Next Man Up

 One of my favorite poems is "London" by William Blake.

I wander thro' each charter'd street,

Near where the charter'd Thames does flow. 

And mark in every face I meet

Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,

In every Infants cry of fear,

In every voice: in every ban,

The mind-forg'd manacles I hear 

How the Chimney-sweepers cry

Every blackning Church appalls, 

And the hapless Soldiers sigh

Runs in blood down Palace walls 

But most thro' midnight streets I hear

How the youthful Harlots curse

Blasts the new-born Infants tear 

And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse 

The poem focuses cruelty and injustice occurring in society, particularly felt by the lower classes. The "mind forg'd manacles" can be viewed as the mental oppression imposed on the marginalized members of society.

We still live in a manacled world. We stop at the stop sign at 2:00 a.m. even though there is no one around is a simple example, but society's marginalized today have it ingrained that they can't get out of the circumstances of their lives. And their circumstances sadly continue.

Which brings me to the title of this post.

During the football season, numerous players suffer injuries. Some are minor. The player leaves the field, sits out a couple of plays, and returns to the game. Some injuries are season ending, some career ending. Some, like what happened to Damar Hamlin, are life threatening.

When an injury takes a player out of a game for an extended period, his teammates are invariably asked how the team will do without him. A common response is "Next man up."

I've heard that phrase numerous times during this dismal season of the Chicago Bears. They lose a lineman or running back. The teammates say, "Next man up."

I heard that phrase during the last Super Bowl season of the Green Bay Packers. They, too, had a seemingly insurmountable number of injuries at various positions. And the teammates said, "Next man up."

Other than quarterback, most of a football team's roster is comprised of interchangeable parts. A lineman goes down, put somebody else in there. Same thing with running backs, linebackers, defensive backs, and receivers. A team with enough depth can still succeed. Somebody goes down, "Next man up."

If a team can't find a replacement on the 55 man roster, they bring somebody off the practice squad or find somebody who had been released by another team.

"Next man up" simply means that players are expendable. The teams treat them as expendable and players accept it. Fans want to see the big hard hits, the long passes, the diving catches. It doesn't matter who's playing. For an average 3.3 years of a career, NFL players gladly wear their manacles to be the next man up. The NFL and fans treat them like chattel.

Next man up. What happens when no one is left?