Rafe’s Rant We hear a lot these days about concussions incurred in sports especially in hockey and football. Big names like Sydney Crosby suffered concussions and there legitimate fears of more. Scores of former NFL players are suing the league from damages incurred from concussions. There is an interesting elephant in the room – it’s called safety equipment. Invariably is adopted and made obligatory by a league for the praiseworthy purpose of preventing injuries as well as saving lost revenue when stars can’t play. There is no doubt that goalie masks, started by Jacques Plante, have prevented serious injuries but I wonder if the “apparent” protection of other protection isn’t an illusion the encourages players to check into the boards more common and more serious? In football, it was thought that if equipment was made better injuries would be fewer and less severe. The evidence seems to be quite the opposite. The better the equipment the harder the athletes hit one another. What a hypocritical society we are with our selective views. We cluck about hockey and football yet just love boxing and extreme fighting where the object of rhe exercise is to concuss your opponent? Once I as a boxing fan. Joe Louis was a hero as were Sugar Ray Robinson and Willie Pep. Then in 1961, in a closed theatre, I saw Floyd Patterson knock out Ingemar Johanson. I remember Johanson lying on his back for a full 5 minutes with his toes twitching. It was an awful sight and put in perspective what boxing is all about. Just seeing Muhammed Ali stumble around is the final straw. Extreme fighting is, of course, even worse than boxing and the public lap it up. They can’t get enough of it. Perhaps its what the lawyers call volenti non fit injuria applies– if you voluntarily accept a risk you can’t complain at the results. I don’t think that maxim applies to these cases but those who run them and profit from them think that “volenti” obviously disagree. As long as these abuses of common sense are not understood by those set in authority over us and they continue to be supported, spare me the tears over hockey and other sports
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 18:31:25 +0000
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