Pokémon Go is extremely addictive and bizarre stories across the country have been popping up on the news; from someone crashing their car while playing, to a couple leaving their child alone so they can go out and play. Larry Warford has decided that he doesn’t want the game ruining his life, so he’s detaching himself.
Warford downloaded the app on the day of it’s release while at the Lions training camp in Tempe, Arizona. He caught a Bulbasaur but missed out on nabbing a treasured Charmander. He then deleted the game the next day and explained to the Detroit Free Press why he stopped playing. He described it like something out of the zombie apocalypse.
“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.”
Warford was on his way to meet friends at a restaurant when he ran into an unnamed Lions teammate on Mill Avenue. He was playing it, too.
“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.”
The Detroit Lions offensive guard wants to focus his mind and energy on football, and with the NFL preseason kickoff set for this upcoming weekend, it’s definitely a good idea.
