RUB SOME DIRT ON IT! - The Athlete Abuse Struggle
By Alex Strizak (Host of Moose's Mulligans)
“We who are about to die, salute you!”… Well that might be a little drastic to tie together that famous line from the movie Gladiator with athletes… Or is it?
But the details that are not so well known about “Broadway Joe” is that he had to endure many severe injuries throughout his career. On the show In Depth with Graham Bensinger, Namath dove into the discussion of just how many injuries he was really faced with. On the topic of the 1968 AFL Championship game.
Namath said: “In the first quarter, I got hit in the head whether it was the ground or someone hit me; and I saw gold and I was discombobulated… You know it worked out well and we won. But that was a tough one because of the head injury and the painful thing of the hand; it was – Oakland was mean and they were tough! When the finger was dislocated and I’m on the ground feeling this pain, Dan Birdwell (defensive tackle for the Raiders) is jumping up and down yelling ‘Hey Joe, Joe! Look, you broke your finger!’ I turned my head, it was 3rd down anyway so now it was 4th, so I ran off the field and gave it to the trainer Jeff Snedeker and he just got it back in…”
Woah… Not only was Namath playing through a very serious concussion, but also a dislocated finger ON HIS THROWING HAND! As a quarterback, your head and your throwing arm are probably two of the most important elements to your game…
So what happened in the game? Namath led the Jets to a 27-23 victory over the Raiders and an AFL championship. Now I know Joe made it look easy to play through such serious injuries, but it is a very difficult and stressful thing to go through on an athlete. Joe Namath was and is the ultimate professional, accepting with a positive attitude the personal cost of “playing the game” he loved.
In professional sports, we’ve seen many examples of how much playing through an injury can affect them. Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals went from a batting average of .330with 42 homeruns and an MVP, to batting .243 with 24 homeruns and it was later revealed he was battling an injury for most of the year.
Tiger Woods went from being on pace to being the greatest golfer of all-time to not winning a Major Tournament for over 10 years now. The last time I saw him win a major, I thought by 2018 he’d have at least 10 more wins by now. But multiple back injuries have just been too much for Tiger to find his way back to the top of the golf world.
But what about amateur athletes? We often “pay the same price” but rarely receive similar awards and compensation. My goal in this article was not just address how injuries can affect an athlete’s performance but the ultimate impact on the quality of life for the rest of their lives.
There are two ways that these injuries have haunted athletes: physically and mentally.
Joe Namath is the perfect example of the “costs” of physical abuse. He suffered through many concussions during his playing career and says that he still struggles daily with symptoms from those injuries. He still struggles from a broken wrist he suffered in 1970 and a very serious knee injury in the preseason of 1971. Namath now has two artificial knees, but accepts it as the price he had to pay to play football. Namath said: “None of the body was designed to play football. Excuse me, you know, football, we’re just not designed for.”
These physical issues seem to be more apparent these days. Whether it is the result of social media or, perhaps because athletes are more explosive with their bodies now; or some combination of factors, there is an obvious problem. The price of physical pain and eventual disability also comes with mental and emotional costs.
Almost every player that gets hurt will feel it mentally, as well. Not being able to compete in your sport means isolation from teammates and lone-standing “support” structures. Sometimes athletes aren’t able to deal with these losses and have to go through a “grieving” process much like losing a loved one. The “pros” are “rewarded” for accepting the risks, but what about amateur athletes?
What about “payback” for “abused” amateur athletes. The mental stresses in the sport of women’s gymnastics are no secret. If the athlete grows ¼ of an inch or gains ½ a pound, all could be lost. I am not sure most people are fully aware of how much stress these athletes feel and why. An article from Joan L. Duda and Lauri A, Gano Overway gave gymnasts 8 categories of stress and asked them to rank them from what stresses them the most to what stresses them the least. The results were startling…
Source
of Stress
|
Definition
of Source of Stress
|
Performance of Skills (38%)
|
Apprehension associated with
performing skills involving learning new skills, performing a difficult or
scary skill or doing skills for the first time in a meet.
|
Fear of Evaluation (25.7%)
|
Being watched and evaluated by
any number of individuals such as parents, judges, coaches, or famous people.
Specific behaviors and responses by others which portrayed negative
evaluation were also included.
|
Aspects
of Competition (14%)
|
Being
in a competitive environment and/or competing in meets (especially those
deemed as important).
|
Making
Mistakes (4.1%)
|
Responses
associated with making errors, worrying that a mistake may be made or continually
not doing a trick correct.
|
Expectations
from Self and Others (4.1%)
|
Feelings
of anxiety associated with the perception that one must perform well based on
self-induced pressure or pressure from others.
|
Time
Pressures (3.5%)
|
Stress
due to waiting or the passage of time such as not feeling ready to perform
before the start of a competition, waiting for a salute from the judges,
rushing through timed warmups, or waiting to compete after a delay.
|
Fear of Injury (2.9%)
|
A fear of being hurt or injured
during a competitive event.
|
Environmental
Conditions (1.8%)
|
Aspects
of the physical environment or apparatus which made the gymnast nervous.
|
The biggest fears of these gymnasts is something bad happening
when performing a new or difficult skill or how the surrounding people will view
their performance.
Fear of injury is the SECOND LOWEST fear for
them…Too often, these stresses lead to serious health
issues like anorexia, bulimia, and anxiety. Athletes also face pressure from those surrounding them. Athletes
are surrounded by coaches who have expectations, teammates who have
expectations, parents who have expectations, and even fans with expectations…
That is a lot people to please at one time. Coaching or even parental pressure to compete puts these athletes
in a dangerous predicament where physical injury may be their only “way out” of the intolerable situation. The recent news
about chronic sexual abuse by trusted professionals becomes just the “cherry on top of the hot fudge sundae” of abuse drowning the athlete.
Where do we go from here? How can we help
athletes through this?
It starts at home with parents. Parental guidance can help give an
athlete a role
model(s) and help teach an athlete how to manage the stresses they
will have to
endure. The parent should be someone the athlete can go to when
times get tough.
This must also extend to coaching, as not all athletes grow up
with two
parents. Some athletes don’t even have one parent in
the home. But coaches can
serve as role models and help shape the athlete to be better
prepared for what lies
ahead in their sport.
Once they get to those higher levels of competition, those leagues
and teams could
consider adding an athlete ombudsman (an official appointed to
investigate
individuals’ issues), making it easier for athletes to voice
their opinions and connect with the team, league, and the sport on their own
terms.These athletes play these sports for the love of the game and work so
hard to develop their unbelievable talent. Then we as a viewing audience are
lucky enough to see that talent on display in their competitive sports.
It’s time we help the athlete to enjoy playing the sport just as much as we enjoy watching them play it;
and then live a long, happy, healthy life after sport so they can support the continuation of positive athletic experiences for the generations that follow.
-Alex Strizak
As of 8 February 2018
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