A number of injuries we see today they didn't understand or have surgical or other fixes for... so a player would play through it until they couldn't and retire.
Makes one wonder how many pitchers in the hundred years before Tommy John surgery would have had longer careers.
Same used to be for knees.
So sure, more guys are "dinged up", but the game also requires guys to be optimal on every snap and the difference on many plays is measured in millimeters, so we have modern players with modern nutrition and medicine putting out what is the "modern 100%" which would have been wholly unsustainable even 20 years ago.
This is why Reggie Scott and that staff are worth their weight in gold. Figure the staff is 1000 lbs all together... that's just shy of $26M... which for a multi-billion dollar franchise is peanuts. Even if their weight were twice that... what team wouldn't pay $52M to ensure their best players are available and potentially avoid a losing season?
Some phrases are hyperbole. Our training staff being worth their weight in gold? That's an understatement...literally.
