I apologize for the lack of blogging lately.  I don't have an excuse for why I haven't but other than I just forget.  Anyways, I was driving to a  story the other day and was thinking about how truly lucky today's athletes are.  No I'm not referring to the mega-million dollar contracts pro athletes get, I'm referring to our younger amateur athletes.

I played soccer, baseball and basketball growing up and eventually earned a scholarship to college to play soccer.  I loved every second of it as I got to travel the Midwest playing soccer.  But now that I'm aging, my body sure feels the pain of playing sports.  I grew up playing on astro-turf (which if you think about it is nearly non-existent these days).  It was a field that could be played on in any circumstances.  But it was also horrible on your body.  From my knees down, I'm worthless and I've had doctors tell me it's due to the terrible playing conditions I played on growing up.  (My body hurts after shooting games at the DakotaDome during football-How those guys enjoy playing on that surface blows my mind).  I've also been told the equipment I had also played a role. 

I look at the equipment today's generation of athletes have.  Nike Shocks, Adidas Mega-Bounce shoes, and a million of other brands that are the latest in technology that provides great support for athletes.  We now have field turf fields popping up all over the place.  It is so nice walking on that field when covering a game, I can't imagine what it's like playing on that. From shoes, to playing surfaces for basketball courts and football fields, the game has changed and kids should know that their dads and my dad along with myself would have died to play on surfaces like that and with the type of foot-wear they have these days.  I know my legs and knees would have died for that.