Why I’m Happy I Was A Benchwarmer

The crisp fall air.

The lights.

The damp grass.

A wild student section. 

This was every Friday night for me during my junior and senior year of high school playing on the varsity football team at Oconomowoc High School. 

Some might say they lived for this….myself on the other hand could somewhat careless. 

Did I know I was going to have a good time? Absolutely!

Did I think I was going to play? Definitely NOT, but I was okay with that. 

Both of these years our team sucked…which I guess maybe meant I sucked even more, who knows, I really didn’t care as I was wayyy enthralled with the sport of motocross. 

It is kind of messed up that no matter how loud the student section would chant “Put in Mike Merkt” (that’s my name for anyone new here) when the team would be getting blown out the coaches would still refuse but whatever. I caught onto this pretty quickly, so myself and the other seniors on the team that didn’t suck up to the coaches started to take advantage of this and have an absolute blast on the side lines. 

Kids had candy in their pockets underneath their uniform, we’d be dancing to the songs being played over the loudspeaker no matter how bad we were getting beat by, frankly we didn’t care. We didn’t care because it was apparent to us that we weren’t really part of the team, at least I felt that way. We felt that the coaches didn’t actually care about us and if we quit, frankly no one would really miss us. 

Growing up football was always my favorite sport! Unlike my years as a varsity player I was actually pretty good and started on the defensive side during most seasons. I wasn’t scared to go up against kids that were bigger than me, if they were coming at me I’d make the tackle. I will say that playing at such a young age really taught me a lot of things and toughened me up. Some of the drills we would do during practice were absolutely brutal!

We did this one called the hamburger drill. The entire team would form a giant circle and the coaches would have use laying on our backs. One coach would give someone the ball, and a different coach would pick someone from the opposite side of the circle. When the whistle blew, you’d both get up and sprint at each other meeting in the middle of the circle where there would be quite the collision. The kid with the ball was trying to plow over the tackler and vice versa…I remember one time I broke a kids collarbone bone on accident and during the same drill someone else broke an arm. 

Once high school football started things got a little more serious. I was still starting and playing quite a bit but suddenly workouts are recommended, film sessions, everyone was faster and heavier, and all of that stuff. This gets me to the point of varsity football and looking back on it…I’m happy I was a benchwarmer.

The Bonus of Not Playing Now

I don’t have anything against my coaches or anything like that and I still watch the game of Football and enjoy it. The more and more I learned in chiropractic college the more I realized that being a benchwarmer wasn’t so bad afterall. 

In school we obviously learn about misalignments of the spine and all of that stuff but more importantly learn about the nervous system and the massive role it plays in our overall health. You might be wondering how the heck this is even related to anything football or my story above. 

I feel like the entire world knows about the NFL players that committed suicide a few years ago from something called CTE. CTE is a disease that is associated with the brain and nervous system and is usually caused by multiple traumas to the head. Now high school football might not cause CTE but there is no doubt in my mind that it can cause some sort of damaging effect on the brain. 

Multiple hits to the head and neck can cause some of the top bones in the neck to shift out of place. This is where the problem may begin. Research has shown that this can cause a “choke point.” The brain needs blood flow in order for the brain to get oxygen and there is another fluid called cerebrospinal fluid. This fluid nourishes the brain and spinal cord as well as gets rid of any sort of toxins. This choke point blocks some of this from happening. What has been shown is this will cause certain areas of the brain to act differently. 

CTE is an extreme example of this but I know I don’t want to have any sort of blockage when it comes to the flow of blood to my brain and multiple hits to the head can cause this. People can start to experience a change in personality, headaches/migraines, anxiety, vertigo, pain/discomfort, and other things. Now would playing varsity football cause this in me? I will never know but knowing what I do now, it makes me a little happier that I never really played at that level. 

Learn more.

Here are a few more posts on how chiropractic care can help those who suffer from headaches and/or migraines.