The following I posted on my regular blog the day I was diagnosed.
Some thoughts about the game of rugby after playing for 40 years.
There are many who play, some better than others, but the great thing about the game is that it doesn’t matter. Even better, you can mix old and young, the good and not so good and still have a great run…hell, no…exhilleration. I’ve played with on the same field: fathers and their sons, a woman or two, JFK Jr., several Eagles from the US team, and a 67 year old. And then after the game, you have a few beers with your new friends.
This 67 year old guy plays a position called “prop”. I play “hooker”. He and the other prop’s job is to protect me in the scrums against the opposing side’s same. They protect me physically by holding the scrum together…comfortable for me and not so for the opposing hooker. The scrum is roughly equivilent to an unfair face-off in hockey.
Prop is the one position where I don’t care for incapable players. The hooker position has the near exclusive trait of the most broken necks of any sport. The props hold the scrum up. Hence, I always buy them beers and give them kudos for every scrummage we win.
The postscript: Now that I only have one kidney, I have to hang up my boots. Very sad.
