a gamble, it becomes harder to pull out — you realize that the stakes are too high; you cannot afford to lose…Taking risks is essential; gambling is foolhardy. It can be years before you recover from a gamble, if you recover at all.”
The NFL does not gamble, its players do. They gamble with their style of play that the game demands and teams run them into the ground. Collectively, the NFL does not suffer any damage to its reputation when a player decides to leave the game for health-related issues that the game creates.
First Cam Newton, now Luke Keuchly, is Christian McCaffrey next?
Did you like this post? Sign up for the email list below, and follow this publication
