The No Future League

Will Bunch of the Philly Daily News on NFL great Junior Seau’s death:

He was just 43.

And it was an apparent suicide, no less — a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.

But while the Twittersphere and Facebookland erupted in the usual rituals of 21st Century celebrity death, with TMZ racing to report the grim news that Junior Seau had passed, inspiring thousands of re-tweeted RIPs and sad reminiscing about his glory days in the middle of the San Diego Chargers’ defense, there seemed to be one element sorely missing.

Surprise.

And when people are no longer surprised at the sudden death of a 40-something icon of pro football, then something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.

Think about this:

The average American lives to be 75. The average pro football player lives to be 55.

★ Thursday, 3 May 2012