The NFL’s regular season is winding down. We’re now into the campaign’s 16th week. In some ways training camp seems like so long ago. In other ways, it seems like only yesterday when the players fought through moments of oppressive heat to enhance their careers, make the 53-man squad and set the stage for future financial security. For some teams like the Panthers, Patriots, Cardinals and Commanders, the balance of the season is about survival. Do your job without risking injury so that next season the opportunity to succeed will present itself once again. For others, it’s about sucking it up, fighting through the aches and pains of the game’s brutality and grabbing that seemingly unreachable star – The Lombardi Trophy. It has been said that football is the ultimate team game, and that’s an opinion you’d be hard-pressed to refute. The scheme design. The preparation to ensure proper execution. The individual roles each player assumes during a play to achieve success. One misstep by any of the 11 players can sabotage a play’s positive outcome. Poetry in motion is a requirement. Synchronicity must exist. Play after play is practiced over and over until its execution approaches perfection. This goes on for months. Redundancy. Players develop a high tolerance for repetition. It’s the only way. And along the way, incredible bonds form among teammates. But those bonds can be fleeting for many. The average attrition rate of an NFL roster is roughly 25%. One out of every four players will be gone. The man beside each player, one who has become like a brother, could be leaving forever, in a few short weeks. 
Photo courtesy of the Baltimore Ravens This reality is humbling. Melancholy moments can creep in as the ghost of this inevitable attrition nears. I thought of these things when watching Ravens Wired last night. During this segment, CB Brandon Stephens was mic’d up. He shared his passion for photography. “I just enjoy capturing moments.” Pictures are gifts. Like Brandon said, they capture moments. They represent proof of an event or even a fleeting occasion, shared in time. And for teammates who may never assemble in the same way again, particularly when you consider the attrition rate of NFL rosters, the picture’s importance expands exponentially. It allows that one moment in time to echo in eternity. Keep these bonds in mind when summarily dismissing a player, hoping that the Ravens cut him loose because he didn’t quite measure up to your standards. Sometimes it’s wise to put aside the fantasy football mentality. Perhaps the reality of their brotherhood will open your mind and your heart. Perhaps it will humble you. And it should. .@BSteve_1 goes in-depth on his photography passion: Watch Wired 
https://t.co/XsZbQZRyhw pic.twitter.com/rt3kfTzKCv — Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) December 21, 2023 The post NFL Moments in Time appeared first on Russell Street Report. Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2023/12 ... s-in-time/
