Those are just some of the stars injured. It’s two weeks into the season, and there have been so many other concussions and broken bones and torn ACLs.
This is the life they choose, yes. But this article isn’t about the players; it’s about us. Technology is doing to football, I believe, the same thing it’s doing to the rest of society: It’s creating distance. When it comes to the NFL, smartphones and fantasy lead us to distance ourselves from what players actually go through on the field.
How many fans knew that before Week 2, players in total suffered 12 concussions, two neck injuries and 40 knee injuries? Very few, probably. Most fans were saying, “Can I put that dude in my lineup yet?”
And we haven’t even mentioned that scientists continue to discover that the brain disease CTE is widespread among former NFL players.
Terrell Suggs, Achilles. Jordy Nelson, ACL. Shaun Suisham, ACL.
Some people think Madden is football. Madden is to football what singing in the shower is to being Luther Vandross.
I cover the sport for a living, and even I sometimes forget that these are human beings playing it. Wealthy human beings, for sure, but they are flesh and blood. They are not just variables in our eliminator pools.
Some players have told me there are more injuries than ever before because of new rules that limit practice and time hitting in pads. There’s no proof of this, and I don’t buy it in any way. I think it’s a simple equation: bigger + stronger + faster = harder hits.
The NFL’s popularity is unquestioned. Its production is slicker than ever. But also, to me, never have all of us cared so little about what actually happens to the players.
Never before, to me, has football been so…gladiatorial.
Article Appeared @http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2571157-the-nfl-isnt-fantasy-those-injuries-are-the-real-thing