With all of the injuries every week in sports, what is happening to the athletes of today?! We have all seen the version of athlete over the last 20 years become more and more specific and specialized. Even in High School I was told I had to go to summer football camp if I wanted to continue playing football. I was 5'6", 130 lbs, loved the defensive line and wide receiver slot, but was obsessed with Golf and Baseball. Why on earth would I waste of summer for football when I had more fun doing something else. Make the story short, our football team had back to back losing season and one season of .500, while our golf team lost 1 league match in three years, won three league championships, three district titles, third place in state and a state championship. But I digress;
Why are all these toned and fit athletes getting so hurt all the time. Torn this, strained that, cramp here, broken bone there. If these athletes are in such great shape how is all this possible? I have two theories:
First idea: the athlete's body has gotten so strong and muscle so stretched that they have no where to go but get pulled, strained or torn. There are problems with being "too fit" and having muscles "too tight". Little impact in the wrong spot can be the end of a season or career.
Second idea: This is the idea I like (related to football mainly), but the athletes bodies have gotten so strong, so fast, so perfect, that the speed of the game itself has completely changed. And when you get two brick walls running 4.5 40's or faster hitting each other, something is bound to give, and since the helmets, jerseys and pads are inorganic, the tissues, muscles, organs and bones are the ones that suffer the deep hard impacts. Has our society been so obsessed with the idea of the perfect athlete, that we have doomed our sports to whether or not our teams will have an injury or not? I for one have watched two college teams (Oregon and Washington State) be widdled down 3-4 QB's in a stretch of 2 games. Now this could be due to poor offensive lines and/or cheap shots, but each team has lost running backs, linemen, and people on special teams. So injuries are plagued all over the teams and all over football.
Yes it is a tough game and injuries happen, I am not ignorant to think that no one will or should ever get injured in football, but they are stacking up at an alarming rate, and injury reports are just as prevalent in today's games as a game summary itself.
What are your thoughts?
