February 1982

MEGGYESY REJOINS THE N.F.L. SCENE - NYT

The way Meggyesy saw it, football was racist, dehumanizing, warlike. That was why he quit after seven productive years as a linebacker for the St. Louis Cardinals, he said.
''I quit at the height of my career,'' he said. ''The Nixon regime was lockstepping with the Lombardi ethic. I was discriminated against because of my antiwar activities. I was benched. They said, 'We're going to teach this guy a lesson.'
''When I wrote in my book that football was dehumanizing, I was talking about the fact you were a cog in a wheel.'' Considered a Dropout