Look, I get that the world is on fire. We are deep in this pandemic with no end in sight, Ruth Bader Ginsburg just died, the people that call themselves "Republicans" at the moment are corrupt, racist, homophobic, misogynistic and any other thing you can think to call them. Kids are still learning remotely, sports are being canceled or postponed on the daily. It's a real mess.

With that being said, I have found solace in basketball and reading sports stories. Also music and movies and TV shows have been a great way to escape for a while. Believe me, I am doing all that I can to get people to vote, to make sure my kids and wife are safe, to defund the police, signing all the petitions I believe in, anything remotely I can do to make change, I am trying. But, sports are my safe place. The NBA has been awesome, and I am sure I will write a piece on the conference finals at some point this week. And while I haven't watched much football, I'm sure that will change if/when Michigan plays, I have been keeping up with scores and stories due to fantasy football. I saw that Kirk Cousins was awful yesterday, that the Packers won, that the Rams may not be as bad as I thought and that the Cowboys needed a miracle comeback to beat the Falcons, which if I were a Cowboys fan, that would make me even more nervous for their season.

The one big thing that I noticed, and seemingly all the other players and writers, there were a rash of injuries, sidelining some really good, young talent the NFL has right now. The 49ers apparently lost a good chunk of their core. I saw that Jimmy Garroppolo is out now for a month or so. I am not a fan of his, I think he is overrated, but he is their starter at QB. They were in the Super Bowl last year. Maybe he is like Rex Grossman, but still, he is the starter, and that hurts most teams when the number one guy goes down. I don't know who their backup is, but I am sure he isn't that good if he is backing up Garroppolo. They also lost two D line starters, one of the idiotic Bosa brothers and Solomon Thomas. The Bosa kid, who is a dipshit, right wing conservative nutjob who constantly puts his foot in his mouth, tore his ACL. Honestly I think it is hilarious, and it has nothing to do with my Michigan fandom. It is just karmic to see someone who is a privileged white kid, that happens to be hyper conservative, like scary conservative, get some comeuppance. I know that may be mean, but he has said and done so much worse, so I could care less. Soloman Thomas was finally starting to come on strong last year, I actually like him, so it is a bummer that he most likely tore his ACL. He's had to put in work to get to where he is, and this is crummy for him. Then I saw that Christian McCaffery hurt himself. I think he is out a month or so with a leg thing. That's a bummer for Carolina because the offense is totally ran through him. Teddy Bridgewater is a good QB, but he doesn't have any other weapons now. The full tank may be on. Then I heard about Saquon Barkley. It was confirmed that he fully tore his ACL this morning. This stinks. I was not a fan of his in college because he used to abuse Michigan, but I have grown to like him in the NFL. He seems to work hard, he seems nice and he seems like a great teammate. He is also an explosive athlete. But a torn ACL for a young running back, that usually spells doom. This stinks. He was literally all the Giants had going for them. Then Davante Adams exited the Lions-Packers game early yesterday, Tyrod Taylor left his game early, Breshad Perriman hurt his ankle, Malik Hooker left with an Achilles thing and Drew Lock and Courtland Sutton both exited the Denver game early. It seemed to be a rough day.

This, along with COVID, was another reason why I felt this NFL season was going to be a problem. These guys had little to no time to train. They had no real practice. They didn't really hit one another. They didn't have a good amount of time to get prepared like they would in a "normal" year. These guys are world class athletes, but they are going up against other world class athletes. The lack of proper training for the sport they play was going to be a problem that we knew, the NFL knew and players knew would rear its ugly head. And while some of these guys aren't "super stars", a few are. As much as I dislike Bosa, he was ROY. Solomon Thomas was becoming a pro bowler. CMC is a true MVP candidate. And Saquon Barkley was the perfect modern day running back. He is a literal do it all back. He can run, catch and block. He can also return kicks. This is, unfortunately one of the things, outside of COVID outbreaks, that will most certainly still happen, that made me stop and think about the season going ahead without acting like there was a pandemic going on. The NFL acted like this would all go away, and while it was going on, these players would train normally. COVID didn't go away, and these players had about two weeks to get ready for full on football games. This stinks for the product on and off the field.

Fact is, this is going to be a rough football year, at every level. And not just because of COVID. I think there is going to be many more injuries to prominent players, and that is why we will end up with one or two not so great teams in the Super Bowl. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.