Sons do not purchase dads at the drug store. Chris Spielman knows this. Spielman, the man in the iron mask when it comes to displaying emotion, managed a chuckle yesterday when relating the father-son chat.
Football is for a season.
Family is for life, as Spielman showed last year when he took a one-year sabbatical from the Buffalo Bills to help raise his two children when his wife, Stefanie, battled breast cancer. Now there will be some freedom that his job would not allow. Football was the golfing buddy who stole Dad from his family on too many weekends. The former Ohio State linebacker, who bruised his spinal cord several times this preseason, will follow the advice of team doctors and management who think risking further injury could result in permanent damage, possibly even paralysis. I would love to keep playing, but I can't jeopardize my legs and arms to keep playing,'' he told the media during an afternoon press conference at the Browns' training facility.