Are Player's Bodies Vulnerable to Injury?

[Loyal]

I have a notion about injuries and today's NFL. I used to be a fan of the 6 million dollar man (Lee Majors). It was too much fun to think of being able to do super-hero type feats of strength, speed, endurance, etc...They used bionic parts. integrated with the character's body. As an adult, I see the foolishness of mixing a mortal body with parts doing things the mortal body was never meant to do. The human parts of the body were not meant to absorb the weight of a bus or a truck that Col. Austin was picking up. The torso was not meant to bear the twisting and motions of bionic legs running 60+ mph.

The players weigh, especially on the lines, 30-50 more pounds of muscle than players in the 70's. Those guys in the 70's were slower and smaller and probably couldn't match the measurables required in the game today. But, I wonder if their body weight made the game safer for them and opponents? These guys would show up to training camp to get INTO shape. They worked real jobs because their NFL players salary was good, but nothing like today. They did two-a-days in full pads and live tackling. It was survival of the fittest:

"We had 130 guys, and you could practice for six weeks," Redskins coach Jim Zorn said, who spent much of his playing career with the Seattle Seahawks. "There were a lot of those kinds of scrimmages, we'd go live. But nowadays with 80 players and really the idea that you want to keep everybody as healthy as you can, you have to limit that."

Then again, as Miami's Taylor pointed out, these aren't the old days.

"You just showed up for training camp, you smoked cigarettes at halftime, a lot of things were different back then," Taylor joked. "So, we don't do all that now. We don't tackle, but we don't smoke at halftime either."
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...ause-they-dont-practice-2009nov04-story.html#

No one talks about the scientifically constructed, Ted Rath created athletes. Is their muscle mass too heavy/strong for their physical frames? Are a super athlete's ligaments, tendons, skeletal frame increasing in strength along with muscles? I have a feeling, no. I know that I trust the durability of a steak eating, country strong guy than that of a weight room, green smoothie guy

What do you think?

 

[Akrasian]

My understanding is that ligaments don't really increase in strength - although you can increase support for some of them by making sure that muscle strength surrounding the ligament's muscle is balanced. Bone mass can be increased by repetitive training. I saw x-rays once of a baseball pitcher's arm - the bones on his throwing arm were noticeably larger than his off-arm.

But yeah, I think it's pretty much certain that some types of injuries are going to be more common. Partially because of the player's strength and body mass being increased to more than the body can easily manage, and partially because players that hit him on a regular basis are so much bigger and stronger than in year's past.

Don't know if there are any good solutions for it. A real steroid policy might help some. It seems to be easy to circumvent it currently.

 

[ReekofRams]

With always wanting bigger, stronger, and faster athletes you can't help but making the risk of injury greater. Then add that you're expected to go up against, through, and over someone else who is bigger, stronger and fsster too, then both of you are on a collision course to an injury waiting to explode all over you.