Be Thankful for Football

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!  Even if you are in a country where Thanksgiving isn't celebrated you should always take time away from your everyday life to be thankful.  One thing I feel you should be thankful for is football.
To the average person that doesn't sound very reasonable, but to some people that males the most sense in the world.  For many underprivileged youth football is the way out of a rough life.  Many inner city poor children find an outlet in football.  People don't realize that you learn more than just X's and O's from football.  You learn how to be a productive member to society after football.  Many youth and high school coaches spend a lot of time and effort to make sure these children stay off the streets and in the classrooms.  They give real life meaning to the tern "blood sweat and tears".
I know a handful of guys that would not have even finished high school if it wasn't for football.  I myself stayed out of would be trouble because of what I was taught during high school football.  I was touched so much that since leaving high school I have always been involved in football and now I am an assistant coach at the high school level.  You may consider me a success story, but there has been many other guys that haves used football to get themselves into college.  Now those guys have a shot at being something in life.
Here is a another great reason to be thankful for football.  A guy Jerome Harrison was going to be traded for the Lions to the Eagles.  A lot of people don't know this but when you are traded in the NFL( and most other major sports) you must take and pass a physical before the trade can be finalized.  So thinking nothing of it Harrison goes and takes his physical.  Next thing he knows he is getting a CAT scan of his brain.  They found a tumor on his brain stem.  They then take him in for emergency surgery. A surgery that is expected to last only three hours lasts over seven hours.  But he pulls through.  The next day he gets a blood clot and has a stroke.  The stroke leaves him a quadriplegic.  Again he pulls through and does not give up on life.  Today he is doing so much better, he is no longer paralyzed and he is very thankful for being able to celebrate this Thanksgiving with his wife and two children.
So just remember football isn't always just for entertainment.  It has impacted many lives on and off the grid iron.