Super Athletes
...players tearing ligaments in their knees, and six severe sprains (King 106). With bone shattering collisions due to increased player speed and size, leagues have been forced to change rules and policies on hitting and contact between players. For example the NHL has changed its rules on cross checking and leading with elbows when delivering a check. “Players are getting so big these days, and the force that they hit you with is amazing,” said veteran Detroit Redwings defenseman Brendan Shannahan (Check It Out 90). Head injuries are a major concern in all sports. Many players receive concussions throughout their career; some are forced to retire due to multiple concussions. The NHL is looking into ways to prevent head injuries and concussions for players in the future. Suggested rule changes such as no checking have even been talked about. Equipment changes as well as making the plexiglas boards out of new softer material have also been discussed. Athletes have evolved into some what freakish beings of size strength and speed, this has forced changes in rules in sports were there is contact between players in order to protect their bodies from harm. Equipment is also another big issue when it comes to a players well being. Athletes think that because the wear a protective layer of plastic they are invincible. Thanks to recent technological innovations in sports equipment, protective gear is helping to keep players free of injuries, but the force of impact between bigger and faster players still leads to frequent injuries. In the past year Riddell, a long time manufacturer of football helmets has come up with a new design that protects the head as well as the face and jaw from helmet to helmet hits that are not prohibited in the NFL. The Revolution helmet uses Kra-Lite II Polycarbonate Lexan as the material for the shell; it also uses a New Z-Pad design which reduces the impact of blows to the side of the head, face, or jaw area (Riddell 1). For added protection the helmet uses a titanium face mask to shield the face. By using innovative materials and designs in protective equipment, manufacturers can help to deter and prevent head injuries. Oppositely these new equipment designs can cause further injuries. For example many NHL players have switched to sticks made from metal alloys or hard plastics (Clayton 2). Prior to this they were all wood. Wood is hard, of course, but these other substances are harder still. With devastating cross checks and maiming slashes, traditional wood sticks are more forgiving than metal alloys and hard plastics. For the most part newly designed protective equipment is helpful in shielding athletes from major blows, but some times the gear can cause more injury to athletes. With athletes increasing body size and their physical capabilities growing, many have put forward the idea of making the field of play larger to accommodate the changing sizes of the players. There are over fifty players in the NBA who are 7 feet tall and over this year in the NBA (NBA.com 4). “The game was designed for players five-feet-seven-inches tall, a hundred and twenty-five pounds. Now we have frontlines that average seven feet tall,” is what Washington coach Kevin Loughery had to say (McCallum 1). Detroit general manager Jack McCloskey recommended that the NBA Rules Committee raise the basket from 10 feet tall to 11 ½ feet tall (McCallum 2). He argued that by raising the hoop by a foot and a half would force seven footers to shoot the ball and would decrease the frequency of the big men turning around and dunking the ball. Of course his proposal was rejected by the league and the players. Another recommended change was to increase the size of the court, on the premise that a bigger court would open up the game and make the quick, smaller man more valuable. Milwaukee Coach Don Nelson proposed that the court be expanded from 94 ft. X 50 ft. to 100 ft. X 52 ft. He said, “That this would not only open up the game, but it would also decrease the collisions in half court situations” (McCallum 4). But again no one wanted to change something that had already been in place for many years. Another change that has been brought up in both the NBA and in the NHL is to reduce the number of...