Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Football 101

So to discuss the sport of football, as in Gridiron, I have to go back to when I was working in Ballard at the Sports Medicine Clinic. I worked mostly as an x-ray technician detecting sports injuries. Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Koren Robinson came in with a knee injury. Some said the injury was questionable, but I saw it with my own eyes, with x-rays and fluoroscopy, and it was definitely real. I was filling out my diagnostic forms, as usual, but Koren wasn't putting his socks and shoes back on as instructed. He seemed to be hesitating. I looked over at him. He said, "Doc, there one more thing." I told him I'm not a doctor, just a technician and asked him what it was. "Can you x-ray me here?" he said as he pointed to his abdomen. He seemed a little nervous. I told him it isn't standard procedure to use these particular machines for x-rays that aren't on the extremeties, but he strongly insisted. What could I do, it was friggin' Koren Robinson. So I x-rayed him and brought the x-ray film back to the developer tech in an envelope (Koren insisted on privacy). When I picked the developed film up from down the hall the developer tech asked what it was because it looked "serious" I said it was a private matter. Koren took an x-ray out of the envelope and held it up to the viewer and said "turn it on." So I did. I was standing right there, I couldn't not look at it. Right there in the middle of his stomach was a white silouette of a common house key. He muttered something about an initiation mixed with words I'll not repeat here and put the x-ray back in the envelope and walked out. So if I have any apprehension about football, that's why. I think theres a strange underbelly in football culture that the media doesn't report, and most people don't know about. I think a lot of teams use humiliating and often dangerous initiation rituals that should be investigated and until they are, I'll never feel right watching a football game, although I rarely miss a Stamps game.

And I kept the original x-ray.

4 comments:

  1. I'm at a loss for words.

    What you did for Koren was not only admirable but a huge risk.

    I knew there was something going on with football when I saw the movie Rudy. Now I know, thanks to you.

    You remind me of the fellow from the popular tv show House. A prickly anti-hero.

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  2. I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't watched the Cosby show or Full House in years.

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  3. No no, it's called House. Just House. No Full in front of it, there are no African Americans in it. House. That's the name of the show.
    House.
    Sometimes House M.D.
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0412142/

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