Playing hurt can be tough
|
That’s a big change from my younger days, when I played softball, basketball, volleyball or anything where there was competition involved.
A few weeks ago I realized why I didn’t play anymore — after pulling a hamstring while kicking a soccer ball around on wet grass.
It hurts, and it takes a lot longer to heal than it did back 20 years ago.
As many athletes know, playing hurt involves that competitive gene which pushes some athletes to the edge of self-destruction of the human body.
The weekend warriors who hit the softball fields or gyms each week do it for the love of the game. Yes, injuries do happen, and often the weekend warrior ends up missing a few days of work. But most work through their pain and go about their business. Some may come in and be 70 percent, while others just can’t bear to do their jobs when they’re only 90 percent healthy. People have a tendency to use any little ailment to get a few days off.
But pro athletes have much more at risk — specifically, their wallets.
All players know pain, but some know it better than others and playing in pain has created legends, just as it has ruined many great players.
Every athlete in every sport knows you are judged as much by what you’ve overcome as what you have accomplished. In order to be the go-to guy or team leader you have to be on the field. Miss one or two games and someone else steps in and does your job.
Professional athletes go out on a regular basis hurt or injured and still give everything they have.
Look at Titans quarterback Steve McNair for example. Last year he had a turf toe, strained ribs and a bad back. But he still performed and ended up co-MVP for the league.
Brett Favre played most the year with a broken right thumb on his throwing finger.
In 1986 Ronnie Lott decided to have the tip of his left pinky finger cut off instead of having surgery, which would have cost him a few games.
Look at hockey players, playing with broken hands, knocked-out teeth and running into the locker room to get a few stitches in order to get right back out on the ice.
There’s a difference between playing with pain and playing hurt. We all have played with pain and gone to work not feeling in the best of shape. But playing hurt is different. It’s playing with an injury that can affect the rest of your life or career.
Too many athletes are pushing their bodies beyond the point of no return.
Playing with pain is one thing; playing with an injury can cost these professional athletes not just the big bucks, but can send them to an early retirement.
So the next time you pull a muscle or hurt your back suck it up and get to work. If you can only give 70 percent that’s better than nothing at all.