Control: Football Injuries…

Why do we like football if it is this barbaric?

I, Dalton Lewis, love to watch football, and it’s a dangerous sport. People play 82 basketball games a year, 162 baseball games a year, but only 17 football games a year — because it’s so dangerous. People are injured in every single game.

The Chicago Bears have 53 or so players on their active roster at any given time. They have at least eleven players on injured reserve that have had to be replaced by new players. That’s a fifth of the roster injured — serious injuries. This is a sport in which people run into each other at full speed and tackle each other or push past people by blocking them.

A player suffered cardiac arrest at the Monday Night Football game the other night, and they postponed the game. I thought he had died, but my friend Terry disagreed. He thought that they could save someone who had ten minutes of CPR and oxygen. I suppose that is true.

He may have brain damage. He may die. He may make an eventual recovery, but his heart stopped for a while on the field of play. That’s a scary incident. Sports have risks. The doctors say that this is an aberration, something that isn’t likely to occur to them. I don’t know.

What’s the point? The Chicago Bears, my beloved Chicago Bears, my favorite team, are 3–13 this year. They have worked so hard this year and are in last place in their division and their conference. They are a losing team. I am tempted to say that every team and everything that is connected to me loses. I know that this isn’t necessarily true — my following the Bears has nothing to do with whether or not they win or lose. I’m just curious why they try this hard if they can end up 3–13.

Why do I watch? Justin Fields is magic. He runs like the wind, at twenty-one miles per hour. He makes runs that are amazing and show real magic. The game is an amazing one. The Bears are losing because their offensive and defensive lines are not very good. They give up more sacks than almost every other team. They don’t get very many sacks.

They give up a lot of rushing yards. These aren’t the foundations of a winning team. They traded their three best defensive players. You can’t win the game when you trade away your three best players — especially when they are on the front seven of the defense. That front seven isn’t effective any longer.

I was so excited at the beginning of the season. My Chicago Bears were going to be great — with a new coach and a new GM and a lot of new players. They were going to win a lot of games and prove to the doubters that they were top-tier in the NFL. They were going to prove to the NFC North that they could take the division and not look back.

Boy, was I stupid.

People hurt themselves. They get ACL tears. They get concussions. They break their ankles or their collarbones or their legs. Horrible injuries happen when people run into each other at full speed. Football is terrible in its beauty.

Thanks, and take care, friends.