Phil Jackson and his 13 NBA championship rings. Jackson who many around the game likes to call the Zen Master finished his career with more rings than fingers to put them on. Now many of us know about the eleven he won as the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Chicago Bulls. The too many forget about where the two he won when he played in the NBA.

Jackson’s got his NBA career started in 1967 when the New York Knicks drafted him in the second round of the NBA draft. Jackson wasn’t very athletic but used his intelligence to become one of the NBA’s best reserves. He was the Knicks top reserve during the 1973 title run. The other Championship came in the 1970 season in which he could not play due to surgery.

After retiring in 1980 he floated around coaching in the CBA as well as Puerto Rico’s National Superior Basketball league. Jackson struggled to land a coaching position in the NBA with many believing this was due to his use of marijuana and LSD as a player. In 1987 Jackson landed his first gig in the NBA as an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls under Doug Collins. After the Bulls lost in the Conference Finals in 1989 the team would let Collins go and promote Jackson as the head coach.

Jackson who met Tex Winter when he was hired by the Bulls fell in love with Winter’s triangle offense. This system works by placing the center at the low post, the guard at the corner and the forward at the wing. The teams other two position players at the guard and forward position played at the top of the key and the weak-side high post. This offense created good space between each player and allowed each player to pass to the other four teammates. Every time a player made a pass or cut it was created by the opposing team's defense. Jackson also developed a reputation of the way he coached as well as the master of mind games.

The mind games are what eventually led to him being called the Zen Master. He studied not only his own team but the opposing teams as well as the referees around the league. This helped him know exactly what would derail a team, get under the skin of a ref and even get his team to play better. He would speak to the media as a way to get his team motivated as well as creating a stir for the opposing team.

Phil would use his mind tricks, motivational ways of coaching and the triangle to build not one but two dynasties. This started when he took over the Bulls and had a team of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. The Bulls would win three straight championships before Jordan would retire. Jordan returned a year later and the Bulls would win three more championships. Jackson would leave the Bulls after the 1998 Championship and said he wouldn’t ever coach again. That changed a year later as he took a Los Angeles Lakers team that had a young Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. Jackson would lead the Lakers to a three peat from 2000-2002 and two more in back to back years in 2009-10 NBA seasons.

He left the game he loved and changed after the 2011 NBA season after the Lakers were swept by the Dallas Mavericks. One thing is for certain and that is there will never be another Phil Jackson. If you look at Jackson’s use drug use, the way he motivated his players and the mind games he would play on opposing teams.

This is what made Phil Jackson and helped him get those 13 Rings!

The NFL was once a league built around the big devastating hits now wants them out of the game for good. A new way of playing the game has been implemented with safety being the key point being coached around the NFL. This has even led to current players question if they should just wear flags or play two hand touches.

Now how did the league get to this point? The main reason is the newest medical technology and the understanding of brain trauma related to concussions. This along with the lawsuit that was filed by the players that the NFL withheld information about the effects that concussions would have on a player's body. The league and the players agreed to a $765 million dollar deal to give money to the players that have been involved in the lawsuit as well as the families of players lost due to injuries.

One of the most familiar names involved in all the concussions talks is former Pittsburgh Steeler Mike Webster. Webster who was proven disabled before retiring from the NFL lived out of his pickup truck and spent the remainder of his life battling dementia, amnesia and depression. After he passed away in 2002 at the age of 50 his brain was studied and later diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy or otherwise known as CTE.

Webster isn’t the only player known to have CTE as former players, Chris Henry, Dave Duerson and Junior Seau both had it as well after their brains were examined. Henry who died after falling out of the back of a pickup truck was the first of known active players that suffer from CTE while still playing. Seau who was one of the best players in his generation died after he took his own life. Like Seau Duerson took his own life as well. All three of their brains were studied and all three shown the brain disease. Other players that were diagnosed with CTE after autopsies were performed include Terry Long, Justin Strzelczyk and Andre Waters.

Then you have Troy Aikman who was forced to retire early from the game of football. Aikman who left the 1993 NFC Championship game after taking a knee to the head had to be taken to the hospital. He told his agent at the hospital he couldn’t even remember playing in the game and asked him multiple times what he was doing in there after his agent had told him minutes earlier.

Just a few years back we had Jacked Up on ESPN devoted to the big hits around the NFL. The league sold videos of the big hits as well and now they want it changed! Now we have huge fines and flags being thrown for any hit that looks vicious. The league is trying everything possible to change the game for the safety of the players but can they change it to the point that players won't get hurt?

Football will always be a violent sport as long as you have players running full speed at each other with helmets on their heads as protection. The positive side is the league continues to make changes to make the game safer for the future stars of the league.