SUMMARY - Taylor Decker, member of the American football team "Detroit Lions," has been listed as questionable to play due to an 'illness.' The Detroit Lions play today (2025-12-25) against the Minnesota Vikings. While players usually play through an illness, the development is significant because the injury designation appeared this morning (2025-12-25) which means that the likelihood of not playing is increased. If Decker can not play, it is probably that another player on the team, Dan Skipper, will fill his role.
LINK - https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/news/lions-unexpectedly-add-taylor-decker-injury-report-game-vs-vikings/47ffbef6a7f6c1ba6909e05f
"While players usually play through an illness"
Essay in regards to public safety concerns about contagious illness in the professional sports world in this era of covid
COMMENTARY: On the magnitude of the public statement
"
While players usually play through an illness” and what it means to me, The Masked Man,
during this era of covid and flu season during Christmas Time…
...Jeesh what Can I say!?..All I can say is I hope the general surgeon and the rest of the hospital staff don't "play through an illness" when they perform gall bladder surgery on my 77 year old loved one after their Christmas vacation this flu season.
To "play through an illness", that is; to willingly be a likely vector of viruses or using your body in public knowing it is a vessel that is likely harboring a virus or illness ought to be illegal or at least against a policy, considered a 'foul' that puts the ill player out of the game , and is frowned upon so much that it becomes a society's custom to take such people to an institution of sorts for help.. its self destructive and also is contagious to others.. cops can put people in jail for spitting on them but there's no law against someone who goes around knowing they are sick risking the lives of others...it just shouldn't be promoted or considered accepted by society to knowingly expose people to illness ..its really quite a selfish and mean act to run around sick and know it.. just seems a monsterous act to risk making another unsuspecting person ill like a child or elderly loved one sick or even an average aged person.
The press ought to at least discourage and scrutinize and at least portray and describe "playing through an illness" as a despicable act...the press and coaches ought to at least discourage "playing through an Illness" so they aren't held legally accounted for it like an accomplice or something. There ought to a public safety warning sign hung around an ill players neck at least to clearly warn other players! Some of us don't want to be exposed to illness by giant ogres!...
... We used to do something similar when I was a kid playing football with the other guys in the neighborhood.. all of us on one team would take off our shirts and the other team would leave their shirts on just so we knew who was on what team.. sometimes ya gotta improvise and make rules like that when you are playing sports and you are just a bunch of normal guys who like playing football for fun out here in the real world... at least that was the way it was growing up.. where I come from we didn't have special shoes or uniforms and we played on real grass and in the mud... That was back in the day when grass wasn't artificial or fake like it is now. We didn't have referees we just had a kid on one of the teams that seemed to know everything that we just trusted. We didn't wear helmets because we didn't have to nobody was dumb enough to hit each other in the head ..that would hurt at least that's what we thought.. We still played hard and tackled each other we just knew how to do it without knocking our heads together like idiots I guess..Those were the days. We certainly didn't have any cameras around and cell phones didn't exist so there wasn't any pressure to win..well maybe there was always a guy that was sort of all ball hog, but for the most part there wasn't any pressure to win and if somebody was sick they just didn't play. It was that simple. Nobody ever played sick that would be stupid ..it was just unheard of and never happened. Nobody was that dumb to play sick. Again I guess there just wasn't the pressure there is on kids today to win no matter what even if they feel like puking and dying like there is today.
I remember when AIDS first came out ..you get thrown in jail if you had aids and ran around sweating or spitting on people I would think some of that fear with covid would exist.. Just think you are playing up against a guy that has covid...covid as with many diseases can carry serious long term repercussions...
... your not going to confront a guy with covid or try to take the ball away or tackle a guy that's sick as he might have a disease or something. Its really an unfair advantage to be a sick player with an undetermined illness or disease.. other players if they are smart will run away from a sick player! Run for your lives! That guy might have covid! For most normal people its usually intelligent behavior to avoid illness and considered instinctive to run away from a sicko! That's nasty! I'd personally be afraid to touch the ball without being masked with gloves wiping it off first with antiseptic and a clean rag! You couldn't pay me enough to get covid! Aint no way I'm going to dance around sweaty rubbing my face and stuff around a giant sick guy! Most people tend to shy away from or even run from things or people that have something wrong with them. Ain't messing with that because I got somebody that loves me and to take care of at home!
Normally a sick animal would probably get left behind by the herd and others would probably shun such a sick creature unless they were extremely maternal, willing to get sick themselves, or had studied to be martyred in healthcare to heal the ill while exposing themselves daily to dangerous illnesses while hopefully and ideally wearing masks to protect themselves and others from the contagion.. I would think most people would frown upon and are averse to sharing and making one another fester in illness, disease, and suffering amongst one another. In other words That's gross and icky and downright dangerous to "play through and illness". In essence It's like sharing body fluids or something in public with lots of strangers only instead its more like sharing dangerous vapors and microscopic sticky airborne particles which is an entitty that make each other sick with lots of suffering involved. Not a cool thing to do or be part of! Which is why I....
Wear a Mask!,
The Masked Man
P.S. I hate to use the words ‘insensitive brutes’ in the professional sporting world but when somebody is ill that is close to me or I have to be around ill people it has an impact psychologically on me .. we are talking stress! The sick people stress us healthy ones out big time! Sick people aren't easy to take care of...it hurts and is scary when others around me are ill and suffering. I lose sleep over it because I care about others and their well-being affects me a lot. It’s like a living nightmare when others are suffering and sick. A sick person is a burden to themselves and and a burden to others ,, nobody likes to admit that or talk about that (because it makes people feel bad or guilty) but that is the cold truth to as to how it feels for many of us… well,that’s not to say we caregivers don’t love caring for our ill loved ones it just means we put our heart into it and we love them and their pain and suffering affect us greatly.
People in the professional sporting business that allow one another to “play through an illness” need to think about how their actions and lack of policy in regards to public safety may affect others including those on their team and the families they are close to…
..Take it from a guy who cares.
It's pretty pathetic if you ask me. Imagine a guy running down the field with a ball hollering out to the other players "Don't hurt me, I'm sick!"
Scary part is we just don’t know what he’s got.. it’s an undetermined illness.. that could be super serious for all we know .. times have changed some of these diseases nowadays are ruthless.
More than likely it’s contagious and running around sporting with an undetermined illness is equivalent to going down the road at night with your headlights out playing chicken with the oncoming vehicles. Some unexpected on-comer is gonna get it! There might even be a pileup.
Hope it’s nobody we know.
I'm proud to say my little brother didn't visit my mom and pop today for Christmas because he thought maybe he was coming down with something like a cold. My mom told me this over the phone. My brother said he didn't feel that bad but thought it was important to stay away from our parents as they are older and it might be dangerous. This is what good people do. They don't endanger one another with viruses even if they think they are themselves okay. I am proud of my brother for being a caring smart person. This is what we should do... we watch out for one another!
And get a load of this... guess what just happened.. I'm not joking this for real... my loved one just got off the phone with her daughter who lives out of state in Florida and I just found out my loved one's entire family is sick right now for Christmas Two sick adults two sick babies and sick teenager.. all sick. baby was negative for covid about a week ago and sick but then teenager came home to visit and now they are all sick again. It's scary. Talk about miserable.. sounds like they are being real quiet praying the baby continues to sleep.. gotta say I’m glad I’m not there! That be horrible! That’s just nerve racking . This is why I stay safe at home….
…whew! I’m safe I wear a mask I don’t even live there.. right? Or am I safe? I’m not out of the woods yet soon I have to enter a hospital possibly full of the sick …Soon my loved one is to receive gall bladder surgery.. will the surgeon who is probably on Christmas vacation be sick after Christmas .. will the surgeon “try to play or perform through the illness” while operating on my loved one!? Will my loved one get sick and die because she just had surgery and getting simultaneously ill might create complications that will kill her? People who “play through an illness” takes it toll on all of us even us healthy ones that mask like me! While the mask might save me personally I still have to walk into a hospital full of sick people with my loved one wondering if the doctor surgeon, staff, and other patients like sports players won’t infect my loved one who is to undergo a fairly simple surgery.
Sports players,
it’s a small world after all .. what goes around comes around..
Don't "play through an illness" Go home ..stay away from people.. your sick man ..don’t wish it on anybody else .. try to get your illness determined so you can see if you’re contagious or not…take care of yourself and hope you get better!
Taylor Decker,
telling it to ya straight...be like my brother who decided not to visit family for Christmas in VA who might have a little cold or something.. Stay away from others and don't give whatever illness you have to your ma and pop this Christmas. Stay at home nurse your illness and injury..Over in Florida, My loved one's family of five are all sick for Christmas including two sick babies! It's awful! It might be worse than we think. Trust me .. cover your face with mask until you find out if you are contagious or not ..be a good boy maybe Santa will come later for you! Trust me ..you make your ma and pa sick this Christmas you might never forgive yourself.
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By the way this guy Decker has a history of hiding the severity of his condition from the team "Decker recounted a severe illness in 2020 where he:
Woke up in the middle of the night sweating and shivering with intense stomach pain.
Hid the severity of his condition from the team, including sitting in the shower to manage the symptoms, because he had just signed a large contract extension and felt immense pressure to play in the season opener.
Played through the pain for a full month before team doctors eventually diagnosed him with appendicitis. He mentioned on the podcast that doctors told him he "should have told us this sooner".
SUMMARY:
Taylor Decker played through appendicitis for a full month
Detroit Lions Taylor Decker is one tough dude
LINK:
https://www.prideofdetroit.com/2022/12/14/23508954/taylor-decker-played-appendicitis-full-month-detroit-lions...He's probably a really good guy but he's just too tough. He probably knows this. Running around with appendicitus doesn't hurt anybody but him but running around with a contagious illness or disease hurts people. He and the whole professional sports world just needs to be set straight and educated about viruses and the impact it has on everybody. They just need to read and study Data Report Info more like the rest of the world!
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