The New York Times International - 27.08.2019

12 | TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2019 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION

NON SEQUITUR PEANUTS

GARFIELD

KENKEN

Answers to Previous Puzzles

WIZARD of ID

DOONESBURY CLASSIC 1993

CALVIN AND HOBBES

DILBERT

Created by Peter Ritmeester/Presented by Will Shortz

SUDOKU No. 2708

Fill the grid so

that every row,

column 3x3 box

and shaded 3x

box contains

each of the

numbers

1 to 9 exactly

once.

Fill the grids with digits so as not

to repeat a digit in any row or

column, and so that the digits

within each heavily outlined box

will produce the target number

shown, by using addition,

subtraction, multiplication or

division, as indicated in the box.

A 4x4 grid will use the digits

1-4. A 6x6 grid will use 1-6.

For solving tips and more KenKen

puzzles: http://www.nytimes.com/

kenken. For Feedback: nytimes@

kenken.com

For solving tips

and more puzzles:

http://www.nytimes.com/

sudoku

KenKen® is a registered trademark of Nextoy, LLC.

(c) PZZL.com Distributed by The New York Times syndicate

Solution No. 2608 CROSSWORD | Edited by Will Shortz

Across

1 Head covering similar

to a wave cap

6 Hit 2003-07 teen

drama on Fox

11 One of the Peróns

14 Fragrance

15 Gardening brand

16 French word on both

sides of “à”

17 Actress McCarthy is

wandering

20 Writer after whom the

Edgar Award is named

21 Pal

22 Comfortable with

considering

23 History-making events

26 Before a sitting judge

27 Item that may say “his”

or “hers”

30 Classic barbecue fare

32 Approx.

33 Designer McCartney is

prepared

37 Campaign undertaking

38 Helpful

39 ___ Reader (quarterly

magazine)

42 Supermodel Hutton is

incredible

45 Profs’ support, for

short

47 “What’s in a ___?” (line

from Juliet)

48 Tennis point just

before a win, maybe

49 Hirer’s communication

51 Flower parts

54 Contents of hangars

56 Web address ending

57 Yellowfin tuna

60 Singer Love is erudite

64 “I’m shocked!”

65 Pin point?

66 ___ Park, N.J.

67 Prefix with metric or

magnetic

68 Likely to zone out

69 The O.W.L. and

N.E.W.T. at Hogwarts

Down

1 Clammy

2 Most common

commercial name

in New York Times

crosswords

3 Focus of a casting

director

4 Self-reflective

question

5 Monthly utility

payment

6 “Horned” creatures

7 “48 ___” (1982 film)

8 Subj. of a traveler’s

text, maybe

9 Home to Xenia and

Zanesville, the most

populous U.S. cities

starting with “X” and

“Z”

10 Hiker’s aid

11 Still preferable

12 Mountaintop views

13 Put into different

classes

18 Direction opposite

norte

19 Authorize to

23 Guy

24 One at a new job

25 Places to put potted

plants

27 Medicinal amt.

28 Speaker of a Siouan

language

29 Competitor of Chase

and Citibank

31 Chicken cordon ___

34 Magnetic quality

35 Things florists cut

36 What pounds might

be converted to

40 Insurrectionist Turner

41 Ron of “Tarzan”

43 Opposite of “winds

up”

44 Sports bar showing

on many a Sunday

afternoon

45 Head honcho

46 Burning

50 Supersize: Abbr.

52 “___ want a cracker?”

53 “___ you mad?”

55 [Just like that]

57 Tolstoy’s “___

Karenina”

58 Steering position

59 Pair of promises

61 Pollution watchdog,

for short

62 Financial watchdog,

for short

63 “Toy Story” dinosaur

PUZZLE BY DANIEL RAYMON

Solution to Aug 26 Puzzle

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21 22

23 24 25 26

27 28 29 30 31 32

33 34 35 36

37 38 39 40 41

42 43 44

45 46 47 48

49 50 51 52 53

54 55 56 57 58 59

60 61 62 63

64 65 66

67 68 69

C A S T S B I B S L A U D E

O N E U P A L O E E S S E X

B A A B A A B L A C K S H E E P

R I M R U E T A B M M A

A S S E R T N I C E S T

B O O B O O B E A R

I K N O W L I L O N I C K I

O R E O S E N D O N B O N A

T I C K T A K E T O S M O G

A S K S U R L I E O X O

B Y E B Y E B I R D I E

D R O O L E R I C I N S T A

R A N G E Y O L K T A T U M

A T E I N E D G E E N A C T

T E S S A D E E R D E S K S

Sports

In the century that it has grown into
the nation’s most-watched sport, the
N.F.L. has expected players to act like
warriors willing to suck up the pain
and sacrifice their bodies for the good
of the team and to be grateful that they
are paid handsomely to do it.
Yet even as awareness of the sport’s
physical toll rises, the sudden retire-
ment just two weeks before the start of
the season by the Indianapolis Colts’
quarterback Andrew Luck at age 29
was still a jolt.
Luck, the first overall draft pick in
2012 and one of the league’s brightest
stars over the last seven seasons, said
Saturday he could no longer take the
years of pain and rehabilitation from a
host of cringeworthy injuries: a lacer-
ated kidney, injured ribs, at least one
concussion, torn cartilage in his throw-
ing shoulder and, most recently, a calf
and ankle injury.
It was not the first time a young
player had stepped away, supposedly
in the prime of his career — several
have done so in recent years — but it
was one of the more vivid examples of
the changing dynamics of a league
striving to portray the game as safer
than ever while its players increas-
ingly weigh the consequences of con-
tinuing careers in which the long-term
physical issues only build as the sea-
sons pile up.
Unlike earlier eras, when players
had to grind out a decade or more to
maintain a high standard of living,
today, the financial arrangements of
top players often make it easier to
retire comfortably before they hit 30.
“There’s an immense amount of
pressure for a No. 1 draft pick to be out
there,” said Chris Borland, who
shocked the football world when he
retired from the San Francisco 49ers in
2015 after one standout season. “But
you’re seeing more players prioritize
their health over money.”
The minimum salary for rookies
today is approaching $500,000. First-
round draft picks receive signing bo-

nuses worth millions more before they have taken a snap. (Luck’s first bonus was $14.5 million.) In years past, the third contract was pay dirt. Getting a second contract is now the goal, and Luck did. He signed a five-year contract worth up to $122 million in 2016. Even though he is leaving about half that money on the table, Luck has already been paid $97 million. Of course, Luck is not really young in football years. By the time most N.F.L. players reach his age, they have been playing tackle football for two decades or more. Living with pain and overcoming injuries is a central feature of their lives, and many are trapped in a cycle

of injuries and rehabilitation that wear on them mentally, as well as physically. It is a toll that carries on long after they retire. “I feel tired, and not just in the physical sense,” Luck said Saturday. “The lack of progress just builds up, and you turn the corner and run into another stumbling block.” Last season, Matt Hasselbeck, a former N.F.L. quarterback — and a former teammate of Luck — who is now a television analyst, recalled a conversation he had with Luck before Luck had surgery on his shoulder that kept him off the field for the 2017 season. Hasselbeck warned Luck that the year of rehabilitation was “going to be

the worst year of his career. It’s no fun, football’s not fun, life’s not fun.” Hasselbeck said Luck admitted that he had not considered the psychic pain that goes with surgery and rehabilitation. “Everything’s harder, everything’s miserable, and you’re going to ask yourself, ‘How long do I want to do this?’” Hasselbeck said. Luck responded to the year of hard work with a throwback season in 2018. He played all 16 games, passing for 4,593 yards and 39 touchdowns, both of which were the second-best marks of his career. With a 10-6 record, Luck led the Colts back to the playoffs after a three-year absence.

The future once again looked bright for Luck, the son of a well-known football executive, who after a standout career at Stanford stepped in to replace Peyton Manning as the face of the Colts. Still, though Luck said on Saturday that a weight had been lifted from his shoulders with his decision to retire, some fans could not abide his decision. A round of boos greeted him as he left the field of a preseason game Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis as news outlets began reporting his decision. Randy Grimes, a former player for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who strug- gled with injuries and now helps ath- letes overcome addiction to painkillers, said he was not surprised. In his view, little has changed since he last played in 1992. Players are competitive, coaches are competitive, owners want a return on their investment and fans just want to watch football. The confluence often conspires to force players to make decisions that are not in the best inter- est of their long-term health. “It’s always being in the training room and being part of practice,” Grimes said. “That in itself forces you into a place of isolation and on an island, even when you’re in the middle of it but alone.” Some players — including Grimes during his career — have coped with the injuries and isolation by taking addictive painkillers that numb the pain but leave them with dangerous addictions. Other players grapple with the depression that comes from being in constant pain. Then there is the continuing issue of potential cognitive decline caused by repeated head hits. The N.F.L. has changed many rules of the game to reduce the number of dangerous plays, placed independent neurologists on the sidelines during games and strength- ened its return-to-play protocols. Even so, many retired players struggle with memory loss, impulse control issues and in some cases, suicidal thoughts. Most players have heard about former teammates with these and other struggles and some like Luck want to leave the game before it con- sumes them as well.

Players of Luck’s generation now consider a more ruthless calculation of health versus money, and that is putting them in conflict with team owners, who are always looking for more football, not less. As they did during labor talks in 2011, the owners are pushing to extend the regular season from 16 to 18 games and to expand the playoff calendar. The players are once again pushing back. They made conces- sions eight years ago so they could get more time off in the off-season and fewer practices with pads during the season. The owners hope they can dangle enough money in front of the players to get them to change their minds. The players, on the other hand, are pushing for the league to lift its ban on the use of marijuana for pain relief. “The conversation around 18 games is absurd, especially when the league is talking about player safety,” Borland said. “Late in the season, when teams are still playing Thursday night games, the locker room looks like a trauma ward.” Luck knows this better than most players, having missed 26 games in his N.F.L. career. Even his successful return last season, when he won the N.F.L. Comeback Player of the Year Award, was not enough to keep him going. He was bothered by injuries to his calf and ankle this year and had barely practiced this off-season. On Saturday, he told reporters he had wavered about whether to stop playing. But over time he recognized that he had spent the past four years on a never-ending cycle of trying to get healthy, and that he needed to break that loop. Two weeks ago, he said, he decided to jump off the N.F.L. train and focus on himself. “I’ve come to the proverbial fork in the road,” he said Saturday, “and I made a vow to myself if I ever did again, I would choose me, in a sense.”

When top N.F.L. pay isn’t worth the cost

On Pro Football

BY KEN BELSON

Andrew Luck had a terrific 2018 season for the Indianapolis Colts after missing all of 2017 to have surgery on his shoulder.

JAMIE SQUIRE/GETTY IMAGES

Ben Shpigel contributed reporting.

“I feel tired, and not just in the physical sense. The lack of progress just builds up.”