Blood, MORE BLOOD... The masses chant for it...

I've been talking to several people who've given me material to work with for the blog.

We've all come to the same conclusion:  The rate at which the sports discourse is deteriorating to open calls for blood (of the athletes and of those who disagree with the people baying for blood) is becoming rather frightening, rather fast.

We've gotten to the point that open hooliganism has exploded on our shores, and, now, no sane person (which obviously excludes most 2013 sports fans) can believe that we aren't just biding time until the full-scale fan riots go far beyond the prototypical riots for championships.

And, why?  Because the masses want BLOOD.

And it seems the idiots running sports these days are more than willing to give it to them.

Just this week, in player safety news:

• Many fans have been throwing a fit on the new rules (which will either take effect in the upcoming baseball season or the next) to prohibit the home plate collision.  One fan threatened another with a knife right in the SI.com comments.
• Punching a guy in the junk on the NFL field gets you only a $7,875 fine -- wearing illegal cleats...  at least $10,000, and, this week, $15,000.
• Ditto for deliberately stepping on a guy's hand.
• And that Bertuzzi-level incident, where Thornton takes the guy, slams his head into the ice, pummels him on the ice and might've added a knee.  Fifteen games.

So it really does begin to make one wonder as to how much blood might satisfy the evil masses, in the name of Howard Cosell's Sixth Paradigm of Sports Fan Syndrome...

Well, Deadspin gave us some insight on Thursday.

Meet Nate Jackson, who wrote a book about the physical sacrifices he will have to live with for the rest of his life for the entertainment of Football Nation:  Slow Getting Up:  A Story of NFL Survival From the Bottom of the Pile. 

The article basically goes into the process of how a lot of the players have to sign away probably their futures and their ability to actually get compensation for how bad football fucks them up.

But the real money shot of this article comes in the provided picture by Deadspin above it.

Jackson, at least to present count, at least 18 different injuries (and that doesn't count the number of concussions or the number of dislocated shoulders.

All for your entertainment, Football Fealty Swearers.

And this didn't start in the NFL:  He denied himself surgery to see if he could actually make the jump from Division III to the NFL.

That cost him a ripped hamstring.

The Niners covered their ass after signing him, with both the bum shoulder and hamstring, and then just cut him.

Re-signed, then traded to the Broncos, tack on some Achilles tendinosis/plantar fascitis.  (I have that in my left heel -- it's not fun and it's probably permanent!!)

Actually made the practice squad after injuring his OTHER shoulder.

Then, NFL Europe.  Two knee injuries and a broken pinky.  Who cares?  You're good enough to get back on the Bronco practice fields the next day you come back!!

Made the team, the plantar fascitis was getting worse.

And that starts a litany of drugs (legal ones) in his system.

You really have to read this if you really wish to believe that you want to cheer on the sport of football.

Vertical fracture of the tibia.

Hamstring, again...

First start of the career:  There goes the groin, right off the bone.  Two different muscles.

Read this.  Just read the Deadspin article and understand what you are cheering for if you want your Packers/Raiders/Seahags/Bears/etc./and so forth/and so on to win today.

Or are you just in it for the blood???