With all the injuries and pain that I witnessed throughout my career, I adopted a prevention mindset that involved trying different approaches to saving my body and thereby extending my career. I was the first of the Raiders to wear a shield over my eyes after seeing and hearing of players getting their eyes poked. Not long after this decision, my linemate and good friend, Don Mosebar, lost his eye on the field. The freak injury ended his illustrious career.
I also wore knee braces in every practice and game beginning in college. Wearing them in practice gave me time to adapt and avoid the psychological misconception that they would slow me down. The mind was a powerful tool and could be a weapon if I was not careful. I did not want to give it any room to question this safety measure. There were too many big bodies flying around, tripping, and getting tossed to jeopardize one of them caving in my knee. I went through about half a dozen knee braces over my career. There is a high likelihood that at least one of those bent braces could have been a knee ligament or worse.
More on this topic and many others in my memoir, Aggressively Human, available here: Amazon: Aggressively Human. You can also request personalized copies via wrightauthorbooks@gmail.com.
This kind of thinking is a trend that runs throughout your book, Steve — independent thinking that led you to making individual determinations within a highly structured setting, an important part of who you are.