Dangerous sports
 

First of all, please don't think that the fact I have been creating a lot of topics - possibly too many - is lost on me.

I'm asking this because, unbeknownst to many who know me, I have a developing interest in two of your major North American sports. I couldn't care less about American football or baseball (although I recognise the skill involved, particularly in the latter), but I do have a soft spot for ice hockey and basketball. I couldn't name a single active ice hockey player, and only a few basketball players. But the sports do fascinate me. Perhaps it's because they're sort of similar to small sided games of soccer - basketball is like 5 a side soccer, only with hands, and ice hockey is like five a side soccer on, well, ice. I would like to start following these sports more if I could find the time to do so, but that's not strictly what this question is about.

I'm asking which sports you consider the most dangerous? We can exclude the obvious such as F1, wrestling, motorsport etc, and keep to team sports. Many would say American football is the most dangerous, but I would have to go with ice hockey. Those guys are hard as nails. They're huge guys skating at breakneck speed over cold, hard ice and bumping into boards and one another, being smacked in the head by pucks. Frankly, it makes me feel like an absolute pussy for forgetting to wear shin guards at soccer and grimacing when I take a kick there. And of course there's no shortage of quality either.

There is however one thing which is rare in ice hockey, but is without doubt the biggest danger in the sport and possibly the biggest danger in any sport...and that's the prospect of having your throat cut by another participant's skate. I've read into this before, and refreshed my memory recently. Clint Malurchuk in 1989 and Richard Zednik in 2008 had their cartoid arteries severed. Thankfully both men survived and are alive and well. But Malurchuk's accident is one of the most uncomfortable things I have ever watched. Seeing the blood spurting out of his neck is horrendous. He thought he was going to die and he wanted off the ice so his mother wouldn't see him die on television. His life was saved by a medic who had been in Vietnam, and if he'd been goalkeeping (sorry, goaltending, hehehe) at the other end of the rink he probably wouldn't have made it to the medical room in time. If not for the intervention of the medic, Malurchuk would have bled out in less than two minutes. Zednik's accident had a great effect on Malurchuk. It brought up nightmares from the past and led to suicide attempts. Thankfully he seems to be okay now, though.

Of course, head injuries are also common in hockey. Bill Masterton remains the only man ever to die as a result of an NHL hockey collision, and his story is heartbreaking. His death was a big influence on helmets becoming compulsory. However, there are claims that Masterton had a pre-existing blood clot and that heavily contributed to his death in 1968.

In soccer, nobody really dies as a result of collisions. It can happen, of course, and has. However, there's nothing like as terrifying as the prospect of having a throat cut by a sharp skate blade. What is quite prominent in European football is players collapsing and either dying or narrowly escaping death (Miklos Feher, Marc Viven Foe, Antonio Puerta, Dani Jarque, Fabrice Muamba who survived but was forced to retire etc). Whether this is because of the physical demands of the sport is unclear, but a worrying number of footballers do seem to have heart defects.

So my overall questions are: which sports do you think are the most dangerous, and why? And do you think that neck guards should be compulsory in hockey? I wouldn't have the balls to play hockey without one.

Yea, I'd say that american football, rugby, irish football and aussie rules football can all put you on a wheelchair for life if a tackle or a collision go horribly wrong. As a not very strong guy, I wouldn't want to play any of those sports. In American football, you think at first that players don't really get hurt due to pads and helmets, but that's a huge mistake.

I'd probably place hockey in a tier below the above mentioned sports. I'd say the ice variety is probably the most dangerous one with field hockey being the least dangerous and roller hockey being in-between. Not to mention hockey players seem to love their fights and hitting each other with sticks. What's up with that? Honestly...

The most dangerous thing about football/soccer is getting a powerful shot in the face, a slide tackle while you're running pretty fast(especially if you're not playing on grass but on a court... ouch) or someone headbutting you "accidentally" in a mid-air jump(pretty common in street football when two players have a score to settle). It used to be a more dangerous sport before they invented the red card, though.

Surprisingly, volleyball can be quite dangerous. The ball is damn hard and can break your finger, hand and arm bones if you aren't careful enough.

I think basketball is the last dangerous of the major team sports. Pretty much any kind of physical contact being a foul helps. Then again, if stealing your opponent's ball was that easy, it'd be much harder to score.

One thing I find annoying is how some people think that a sport being more dangerous automatically makes it superior. I find that pretty stupid.

As for "sudden deaths" on the pitch, I wonder if the players who die like that have some heart problem(s) that are undetectable on medical tests. I remember watching Feher collapse live on TV. As a kid, it was very creepy to watch such a thing happen. The whole country was in shock and everywhere you'd go in the next few days, people would talk about it. I'll never forget Feher smiling a few seconds before collapsing and every player on the pitch immediately rushing to him and crying. They knew he had died as soon as they saw him falling. :(

Ice Hockey is pretty bad and I've seen some fights go down at games. Not pretty.

Football is so dangerous, short- and long-term, that Malcom Gladwell called it a moral abomination. I might say he makes great points.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...offensive-play

Any professional sport is dangerous. Even in baseball having a ball thrown 50 miles per hour at your body when you're up to bat can hurt you badly.

In fact, the only sport I'd say isn't dangerous is stuff like golf, bowling...maybe tennis....but even in the latter you read about tennis players and how they ruined their backs, lol.

American Football
When the average player only lasts 3-4 seasons it's not good.
Dementia, busted knees, chronic back pain, concussions, strokes, unaligned disks in the spine all very possible injuries. That paired with the fact that 250-400 pound guys ramming into you makes it all the more dangerous. Second would probably Boxing, since I believe more people have died due to boxing related injuries than MMA or any other combative sport. But honestly, I'd much rather box than play Football, as being punched in the face sounds a lot better than having a broken vertebrae due to an awkward clash.

Try 100+mph, but imagine have the batter hit the ball back at you!! Thats the most dangerous bc it is combing both forces and the pitcher has no protection.


Anyway before people damn American Football I must say football taught me two invaluable qualities; Discipline and Humility. I played other sports, but football taught me those two things that soccer never taught me and neither did baseball.

I played football and was lucky enough to never suffer any injuries.

Thanks for all the replies.

Prowler - yeah I thought you might have something to say on Feher. I didn't see the game live but the footage shook me. One minute he's smiling, then he's gone.

I also agree that people who think violence makes a sport better are being silly. You get North Americans saying European football sucks because it's 'gay' and "American footballers could kick the sh!t out of soccer players" Yeah, they probably could hammer lots of them, but so what? Sport's about skill, not being a great fighter (unless it's MMA, boxing etc).

I'd say cheerleading, but. It's not considered a sport, even though it's competitive and have tournaments.

And since it isn't considered a sport, trainers only need to know the bare basics in first aid, and the cheerleaders don't get any protection. Reading the injury statistics from cheerleading is unnerving stuff.

I can never look at soccer, the same way, after this Key and Peele sketch.

Yeah, didn't Penn & Teller do an episode on how bad the injuries in cheerleading can be? I think one girl in the episode had actually broken her neck.

Would never have guessed that cheerleading is dangerous - goes to show that we never can tell if we don't have all the facts.

Seriously though, imagine you were playing hockey and your throat was cut by a skate. How do you think you would feel at that time, with blood spurting out of your throat? The terror would be incredible I expect.

American Football is effectively more dangerous that rugby, partly due to the "protection" which leads players to think they can't get injured as easily, and try to make bigger hits. The NFL has attempted to curb some of that by penalising hits lead with the helmet, and it's working to a degree. I surprised my brother recently by telling him the average NFL career is 4 years, he didn't believe that, until I explained it was both those players who end up not being good enough, AND those who get injured playing. If you make it to 10 years, you're doing really well!

The same oddly enough applies to boxing. When it was bare knuckle, the fighters didn't hit as hard because it could damage their hands. The advent of gloves allowed them to hit a lot harder as a result, thus inflicting greater injury to their opponents.

As for the footballers retiring or dying due to heart conditions, almost all the cases are players from Africa. Some bad genetic trait somewhere means they tend to be more susceptible to heart problems, and long strenuous games can exacerbate the problem.

I love hockey and football. Out of all the professional and college games I've seen in my life, too many to count, I've never seen a throat slashed by a skate. It's theoretically possible in any game but pretty unlikely.

I've seen tons of gruesome injuries in football. Broken legs, terrible concussions, torn ACL and MCL, dislocations....you name it.

I played soccer and softball forever and never had a serious injury. I did event jumping at a near Olympic level with huge horses. That was more dangerous than either childhood sport I played.

Football wins in my book

Yeah, that episode was heart breaking when she was interviewed and her dad at the end.

Apparently Cheerleading account for over 60% of catastrophic injuries to female college athletes, which are injuries to spinal cord, spine, skull and brain...

I can say that Ice hockey is extremely high on that list but my most favorite brutal sport is actually martial arts in general. Watching those fights is ridiculous. Which is why I signed up for Taekwondo about two weeks ago lol

Damn. Sounds pretty intense. It makes sense when you think about it though. With all of those acrobatics and cheers were there is very little room for error. One mistake could cause massive injuries.

:lol:

That's insane. What film is that from? It must be set in North Korea going by the footage.

Thanks for everyone's posts.

It's the Iron Lotus scene from "Blades of Glory" heh...