Last year around this time, Men’s Journal ran a very touching article on the plight of retired vets of the National Football League. You’ve probably heard by now about the epidemic of traumatic brain injuries that many of the players suffer from. What’s less acknowledged is that many end up suffering from “poly-pharmacy”, a phrase used to describe addiction to as many as a dozen (or more) pharmaceuticals including multiple prescription painkillers. Turns out addiction to opiates is the real drug issue in the league, much more so than performance enhancers like steroids or speed. According to the Men’s Journal article, once the guys retire many of them can’t even get their physical injuries operated on because they’re so addicted to painkillers that doctors fear they’ll stroke out on the operating table. The whole situation is reminiscent of what happens with vets back from Iraq or Afghanistan who are loaded up on psychoactive drugs, a subject which Men’s Journal has an article on in this month’s issue. Both articles definitely have a Saturn in Scorpio (rehab) trine Neptune in Pisces (compassion) vibe to them.

Out of curiosity I looked up the chart of the NFL using its date of incorporation as its date of birth. Turns out it’s a Leo Sun, Scorpio Moon – a combination that astrologer Carolyn Reynolds says possesses a “volatile, ruthless animal nature”. (Source) I’ve previously referred to it as a Sun/Moon pairing that has the potential for werewolf like behavior — although obviously this is only in extreme examples. (Source)

The conjunction between the Sun (conscious identity) and Jupiter (expansion, largesse) in Leo (Royalty, Entertainment, Parades, Performances) means it has an over inflated ego albeit one that’s great at putting on outrageous spectacles like what you see on Superbowl Sunday. The Moon (emotional needs) in Scorpio (intensity) means the league is operating as a home (Moon) for what are not infrequently extremist circumstances (Scorpio)>

See the Mars/Moon conjunction in Scorpio? Mars/Moon conjunctions are associated with home lives that feel like war zones. (Source) Astrologer Sue Tompkins has linked them to bouts of murderous rage. (Source) In Scorpio, the sign of extremes, a Mars/Moon conjunction is as potentially nasty an aspect as you’ll find in western astrology. To illustrate just how nasty: using its first flight as its date of birth, the F-22 Stealth Fighter (aka “The Raptor”) has a Mars/Moon conjunction in Scorpio. (Chart)

For those who may not have been following the story in the news: the F-22 is the fighter jet built by Lockheed Martin known to (literally) choke its pilots to near death. (Source) Back in May the show 60 Minutes interviewed two seasoned F-22 pilots who have flat out refused to fly the thing. Other F-22 pilots are so terrified about its safety record that they’re taking out extra life insurance policies in anticipation of their deaths. (Source) The F-22 pilots thus have more than a few things in common with people who grew up in abusive families or those who find themselves victims of domestic violence: they’re essentially captives of their abusers who must either eject or die.

As far as people being choked to (near) death . . . we all know what spikes through the ceiling on Superbowl Sunday. Astrologer Jefferson Anderson writes of the dysfunctional Leo/Scorpio, “When life gets tense, rather than trying to relax you probably explode, taking out your frustrations on your mate, children, or co-workers.” (Source)

Saturn (karma) is currently moving through Scorpio, on its way over the NFL’s North Node, its Mars, and its Moon. With Saturn transits a person (or organization) always reaps what it has sowed.

For the purposes of compare and contrast: using its establishment date as its date of birth, Major League Baseball is an Aquarius Sun, Taurus Moon. (Chart) Aquarius/Taurus is more the Sun/Moon pairing of an alliance (Aquarius) of farmers (Taurus) than that of an egotistically ruthless animal. The Moon in Taurus, the sign symbolized as a serene bovine, means MLB needs pasture or things akin to pasture in order to be emotionally sustained. Baseball is essentially a pastoral sport, one that evolved on farms of the Midwest United States during the summers of the mid-to-late 1800s. MLB players have used performance enhancers and painkillers for going on 100 years now but rarely do any fall prey to the violently destructive extremes seen in the NFL.

Obviously there are healthier expressions of the Leo/Scorpio combination than the NFL. Rapper Chuck D, the head of the pioneering group Public Enemy, is a Leo/Scorpio as are Alex Haley, Alfred Hitchcock, and Stanley Kubrick. At its best this pairing excels at confronting or illuminating excessively militarized, psychopathic behavior – the exact sort of thing celebrated en masse on Superbowl Sunday.

For more information on this pairing: Leo Sun, Scorpio Moon: The Scorpion King and the Public Enemy

About the Author: Matthew David Savinar is a California licensed attorney (State Bar #228957), voluntarily inactive as of June 2013. He can be reached for questions, comments, or astrological consults via Twitter, his first YouTube channel, his second YouTube channel, SoundCloud, LibSyn or this site’s contact page.

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