Is this the same guy who played football here? FWIW, I've always thought spoken word stuff was idiotic.
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Marcus Lattimore the poet
- Thread starter 18IsTheMan
- Start date
To each his own. He turned out to be a........ different kinda dude.
Would be interesting to talk to Marcus. Based on a number of things he's written and said since leaving, he seems to feel like he was forced into some kind of template or mold that was not really him while he was here. He refers to racial dynamics but also to religious ones a few times when looking back. I think he feels like he was used to promote the interests of others? Maybe the pressure to live up to an unattainable image? Seems like a smart guy who is hurting and unpacking a lot of things.
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
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
Yeah, I’m not really sure I got some of his complaints. I suppose he just felt pressure from somewhere to be something other than who he was, but that’s not the fans fault he felt that way. He seemed to make it sound like a burden that he was loved and adored and supported by essentially the entire state. Even after he was no longer able to play fans still loved him, so it’s not like we only liked him while he was playing football.
I guess maybe the crux of it is South Carolina is an overall conservative state and he probably wasn’t a conservative dude at his core and realized his personal take on a lot of things wouldn’t fit with the state.
But the notion of him being somehow oppressed and persecuted while he was here doesn’t ring with me. And the racial stuff about somehow feeling compelled to be white. I don’t get that at all. It’s not like he went to some new England town where there’s hardly any African-Americans. You have Black people all over the state.
Just let him be. Don't try to figure him out.
Made me think about Ricky Williams. It felt like fans appreciated Marcus Lattimore's athletic talents and admired the man they thought he was. I don't know Lattimore but always thought he was a high-character guy. Maybe be he is, may he isn't. I hope he finds peace for himself and with others.
....or you just disagree with it. Kids like Marcus get pulled into a world that they are not comfortable just because they can tote a football or bounce a basketball. They get pushed and pulled into all sorts of directions. Some go with the flow. Some say I am not comfortable with this or I don't really like the direction that I am being pushed. I think this period of reflection is what Marcus is going through right now. He will be fine.
Just a statement of fact. Feelings are subjective. The way I feel about something may not, in fact, reflect that thing accurately.
Personally, I think Marcus is struggling to find his place in a world without football, which certainly understanding for someone who was seemingly destined for football greatness. Would he be this jaded about things if he had gone onto a successful football career? I'm just not sure I understand his apparent resentment towards a sport that treated him well and a fan base that loved and adored him, even after his career was over, so it's not the fans loved him only as long as he was a good football player. It seems he became uncomfortable (well, not seems, it was own words) with the notion that fans loved him as Marcus the football player but didn't know him as a person. I can understand compartmentalizing it, but would he have preferred fans to just not care about him anymore? Maybe.
And, of course, yes, everyone's entitled to their own opinions and all that other boilerplate blah blah blah.
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I think you are misreading it a little. I think it's not just our fanbase. I think it's a questioning of the entire system of young men being in a situation that is not them or they are not comfortable in just because they have a skill that someone thinks is valuable. A lot of us have been there. I know I have. Most of us just don't express it in a public way like Marcus has.
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.
Sure, at the younger levels. I doubt a parent can make a kid play college football. Or go play for the 49ers. But the other poster was referencing a "system" that forces kids with athletic skills to play football. Just not sure that exists.
Unrelated to your post, but consolidating posts here: And as to feedback, Marcus puts this stuff out there on his own for public consumption. Once you do that, it's fair game for people to weigh in with what they think. So any of the "let Marcus alone" crowd can pound sand. You don't put stuff on social media because you don't want people talking about it.
I don't even thinks it's the football part that he is talking about so much. I thinks it's more the social aspect of what football brings to you. People who would probably never had spoken to Marcus in life now just want to come and talk, take pictures, expect an autograph. .....and you are expected to be gracious about it. Now, people who would probably be a**h**** to you normally in life are now all in your face grinning. I think he is using his poetry more to reflect on that period of his life more than bashing the sport of football itself.
This makes sense. He's mad that people are being nice to him, and showing respect.
I totally get that. I know a lot of people who struggle with being liked and respected.
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.