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Post by robeiae on Dec 7, 2016 9:45:47 GMT -5
Rashaan Salaam won the Heisman Trophy in 1994. He was a first round pick in 1995. His NFL career was short, owing to injuries. He played a little in some other leagues and attempted one comeback in 2002 that didn't work out. I met him a few years after that at some event. He was, by all acounts, a nice guy, an intelligent guy. I found him very personable. He had some post-football business ventures that didn't work out, it would seem. Friends in Boulder tell me he had tried to set up some sort of foundation recently and had been lugging his trophy around to schools to give speeches. But there wasn't much action Monday night, he was found dead in a park, not far from the University of Colorado: www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/heisman-winner-rashaan-salaam-found-dead-colorado-park-n692806Suicide is apparently a strong possibility. He was 42.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2016 10:02:27 GMT -5
Poor guy. That's awful.
This is probably a stupid thing to say, but from the pictures, he had a particularly sweet smile. Looking at the one of him holding up his trophy, I want to hug him.
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Post by celawson on Dec 7, 2016 11:12:38 GMT -5
Terrible. I always think of CTE when a high level former football player commits suicide, though that's total speculation. And of course, to be at the highest point in college and then struggle with injuries so your pro career never lives up to your expectations must be crushing. These sorts of athletes have their identities, hopes, dreams built around their athletic accomplishments. And no, Cassandra, I don't think that's a silly comment at all regarding his smile. When was the last time you saw a picture of a terrorist and it made you want to hug them? I also remember reading about a research project where women were followed their entire lives from graduation from Mills College in 1959 and 1960, and the researchers found that that the warmer the woman's smile in their senior year book, the better she handled stress, got along with others, and felt more accomplished. I'm going to look up the name of the study.
The Mills Longitudinal Study.
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Post by Don on Dec 7, 2016 19:08:37 GMT -5
Not being all that familiar with spectator sports, I didn't know who Rashaan Salaam was.
I figured from the thread title he was Hillary's chief pollster.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2016 19:29:57 GMT -5
I didn't know who he was, either.
But from all accounts he was a good man, whose life (despite all kinds of talent, promise, and hard work) went wrong, who seems to have struggled as best he could to make things right -- and yet who died tragically and much too young.
So I didn't have to know who he was to feel sad about his death. The sweet smile in that photo really got to me.
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Post by Christine on Dec 7, 2016 20:05:51 GMT -5
Not being all that familiar with spectator sports, I didn't know who Rashaan Salaam was. I figured from the thread title he was Hillary's chief pollster. Wow. That's so... inappropriate. (ETA: Isn't this along the lines of that "social correctness" you were talking about in another thread? I mean, obviously, you can say what you want, and I'm technically not rending my garments over it. But I think it's really dickish to make a completely unrelated political joke upon the news of a person's death. Objectively, the dead guy doesn't care, because he's dead. His friends and family members will never log onto this forum, so you won't hurt them. You're not "hurting" anyone. So maybe it comes down to me just needing to express that that was a really dickish thing to say, and I don't like it when people say dickish things. Can I have my PC police badge now? kthxbai)
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Post by Carlos Danger on Dec 9, 2016 12:54:59 GMT -5
Not being all that familiar with spectator sports, I didn't know who Rashaan Salaam was. I figured from the thread title he was Hillary's chief pollster. Gee. That's classy.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2016 13:38:30 GMT -5
Not being all that familiar with spectator sports, I didn't know who Rashaan Salaam was. I figured from the thread title he was Hillary's chief pollster. Wow. That's so... inappropriate. (ETA: Isn't this along the lines of that "social correctness" you were talking about in another thread? I mean, obviously, you can say what you want, and I'm technically not rending my garments over it. But I think it's really dickish to make a completely unrelated political joke upon the news of a person's death. Objectively, the dead guy doesn't care, because he's dead. His friends and family members will never log onto this forum, so you won't hurt them. You're not "hurting" anyone. So maybe it comes down to me just needing to express that that was a really dickish thing to say, and I don't like it when people say dickish things. Can I have my PC police badge now? kthxbai) To note (as a member): I also flinched at this particular joke. I tend to appreciate dark humor and irony, as many of you know, but I prefer it to in some way highlight the horribleness of whatever the joke refers to. There is a line, and I know it when I see it. It bugged me to see Hillary and politics dragged in from left field, especially since Salaam's death saddened me. (I've been thinking about him ever since, off and on. Such a terrible, tragic waste.) That's why I responded the way I did -- to point out why, to me, the death was so very poignant and especially tragic. As a mod, I allowed Don to make the comment (which did not violate our rules, whether I liked it or no) -- AND I allowed Christine to call Don on it.
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Post by CG Admin on Dec 9, 2016 13:49:07 GMT -5
Concur. There's nothing over the line--here--about expressing an opinion on another's opinion. And Chrissy explained herself fully, as well.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2016 15:16:08 GMT -5
Exactly. Christine did NOT attack Don as a person -- she attacked what he said, and explained why she didn't think it was right. She didn't say, e.g., "that's the kind of nasty stuff you're always saying because you're a nasty person and that's why I hate you." If she had done that, I would have modsmacked her -- not because I necessarily agreed with Don's post, but because then she'd be making a personal attack. As it stands, she did NOT make a personal attack. She attacked the words, not the person, and that's fair game. Good going, Christine. Make sense? If not, feel free to go to the Welcome forum thread on "personal attacks" to discuss it, or PM me. (ETA: Sorry Christine and Don, to use your posts as examples! It just happened that they were particularly apt illustrations of the kind of things we don't intend to modslap for at TCG. ) End of modly derail in this thread. Let's bring it back to Rashaan Salaam and his tragic death. It's hard to know what to say except that it's really sad. Anyone seen any updates on cause of death? Was it suicide?
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Post by Christine on Dec 9, 2016 15:30:06 GMT -5
I reeeeally hate being an example. Sorry, Don , if I was being .... yanno. I could have let it go. It sort of depends on my mood. :greenie ETA: Truth is I usually try to avoid threads about people who have died. Dying sucks. (RIP to the poor sweet guy.)
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Post by robeiae on Dec 9, 2016 15:36:43 GMT -5
All there is is this: www.thedenverchannel.com/news/front-range/boulder/rashaan-salaam-public-funeral-service-to-be-held-for-former-cu-football-starThere was supposedly a note, as well, from what I've heard. There was a public service for him today in Denver. It's interesting to me that there's precious little in the way of details out there on his life. He had problems back in the late 90's with the NFL because he used pot. And he had injuries that--along with the above--ended his pro career. But I don't know much more than that. He was more or less off the radar for big chunks of time, which seems to speak well of him, imo.
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Post by Don on Dec 9, 2016 17:18:24 GMT -5
Yeah, I know that one was on the dark side, and I thought Christine did a nice job of calling me out on it without stabbing me too. It's that fine line between genius and insanity that I occasionally trip over.
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Post by Christine on Dec 9, 2016 17:23:53 GMT -5
Karma + Like + <3
Quick Don, say something I can vehemently disagree with, so as to rid myself of these awful warm fuzzy feelings toward you.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2016 17:59:34 GMT -5
Yeah, I know that one was on the dark side, and I thought Christine did a nice job of calling me out on it without stabbing me too. It's that fine line between genius and insanity that I occasionally trip over. modly derail/ Don, that's a perfect example of an exceptionally gracious way to respond to another member calling you out on your words. Well done. Of course, you also had the options of either explaining why you felt your words were appropriate, or of saying nothing at all. As long as it doesn't devolve into a personal spitting match, we're good. ETA: Another thing I liked about Christine's call-out, by the way? She didn't demand, e.g. "Take down that disgraceful post this instant!" FYI, members don't get to demand other members remove posts -- if you really think a post should be removed, report it and us mod types will make that call. But as members, you DO get to say you don't like the post and why you don't like it, as long as you do what Christine did -- attack the words and not the person. And no one is even pissed off at each other! Heck, I like everyone better for what happened in this thread. Karma points for everyone! /end modly derail All there is is this: www.thedenverchannel.com/news/front-range/boulder/rashaan-salaam-public-funeral-service-to-be-held-for-former-cu-football-starThere was supposedly a note, as well, from what I've heard. There was a public service for him today in Denver. It's interesting to me that there's precious little in the way of details out there on his life. He had problems back in the late 90's with the NFL because he used pot. And he had injuries that--along with the above--ended his pro career. But I don't know much more than that. He was more or less off the radar for big chunks of time, which seems to speak well of him, imo. Thanks, Rob. I agree -- the off the radar thing likely does speak well of him. If he was getting into six kinds of trouble, I'm sure we'd be hearing about it because that's just the way media tends to cover stuff like this. But from what I can gather, what we've got is a good guy who had some things go wrong, and was trying to make it as best he could. I'm just so sorry it ended this way for him. Sad for anyone, of course. But this one really does get to me. His sweet smile (it is sweet, isn't it?) is stuck in my head.
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