Is the New CBA hurting its players?

[Fin Fan in Cali]

I bring up the question due to all the ACL tears already this year. I wanted to get input on this if the very little practice time the players have compared to before the new CBA is contributing to these injuries? Is this just the nature of the game? In Delmas case did he push to hard to get back to camp? Are there players looking at AP's quick recovery time and say I beat that healing time?

 

[The Dawg]

YES I think so. All of these walk through, non contact days seem to be weakening their bodies (odd as that sounds). I dont have stats, but IT SEEMS as though more injuries are happening since they went to this format.

 

[gregorygrant83]

I'm not crazy about the reduced contact rules, but I don't think having more contact would strengthen ACL's and MCL's in knees. I think that's just the nature of the game. That's why I don't like referring to players like Delmas and Koa Misi as injury prone or soft. The oddity is not that some players get injured as often as they do, it's that some of the others amazingly don't get injured as much. I think the human body is like any other machine, if you took your car out and drove it at crazy speeds, made a ton of extremely sharp turns, went off roading with it and then entered a demolition derby you could guess what the eventual outcome would be. I love the sport, but it's brutal and takes its toll. ESPN recently had an article of for 49er Chris Borland and why he stepped away from the game. It's a good read and worth the time.

 

[NY8123]

Well the players wanted that concession if I'm not mistaken, the owners wanted it to remain the same but the argument was that the season already takes enough toll so less would equal more health.

 

[fish920]

Its a good question to bring up, i have wondered this myself.

Wouldnt know where to start but i would like to see some statistics regarding non-contact injuries from prior to the new cba agreement.

This is what the players wanted . . .

 

[FSU Truth]

Athlete's strength, size, speed combo continue to go up each season...the ol Bigger, Faster Stronger that has been promoted over the last couple of decades. So you are putting bigger guys, stronger guys and faster guys on a field and asking them to make precise cut and perform advance athletic movements....unfortunately the ligaments and tendons suffer as for many they just can't handle that much strain.

 

[MRojas4]

The human body can only handle so much weight NATURALLY.

Athletes nutrition and supplements push the body to its limits in terms of muscle mass growth.

Ligaments and tendons are not designed to withstand 250lbs of muscle planting and cutting at 20mph speeds with hundreds of pounds of force applied to it. And thats just talking about the non-contact injuries.

I feel we may have reached the point in athletics in which if athletes get any bigger/stronger/faster it will result in diminished returns in the topic of injury and length of career.

We now have border-line legal steroids that help the human body grow to a size it was not intended for. No steroids for ligaments and tendons.

This is why so many MLB pitches and now High School baseball pitchers will have Tommy John Surgery ON PURPOSE. Because the surgically repaired tendon is actually stronger than the natural human one. (Or so I have read....)

 

[russianbear]

if you lined up the amount of injuries, even specifically ACLs/MCLs i doubt there would be a significant variation from year to year, just my opinion. if anything, the less practices you have the less injuries would occur, again in my opinion.

 

[.....]

Jogging in your sneakers doesn't make your shoe laces stronger. Likewise, playing more contact doesn't make your ligaments stronger. And like shoe laces, no matter how strong the ligaments are, continuous heavy wear and tear will cause it to break eventually. Adding more wear and tear, such as more contact, will cause it to fail faster.

 

[Patrick_Bateman]

Athlete's strength, size, speed combo continue to go up each season...the ol Bigger, Faster Stronger that has been promoted over the last couple of decades. So you are putting bigger guys, stronger guys and faster guys on a field and asking them to make precise cut and perform advance athletic movements....unfortunately the ligaments and tendons suffer as for many they just can't handle that much strain.

Nicely summed up, this is exactly what it is. If you notice a lot of these ligament tears, especially in the knees, are now occurring without contact because the players are putting so much more power/speed/torque on the joints especially compared to players just 20 years ago.

 

[datruth55]

It would seem the ligament, hamstring and Achilles injuries have increased but the number of concussions that used to happen in practice has decreased dramatically. When it comes to long term effects I would think concussions are by far the worst of all the injuries.

Delmas and Benjamin both got injured on non-contact plays. One player thought that the grass was a little wet and not cut low enough and that was a contributing factor. Luckily, in the Dolphins case, I think the facilities are kept top notch. That's where not having a cheap owner really helps.

 

[So Be]

The amount of weight you put on your knees does make a difference on ligaments being able to handle it and how often. So, wouldn't reduced practices and even less with 20+ pounds of gear help limit injuries?

 

[Fin Fan in Cali]

The amount of weight you put on your knees does make a difference on ligaments being able to handle it and how often. So, wouldn't reduced practices and even less with 20+ pounds of gear help limit injuries?

My thoughts are they in the right kind of shape to start exerting themselves? Does the limited amounts of practice put them at more risk rather than having enough conditioning time.

 

[KTDolphins]

Pushing your body to its breaking point only makes you stronger. These cupcake practices we have now are not doing the players/the team any good.

 

[Fin Fan in Cali]

if you lined up the amount of injuries, even specifically ACLs/MCLs i doubt there would be a significant variation from year to year, just my opinion. if anything, the less practices you have the less injuries would occur, again in my opinion.

Could be bro, or it could be that the body hasn't been used to or has not had enough football conditioning. It could be that and what others have said just pushing the body too hard.