When Quarterbacks Go Down

So this week it's supermodel-dating Tom Brady, out for the season with what no one will say (but everyone assumes) is a torn ACL. But what bothers me...more that I can express, really... is how this all gets framed around the team's diminished chances for success, and wrapped up in the euphemism of "going down" -- like some sort of machine that has blown a gasket, crashed, gone Kaput, is off-line.

Or maybe it's more like a casualty of war...even though this is really nothing more than a stupid game played over insane amounts of money -- not just for the players, but the owners, the broadcasters, the venders and the advertisers, the gamblers....all of whose fortunes are potentially diminished (or enhanced!) because a certain star player has "gone down."

And, of course, I think about my own disability...or however you want to frame IT. Technically Brady and I both only work for an hour a week on Sunday mornings/afternoons (although there is certainly plenty of practice and preparation that go into getting ready for that hour's worth of performance). But when I got sick last spring, after what turned out to be my final sermon of the year at Easter, I can't imagine it occurred to anyone involved to refer to my infirmity as "going down."

Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe that's EXACTLY what they thought. Maybe they were just too polite to say it in my presence.

But I'm coming back.

And hopefully for a long, long time to come....