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|Love the Game | Phillips Pro Football Achievements | Aspiring Pro Athletes |

Pro-Football "Benefits"

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Love the Game

Like many of us, Lawrence Phillips loves the game of football. He dreamed big, and more fortunately than most fans of the sport, had the chance to live his dream: to play professional football in the NFL as well as internationally. He is forever grateful to God first, then to every coach, trainer, team member, owner, agent and sports professional who graced him with genuine opportunities to live his dream, even for a few brief moments.

And especially, he is grateful to the college Coach who risked everything by refusing to shut the door on Lawrence 's NFL opportunity, and never stopped paying for it.

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Phillips College and Pro Football Achievements

College Football Scholarships: selected University of Nebraska Cornhuskers
Distinguished among the Best Collegiate Offensive Players (running back) of All Time
Along with college Quarterback Tommy Frazier, distinguished among Best Collegiate Quarterback/ Running Back team ever
Among leading contributors to NCAA division championships for "Big 12" team University of Nebraska Cornhuskers
Achieved third in the nation in running / rushing yards during college career
Featured nationally and internationally as among top contenders for Heisman Trophy
NFL (USA) First Round draft pick (6th) - 1996; played on 3 professional NFL teams
As NFL-Europe running back, honored as most valuable player (MVP), setting league records in rushing yards and touchdowns and leading Spain's Barcelona Dragons pro-football team in the capture of the league's championship; -- International headlines: Coach JB "fully enjoyed working with Phillips" "He's a great kid"
CFL (Canada) - played on two professional football teams

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Pro-Football "Benefits"

You've heard it and maybe even said it: "Athletes get special treatment; they should be treated like everybody else". Rest assured that much of the "treatment" that professional athletes get "everybody else" would not and could not withstand: 1) health and safety policies fail to protect players from being required to play during painful injuries; 2) illnesses must be diagnosed by the team's medical doctor, so players are frequently cleared to play while seriously ill; 3) as noted by recent congressional hearings, well-known pro-football players testified to insufficient and sometimes no disability benefits for injuries suffered "on the job" while playing-- requiring some players to pay out of their own pockets for medical treatment for "on-the-job" injuries during and after retiring from playing the sport; 4) managerial policies more often than not deny retirement compensation to players permanently disabled by the sport.

Stereotypes such as "athletes get special treatment" are often used to distract from more powerful persons who benefit from the sports drama portrayed in media without any significant accountability. For example: professional football is considered the most brutal major pro-sport in America (including hockey and soccer) with 1/2 of all players retiring because they are injured, 60% suffering a concussion, at least 1/4 suffering multiple concussions and nearly 2/3 of all players suffering injury so serious that they must be sidelined for at least half a football season. Yet the proportion of players who receive disability benefits is disproportionately small in comparison (data from the Congressional House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Report Hearings on the NFL in June 27, 2007). The US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee recently sent a letter to the national football league's executive director regarding an investigation of "why only a small percentage of former players receive disability in such a dangerous sport" (click the following link to read) http://judiciary.house.gov/Media/PDFS/NFLPALetter071012.pdf .

So, the next time someone tries to distract you by disregarding the price pro-athletes pay for the privilege of a career in professional sports, tell them to do the research!

Aspiring Pro-Football Players

Curious about getting hired to play professional football if you don't attend college? Each year in February America's National Football League holds Scouting Combine or professional football job fairs, interviews and try-outs for pro-football hopefuls. Indianapolis Indiana RCA Dome is the place.
Pro-football hopefuls attending college look forward to an invitation to the other job fair, formally known as the "draft". It takes place each year in April in New York City, New York.
Pro-football training camps are in July. Pre-season begins in August. Regular season begins in September.

Not that we've got so much love that we're giving away free advertising, we just love the game
and the fans who love it too.

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