Football Hall of Fame member Lem Barney isn't taking back what he said Friday about the sport's dangers, though he regrets the spot he picked to speak frankly.
"it is apparent to me now that the [Sound Mind and Body] Camp was not the forum for those comments," Barney says in a statement reported by Mark Snyder in the Free Press.
"I don’t want to discourage young men from their love of the game, I just want the game to be safe. What I said were things I feel, things that happened to me, but obviously it was not the right time or place. . . .
"I apologize to any of the coaches whom I made uncomfortable."
UM coach Brady Hoke and MSU’s Mark Dantonio sat stiffly at the Southfield event as Barney attacked their profession.
Friday article:
For a Hall of Famer, Lem Barney is down on football today. Really down.
He says he wouldn’t do it again.
He said he wishes he would have been a truck driver or a cab driver, anything other than a player suffering concussions.
Speaking today at the Sound Mind Sound Body Camp in Southfield, the Detroit Lions great said the sport will be gone in two decades, according to Free Press sportswriter Mark Snyder.
"People often ask me do I miss the game, do I wish I could still play with all the money they're making today. Even with all of that, I'd say ‘Heck no,’" Barney said.
"The game is becoming more deadly today. It's a great game, and I think it's the greatest game if you like gladiators. It's the greatest game for yesteryear’s gladiators. But in the next 10 to 20 years, society will alleviate football altogether because of how strong it's becoming, how big it's becoming and the tenacity that it already is. And it's only going to get worse."
