A Few Words on Injuries

I thought I would bring some clarity on the injury issue from my experience with injuries. Football, as most know, is a contact sport and it is listed as one of the most dangerous sport someone can play. Now one of the major concerns with schedule expansion is that more players will get injured by playing more games. This of course will happen because every game players get hurt or injured. I have either had most of the common injuries or knew friends that did. The worst of the most common injuries are concussions and knee injuries. They are not the top two most common, but they are serious. I have personally had a concussion and it was miserable. The NFL has recently started to do studies on the affects of head trauma on former players. There is not much evidence yet, however in several years there is likely to be enough to draw a conclusion on the affect of football collisions and brain problems later in life. One can see from boxing how head trauma is serious so there probably are ill affects to football head injuries. The other major injury is a knee injury. I have had multiple friends who had serious season ending knee injuries. They sideline a player for months. They work to recover and rehab just hoping to get back to the same abilities they had before. Then there are the less serious injuries. I have experience in these along with everyone else that has played football. These are those just nagging pains or the stiffness that doesn’t go away, but you play through it every single day. These are the injuries that can really come to play in the postseason or late in the year. I remember making the playoffs in high school and the whole team, myself included, looked like zombies during that time. We were bruised, beaten, tired, and we just had lost a little spark in our legs. This is one of the main reasons when we made it to the region title game we ran out of gas. These are the injuries that take their toll. Everyone gets at least one and they play through it each year. This is why the guys want to retire, they mentally want to keep playing, but their bodies are falling apart from all of the hits they have piled up. I oppose the expansion on the basis that the players’ careers will be cut shorter due to more injuries from more contact. I don’t know if the increase in injuries will dull the post season but the best players will play fewer years in the league. I can almost guarantee that. It’s sad to see the greats exit the game, but we definitely don’t want to see them leaving earlier than normal. For the sake of the players’ health this expansion should not be done.