Marcus Lattimore the poet

[atl-cock]

I was standing in line at the Will Call window to pick up my tickets for a hockey game along with Cardinals catcher Ted Simmons. We had a nice, normal conversation while waiting. Baseball never came up.

I'll betcha he appreciated that very much. Seriously, no sarcasm.

 

[Guy in the Back]

I didn't read the story so don't know. Did he say he was a victim or was that just posters conclusions?

Not directly in this poem. But he has made comments in the last that leaned that way.

 

[Jeremiah Bullfrog]

Is this the same guy who played football here? FWIW, I've always thought spoken word stuff was idiotic.

How else would poetry be read? I mean I hear a voice in my head when I read anything but this is the voice of the author so all the subtleties are included and there is no guess work.
Plays are read aloud on stage or in front of camera. Are those idiotic as well?

It’s called life…..it’s tough…..wear a helmet.

I’m a beloved football star, people love me and look out for me, I am famous and school is paid for. Rough stuff.

I bet he never paid for a meal while here. He had a nasty injury that could have happened anywhere at any time. That part makes me sad for him.

Any issues he has probably go deeper than his time here. If he hated football he could have quit at any moment

Just because he played football here is isn't entitled to have feelings about it or to convey his own personal experiences about it.

After years of conditioning by parents, coaches, peers, etc that he is a football player first and foremst, how was he supposed to have any other identity at 19 years old, 20 years old, etc.


This thread shows exactly why he left Columbia.

 

[Myrtlecock]

Pain is inevitable.

Victimhood is a choice.

 

[Lurker123]

Pain is inevitable.

Victimhood is a choice.

Victimhood sells though.

 

[Myrtlecock]

Victimhood sells though.

I would say it attracts. It attracts people who don't want to assume responsibility for their own lives. It's the lazy way out. Which makes this even more surprising coming from someone that worked as hard as he did for things he really wanted.

 

[Evilchicken]

Lattimore is my favorite Gamecock. He left it on the battlefield for my entertainment and I’m grateful. He can do what he wants.

 

[Ansonicus]

Oh, I believe he's expressing his true feelings. But feelings can be flawed.

If you look at life primarily by your emotional reaction to events, your outlook will be flawed. There must be a rational aspect called reasoning that the mind is capable of, that primarily molds one's outlook. Otherwise, you might just go around blaming groups of people for real or imagined actions and not take personal responsibility.

Maybe he did not divorce himself from the expectations of others soon enough. Regardless, I will still pull for him to figure life out and be a success in whatever he does that is constructive.

 

[Ansonicus]

I don't know if anyone is forced to play football. Pressured, maybe. It's really no different any other skill set in life that is considered valuable. Not unique to football. Football just happens to pay a heck of a lot more if you can make a career out of it. Not sure how being recognized for having a skill is so terrible.

I think Jadeveon really didn't love football. He just happened to the best player on the field in high school and often in college. His lack of passion kind of came to the surface in the NFL.

But it's not like athletic kids are rounded up and sent to football camps and forced to play football. As best I know, at any level, players are free to quit whenever they want.

In hindsight, I am now glad I was not a fast enough runner to have been a good football player. It is just not worth the damage it can do to a person's body. It is the older men who live vicariously through younger men's physical struggles that might need help with analysis. Maybe I fit in that group.

 

[Ansonicus]

Some parents literally force their kids into sports. Or hunting and fishing.

Forcing a kid into a contact sport, or belittling a hesitant kid seems abusive.

 

[Freddie.B.Cocky]

lol, it makes a lot more sense when you put it that way.

I certainly understand the pressures that come with being Marcus Lattimore and living in SC. He probably wanted to move past his football time but that wasn't going to be possible in Columbia. I don't understand resenting people for liking you, though.

That's the part I don't understand. Marcus was and is a beloved football player from USC.

 

[18IsTheMan]

That's the part I don't understand. Marcus was and is a beloved football player from USC.

I could understand his perspective if the love from fans fizzled out after his career ended, but just the opposite happened. Even after his career here and in the NFL was over, he was as beloved as he ever was (and maybe even more beloved because of what he left on the field for the team). That tells you that fans liked him for who he was as a person, not just a football player.

Look at someone like Johnny Manziel. He was a Heisman trophy winner, but he's not loved and adored by A&M fans b/c he was a giant douche.

Sure the fans didn't know Marcus on a deep, intimate and personal level, but what they knew about him, they liked. Apart from any connection to football.

 

[atl-cock]

I would say it attracts. It attracts people who don't want to assume responsibility for their own lives. It's the lazy way out. Which makes this even more surprising coming from someone that worked as hard as he did for things he really wanted.

Assuming that this is what it's all about for Marcus.

 

[atl-cock]

If you look at life primarily by your emotional reaction to events, your outlook will be flawed. There must be a rational aspect called reasoning that the mind is capable of, that primarily molds one's outlook. Otherwise, you might just go around blaming groups of people for real or imagined actions and not take personal responsibility.

Maybe he did not divorce himself from the expectations of others soon enough. Regardless, I will still pull for him to figure life out and be a success in whatever he does that is constructive.

I'll pull for anybody and everybody to accomplish this.

 

[Tngamecock]

How else would poetry be read? I mean I hear a voice in my head when I read anything but this is the voice of the author so all the subtleties are included and there is no guess work.
Plays are read aloud on stage or in front of camera. Are those idiotic as well?

Just because he played football here is isn't entitled to have feelings about it or to convey his own personal experiences about it.

After years of conditioning by parents, coaches, peers, etc that he is a football player first and foremst, how was he supposed to have any other identity at 19 years old, 20 years old, etc.


This thread shows exactly why he left Columbia.

I felt like I was watching a surf movie from the sixties with the finger snapping during a poetry reading. I gurss it’s still a thing on the west coast.

And I am sorry I traumatized him by being a fan of him and SC.