NFL Player Quits Pokemon Go Over Mind-Control Concerns

Pokemon GO has been making news lately for a multitude of reasons, one being its unfortunate absence from the Olympic Games.

NFL players, however, have readily attainable access to Pokemon GO, including Detroit Lions Guard Larry Warford. After downloading the app, Warford was enjoying the hunt for Pokemon like millions of others until he took a look around one day walking down the street (via Detroit Free Press).

"I'll tell you why I stopped playing it," he said Monday. "I was walking down Mill Avenue in Tempe, Ariz., pretty much on (Arizona State's) campus. … I was walking down and literally everyone that was on their cell phone walking down that same street was playing Pokemon Go. I was looking at their screens and it was about 30, 40 people walking down Mill (Avenue). It was a bunch of people playing it and I was like, 'I don't like this'. I deleted it because I was like, 'This is some mind-control stuff.' I don't like it."

Upon deleting the game, Warford received further proof of the mob mentality he believes the game causes when he went out to dinner with some friends.

"I was like, 'This is bad, this is bad,' " Warford said. "They were playing it and I was like, 'Nope!' And I deleted it right there, right when I got to the restaurant. The funny thing is, the people I was eating with, they were playing it, too."

Addictive as the game may be, it's doubtful Niantic is attempting to control anyone's mind. Still, that same caution seems to reside higher up the food chain as well, with Detroit Lions Coach Jim Caldwell adding he doesn't see the game in his future either.

"No," Caldwell said with an uneasy smile. "I'm certainly not going to get into it in the future, either. I've seen all the reports. I have no idea exactly how it works. I haven't had time to think about that aspect. I'll leave it up to you. Yeah, it's popular," he said. "But I don't like it. Something's not right."