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The Hot Corner
Every month Sports Media Challenge discusses at least one incident or issue in the world of sports news. Most will be case studies or commentaries prompted by exposure in the news. We especially welcome ideas and comments from sports professionals including athletes, coaches, executives at all levels of sport including professional, collegiate and other amateur ranks. We will periodically include your comments and observations.
Latest Update -- August 31, 2001:
Previous Topics
August 31, 2001
By
Edmond Ball
Hot and Bothered
“Are today’s athletes pushing themselves too much?” ?In today’s sports, our athletes are treated as superhuman- heroes who are expected to play when they’re hurt, sick and weary,
- Michael Jordan is regarded as a hero after winning his fifth NBA championship against the Utah Jazz while battling a fever and stomach flu.
- Kerri Strug was regaled as a true champion after completing her final vault despite a severely injured ankle.
- Korey Stringer battled dehydration and nausea, in a misguided attempt to prove team leadership. His reward was multiple organ failure. Stringer, a 27 year old Minnesota Viking starting lineman, died on August 1st while participating in the team’s annual two-a-day preseason practices. After being taken by ambulance to the hospital, his core body temperature was recorded at 110 degrees.
Stringer’s heat stroke occurred after the deaths just months before of two college football players who over-exerted themselves at practice. Nearly a week after Stringer’s death, a Northwestern football player, known to be an asthmatic, died while participating in team drills.
These fatal practices have many people asking if the physical punishment athletes take in the preseason is worth the wins during the season. Others are just asking how this could happen in the first place.
Coaches are expected to give their athletes plenty of water breaks, and chances to catch their breath. For the most part, enlightened and healthy policies are in place.
Sports officials at all competitive levels have begun intense investigations into outdoor practices to prevent further deaths.
Team medical personnel are often required to be on practice fields to watch athletes who may demonstrate signs of exhaustion, over-exertion, etc.
Many right steps are being taken, but few seems to be facing one major source of the problem – athletes themselves. Coaches, athletic departments, and the medical staffs can only do so much. The question then becomes, do athletes know when to quit?
Athletes need to be aware of what their bodies are saying - no one else can be expected to do that for them.
They need to not just how to take care of themselves but to follow through with that knowledge during the season. And yes, they still need to be encouraged to replace fluids and to get sufficient recuperative time no matter their age or experience.
Athletes should never feel pressured to go against what their body is telling them even if it means sitting out when everyone is else is still going.
Coaches, often blamed for the intense pressure the athletes feel need to fully respect their athletes as individuals with lives outside of sports.
Additional pressure stems from fans who expect these athletes to successfully perform at all costs for the sake of their own weekly entertainment.
Scott Fowler wrote in the Charlotte Observer, “Everyone buys into this macho attitude, where players push their bodies to the edge of rupture in the name of entertainment and sport. Coaches. Players. Fans. The media. None of us are blameless.”
Granted, athletes are paid a great deal, but when sports start taking lives instead of generating grins, society needs to take another look at what’s truly important.
At its best, sports teach persistence, commitment, and dedication to those people who both participate and watch. When teams lose great athletes through the pressure to perform, we’ve all but lost the true meaning behind sports excellence.
Athletes are our unstoppable weekend heroes who we will to perform incredible feats under enormous strain, but when it comes to personal health, the tragic truth is they’re human, and that should be enough reason for them to take an extra gulp of fluid, or extra rejuvenating breath of air.
Machismo, not pressure from fans, coaches or teammates, is an athletes’ most formidable foe. It’s humbling to admit that your body won’t do what your competitive heart demands It’s difficult at best for serious athletes to stay humble when their ego and self-confidence has always driven them to excel.
NY Giants tackle, Lomas Brown told reporters, “You don’t want to show the coaches you’re slowing down, especially in these days of the salary cap. It’s your macho mentality, only the strongest survive.”
There probably isn’t a current solution to prevent deaths like Stringer’s because athletes will continue to push themselves to unattainable levels as long as there is internal and external pressure to perform in such a high price marketplace.
We can however, and frankly should continue educating athletes on how to listen to their bodies - how to say, ‘I give’ when everyone else is saying, ‘Keep going.’
Fortunately, athletes are beginning to take the right steps to improving and lengthening their athletic careers. Players like Jerome Bettis, running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, are beginning to deny their pride in favor of personal health.
Bettis told the NY Times, “I’ve talked to a lot of guys around the league now, and every one has the same sense of urgency to be more careful…It’s an attitude that is permeating throughout the NFL because these deaths have put a different twist on the game.”
The fact is, sports is no longer in its purest form and won’t be again- until athletes stop abusing their bodies to avoid losing their status on the team, hurting their ego, or quite possibly, losing their job.
Those who demand physical extremes of themselves should set the example for all other athletes by recognizing the value of their health and what it takes to keep it. Water can’t do it all but accompanied by getting sufficient rest, eating well, and reevaluating their activities some unnecessary tragedies could possibly be avoided.
Korey Stringer’s death should be a remind athletes that respect, money, leadership, and effort don’t add up to much if they aren’t alive to benefit from them.
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