As the high school football season heads toward playoff time in a few weeks I took pause this week after reading this Charles Pierce piece on the Grantland website. I know that many are going to dismiss his premise out of hand. High school football is too embedded in our society and is used as the feeder system for the multi-billion dollar college and pro football machine. But as someone who is tangentially involved in promoting the sport, I have begun to struggle with it. I cringe, sometimes audibly, over some of the hits. The players have become too big, too fast for the equipment to handle. Check the sideline at any high school football game and notice the number of players who are not suited up because of injury. There was a similar situation to the Evan Murray case in a game that I broadcast years ago. Luckily the player involved was taken to the hospital immediatly and didn't die but he could have. Some will say that life is dangerous and accidents happen…and that's its only a few deaths out of the thousands of players involved….my question for you is….how many deaths is too many?
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-death-of-evan-murray/
If you are interested…I saw on the Steve Forbert web-site that the singer-songwriter will be doing a show with acoustic guitar wizard Leo Kottke at the Sentry Theater in Stevens Point on January 28th. Ticket go on sale this morning at tickets@uwsp.edu or by calling (715) 346-4100. I'm going!
The great alto sax player Phil Woods has passed away at the age of 83. He released many excellent jazz albums and was in demand as a session player (he's the great solo on Dr. Wu from Steely Dan). here is an outstanding live performance for your enjoyment
Songs of the Day (from my I-pod)
Right Back Where We Started From-Maxine Nightengale (1975) She was a theater performer who had done “Hair” in London and was doing backup workup in the studio when she was asked to sing this song. She didn't like it and had to be persuaded to take a royalty payment instead of a straight session payment of $45. Good thing too because it exploded in the London discos and conquered America too…going to #2 on the charts. I'm sure you will hear this at the final “Disco Cures Cancer” event on October 16th.
