All sports have their risks. Hell even golf-playing comes with some form of risk to the players, not to talk of contact sport which are usually aggressive and always involve the players coming together in a volatile match-up. It could be football, rugby, basketball, boxing, UFC, they are all contact sport and they’ve been known to cause major injuries to the participants from time to time.
Growing up, I had friends of mine who played football a lot, and knowing how unsafe street football can be, I saw a lot of injuries. From the popular “New Boot” which was when players stubbed their toe during play, either on a stone or some other way, to injuries as major as dislocation or even fractures. I know someone who once fell so badly that for months he couldn’t use one of his legs. He had to get surgery before he could walk again, and it took him over a year before he could even attempt to play again.
We’ve seen career-defining injuries that players of contact sports have experienced. For some, they’re able to come back, regardless of how bad the injury was. Take for instance the former goalkeeper Cech, who had to play football with a headband after surviving a severe head injury that gave him a depressed skull fracture. There are boxers who have taken serious blows to the head, going to hospital for major surgeries, and bouncing back like nothing happened.
However, there are those who simply don’t make it. People have fallen right into comas simply because they got punched the wrong way. People have gone into vegetative states because of the kind of sports they are engaged in. When running athletes come into contact, accidents can happen. The knee can slam into the jaw by accident, a boxer can land a punch way harder than he intended to, a UFC fighter can fall in a bad way… the list goes on and on about all the ways things can go wrong.
But then, what does this all mean for the sport? Should they be banned? Should they be regulated more? Well, the truth is, no matter how bad they’ve gotten, there are so many success stories in many of them. And the rate of injuries compared to everything else is ridiculously low. Hence the need for the strict rules and regulations. They’re so strict that a simple infraction can ruin the career of an athlete. There are many successful footballers in the world currently, but the percentage of those who have gotten killed or majorly injured due to the sport is really low.
The same can be said for boxing and UFC. Yeah, there have been accidents and there have been deaths, but rules and regulations in place make sure that these accidents and deaths are to the barest minimum. The minute the organizers suspect that the game is a risk and it’s taking lives, it would be canceled until they can figure out a safe way to conduct it.
So, talking about the regulations, I just feel making it any more strict or taking away some elements will take away essential parts of the game. Imagine saying that players can no longer get into the penalty area just to protect the keepers or physical contact between players will be prohibited. And by physical contact, I mean even the slightest brushing of one player against the other. How will that be possible? Regulations will take the fun out of it and in time, it could basically ruin it for everyone else.
Let’s keep the games as they should be. If every player sticks to the rules and remains disciplined, the number of these accidents will be reduced greatly. It won’t eliminate the accidents, but they will be reduced. Let’s start with that.
