[nabs-l] Charlie Wilks- blind football player. (asfeatured onESPN360)

[Darian Smith]

Hello all,
  maybe this makes me a bad blind person, but I had  not considered
the possibility of a blind person  playing football on any level.
 Granted I played touch football with  the kids in my summer   of
service program, but I've never  considered lining up and playing
tackle football  like  Charlie has.
  Maybe  this reporter has  his own thing, but  it does make for a
good human interest story.  Charlie may not be amazing,  blind people
may not be amazing, but  not every person has the courage to step out
and  not let blindness defeat them and we should celebrate  those who
do.



On 11/12/09, Darian Smith <dsmithnfb at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
>
>  here are some thoughts I've been kicking around...   As a football
> fan,   it seems as if   he does his job rather well. He's an interior
> lineman.  so he lines up under the center offinsive lineman and is
> just supposed to push back the center so somebody else can make the
> play (the general job that  somebody is supposed to do in that
> position).  if he hits somebody, great.   Jedi is rather correct  in
> saying that sighted football players have done worse... Jim Marshall
> of the Vikings once  ran the wrong direction in a crutial game years
> ago.  Instead of scoring six points for his team (a touchdown), he
> scored  two points for the other team (a safety).
>   The very violent and fast-paced nature  of football breeds
> quick-reactors on the field, especially from the defensive standpoint.
>  While I can't remember  any particular story off-hand. i do remember
> hearing that  players have ran  into other players  on their team
> during a play, even tackling a person and on some occasions even
> injuring that player.    H'es a kid living  his dream. in the end, I
> think we can only be so lucky as to say we are doing  thins.
>   just my opinion.
>   best,
>   Darian
>
>
>
> On 11/11/09, David Dunphy <djdrocks4ever at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I guess I'm just put off by this whole perception of how amazing we are
>> in
>> the eyes of others when it comes out that we can do something. A guy who
>> can
>> see finds out a blind person plays football, and that person is a super
>> hero
>> who should have a hole story done on him. To me, he is just an everyday
>> person that found a way to play football that I don't think he'll get far
>> with based on what I heard in the article. Sighted people find ways and
>> solutions to problems of how they're going to accomplish something all
>> the
>> time, and a second thought is not even given to it. We do it, and we're
>> amazing. And the fact that he made such a big deal out of something like
>> this, by this I mean mingling with his peers, whether it was by playing a
>> sport or what ever, suggests that the writer thought that was incredible
>> that a blind person can do that. As Harry put it, that to me shows a bias
>> there on the part of the writer or a misconception about us. People
>> mingle
>> with their peers and find ways to have fun everyday. I personally thought
>> the whole thing was corny.
>> >From David
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> "And if you will join me in this improbable quest, if you feel destiny
> calling, and see as I see, a future of endless possibility stretching
> before us;
> if you sense, as I sense, that the time is now to shake off our
> slumber, and slough off our fear, and make good on the debt we owe
> past and future generations,
> then I'm ready to take up the cause, and march with you, and work with
> you. Together, starting today, let us finish the work that needs to be
> done, and
> usher in a new birth of freedom on this Earth."- Baraq Obama
>


-- 
"And if you will join me in this improbable quest, if you feel destiny
calling, and see as I see, a future of endless possibility stretching
before us;
if you sense, as I sense, that the time is now to shake off our
slumber, and slough off our fear, and make good on the debt we owe
past and future generations,
then I'm ready to take up the cause, and march with you, and work with
you. Together, starting today, let us finish the work that needs to be
done, and
usher in a new birth of freedom on this Earth."- Baraq Obama