Jim Johnson's List: Recreation

• Youtube hosts a lot of professionally-made television.
• Just search for tv shows full episodes. Or search for a particular show, such as mad men full episodes.
• Hulu: The free version of this extensive service
• As a rule, free Hulu only provides five full episodes per series; but they're usually five recent episodes.
• Your favorite TV network: Go to the Comedy Central site and you'll find a smattering of full episodes. News/opinion channels like Fox News and MSNBC offer everything from the previous day's show. Broadcast networks like ABC and NBC stream selections of new episodes.

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• f somebody had interviewed Junior Seau or Dave Duerson just before they hit bottom, it might have looked like Tim Graham's harrowing report on Talley, who is only 54 but appears to be deteriorating quickly. Seau and Duerson were ex-NFL stars posthumously discovered to have been suffering from CTE, a brain disease linked to blows to the head and possibly resulting in depression and dementia.

• looked around and wondered if all of these stories, all of the new and terrifying research, weighs on players. Particularly older ones.

   

  I focused on Troy Polamalu

• Do stories such as Talley's prey on your mind?

   

  “Yeah, for sure,” Polamalu said.

   

  I wondered what keeps him coming back.

   

  “Unlike most sports, the amazing thing about football is that it's physical, but you also get an opportunity to face an athletic giant like (New Orleans Saints tight end) Jimmy Graham, a guy that's bigger, taller, stronger,” Polamalu said. “I think that's the beautiful thing about football. It teaches you to overcome adversity and fight these things that kind of have losing odds going in.”

   

  Polamalu spoke, too, of living up to his contract and to his role as a team leader. He is eager to see where the season goes, eager for the thrill of the next challenge. But he also knows that with every game comes suffering, not so much for him but for his wife, who watches every snap with dread.
• Theodora Polamalu grew up in a football family, so nothing surprises her. But much of it appalls her.

• “Not only do I watch the physical abuse these guys take on the field, I see the side effects, what happens after a game when they are so beat up they can't move, and they're just kind of in this vegetative state for 24 hours,” she said. “It's amazing to watch, and it's sad, and it's one of those things where as a family member of an athlete, you realize that's the sacrifice they make.”

   

  Her words evoked those of Brenda Roethlisberger, Ben's mom
• “It's terrible,” she said. “Not everyone has to watch their kid get beat up every weekend.”
• he thing about football is that only when the hitting stops does the hurt really set in.

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