08-05-2012, 01:29 PM
There are many major sports in the United States, and the world as a whole. Most of them involve a ball, and/or a lot of physical contact. This naturally makes them prone to injuries, occasionally life-threatening ones. Out of them all, which would you least want to play?
American Football [NFL, NCAA]
American Football is arguably the best example of a contact sport. 11 people line up on either side of the ball. One side tries to get the ball across the field. The other side tries to bodyslam them to the ground before they can do so. Severe injuries are common, and it's rare for a team to go through a season without at one point losing a player for whatever remainder of the season is left.
Baseball [MBA, NCAA]
Baseball is nowhere near as intense as football. One person throws a ball to another, while a guy in the middle attempts to whack it with a stick. If he succeeds, he has to run around the field before one of the 9 people on the thrower's and catcher's team catch the ball and tag him with it. It's rare for someone to get hit with the ball, but it can happen, and when it does, it can be pretty nasty. More commonly, someone will get injured attempting to slide into a base or make an out.
Football (Soccer) [FIFA]
Unlike its American cousin, the sport known worldwide as football is not a contact sport. It revolves around a handful of people racing around a field, kicking a ball in an attempt to get it into a net. Collisions still hurt and happen regularly, but they are more on the line of "a couple times a game" instead of "every few minutes". And having been nailed in the face with a ball kicked by 8- and 10-year-olds a few times, I can safely say that getting slammed by a soccer ball kicked by a professional is not something you can just shake off and keep on going.
Hockey [NHL]
Hockey. The game has somewhat of a nasty reputation for fighting which I am not entirely sure it deserves. A handful of people slide across a field of ice while trying to smack a black puck into a net with a stick. Collisions and falls hurt more than they do in most sports because you land on solid ice instead of a grassy field. And of course, you don't wanna get smacked with one of those sticks.
Basketball [NBA, NCAA]
Basketball is not technically a contact sport, but when you're racing around a small wooden court with 9 other guys trying to throw a ball into a basket, trip-ups and mid-air collisions will occasionally happen. There's also the chance you could jump or land badly while making a shot or a pass, and like hockey, falling will hurt more than it would on a grass field.
Golf [PGA]
Unlike most sports, golf does not require any sort of running, so the chances of getting hurt from a trip or slip are almost non-existent. It's also not a multiplayer sport -- you can go golfing with friends, but you all take turns smacking your little white (or yellow, or orange, or whatever) ball into the sky. The chances of getting hit with said ball are slim if you have any common sense, as are the chances of getting struck by lightning because you're out in a large open space.
Tennis and Badminton
These two sports involve swatting a small ball over a net. And if you get smacked with a tennis ball, it might sting for a second, but you'd have to get hit in the eye with a birdie for that to do much damage. The only real danger I can see here is if you trip while running.
Boxing and Wrestling
You might think these sports would be much more dangerous than the rest -- two guys punching or tackling each other around an enclosed space? Definitely not something you'd want to do in normal everyday life. But in these sports, there are rules and strategies in place to minimize injuries. So while injuries still will happen now and again, it's not likely someone's going to end up with much worse than a few bruises and strained muscles.
Open-wheel Racing [IRL, F1]
Auto racing is often not considered a sport, and we could turn that into a debate of itself; but because the broadcast networks treat it as one, I will include it in here. The sport has come a long way since the days of Wilbur Shaw and Bill Vukovich getting killed or career-endingly injured in the Indy 500, but as the death of Dan Wheldon last year shows, severe crashes can and will happen. And it's not just the driver that experiences danger - pit road is a busy place, and one slip by one driver can endanger dozens of workers.
Drag Racing [NHRL]
I'm honestly not entirely sure why rocketing two overpowered cars down a quartermile track in a matter of seconds is considered a sport, but again, ESPN and Fox count it as one, so it should belong here. There is no pit crew to be endangered here; instead, if something goes massively wrong, the crowd is in the line of fire for bits and pieces of malfunctioning vehicle. And these things get up to over 200 mph -- if you're in one of these things and something snaps, you're in for a scary ride. I can't remember who, but someone was killed about 5 years ago because their parachute failed to deploy at the end of a run.
Stock Car Racing [ARCA, NASCAR]
For a long time, stock cars were as dangerous a thing to drive as open-wheel cars. There was the career-ending crash of Lee Petty in the early 1960's; the death of defending champion Joe Weatherly in a tire test in the mid-1960's, and the ironic death of popular Fireball Roberts in a gasoline fire after a crash in the same time period; the career-ending crash of Bobby Allison in the 1980s; and the string of deaths in the late '90s and early 2000s, including Kenny Irwin Jr., Adam Petty, and Dale Earnhardt Sr. But since then, things have massively improved in safety. Only twice in the past decade has a Sprint Cup driver been injured enough to be unable to start the race the following week, despite dozens of horrific crashes. Like open-wheel racing, there is a large pit crew to be concerned about in addition to the driver; nearly every week, someone is almost run over on pit road. It is still a dangerous sport.
I know I've left out discussions about various other sports, such as lacrosse, or track, or cricket, or swimming. But that's partially because not only do I not know enough about those sports to offer any argument for or against their dangerousness, and partially because I don't have time to write anything up just now.
American Football [NFL, NCAA]
American Football is arguably the best example of a contact sport. 11 people line up on either side of the ball. One side tries to get the ball across the field. The other side tries to bodyslam them to the ground before they can do so. Severe injuries are common, and it's rare for a team to go through a season without at one point losing a player for whatever remainder of the season is left.
Baseball [MBA, NCAA]
Baseball is nowhere near as intense as football. One person throws a ball to another, while a guy in the middle attempts to whack it with a stick. If he succeeds, he has to run around the field before one of the 9 people on the thrower's and catcher's team catch the ball and tag him with it. It's rare for someone to get hit with the ball, but it can happen, and when it does, it can be pretty nasty. More commonly, someone will get injured attempting to slide into a base or make an out.
Football (Soccer) [FIFA]
Unlike its American cousin, the sport known worldwide as football is not a contact sport. It revolves around a handful of people racing around a field, kicking a ball in an attempt to get it into a net. Collisions still hurt and happen regularly, but they are more on the line of "a couple times a game" instead of "every few minutes". And having been nailed in the face with a ball kicked by 8- and 10-year-olds a few times, I can safely say that getting slammed by a soccer ball kicked by a professional is not something you can just shake off and keep on going.
Hockey [NHL]
Hockey. The game has somewhat of a nasty reputation for fighting which I am not entirely sure it deserves. A handful of people slide across a field of ice while trying to smack a black puck into a net with a stick. Collisions and falls hurt more than they do in most sports because you land on solid ice instead of a grassy field. And of course, you don't wanna get smacked with one of those sticks.
Basketball [NBA, NCAA]
Basketball is not technically a contact sport, but when you're racing around a small wooden court with 9 other guys trying to throw a ball into a basket, trip-ups and mid-air collisions will occasionally happen. There's also the chance you could jump or land badly while making a shot or a pass, and like hockey, falling will hurt more than it would on a grass field.
Golf [PGA]
Unlike most sports, golf does not require any sort of running, so the chances of getting hurt from a trip or slip are almost non-existent. It's also not a multiplayer sport -- you can go golfing with friends, but you all take turns smacking your little white (or yellow, or orange, or whatever) ball into the sky. The chances of getting hit with said ball are slim if you have any common sense, as are the chances of getting struck by lightning because you're out in a large open space.
Tennis and Badminton
These two sports involve swatting a small ball over a net. And if you get smacked with a tennis ball, it might sting for a second, but you'd have to get hit in the eye with a birdie for that to do much damage. The only real danger I can see here is if you trip while running.
Boxing and Wrestling
You might think these sports would be much more dangerous than the rest -- two guys punching or tackling each other around an enclosed space? Definitely not something you'd want to do in normal everyday life. But in these sports, there are rules and strategies in place to minimize injuries. So while injuries still will happen now and again, it's not likely someone's going to end up with much worse than a few bruises and strained muscles.
Open-wheel Racing [IRL, F1]
Auto racing is often not considered a sport, and we could turn that into a debate of itself; but because the broadcast networks treat it as one, I will include it in here. The sport has come a long way since the days of Wilbur Shaw and Bill Vukovich getting killed or career-endingly injured in the Indy 500, but as the death of Dan Wheldon last year shows, severe crashes can and will happen. And it's not just the driver that experiences danger - pit road is a busy place, and one slip by one driver can endanger dozens of workers.
Drag Racing [NHRL]
I'm honestly not entirely sure why rocketing two overpowered cars down a quartermile track in a matter of seconds is considered a sport, but again, ESPN and Fox count it as one, so it should belong here. There is no pit crew to be endangered here; instead, if something goes massively wrong, the crowd is in the line of fire for bits and pieces of malfunctioning vehicle. And these things get up to over 200 mph -- if you're in one of these things and something snaps, you're in for a scary ride. I can't remember who, but someone was killed about 5 years ago because their parachute failed to deploy at the end of a run.
Stock Car Racing [ARCA, NASCAR]
For a long time, stock cars were as dangerous a thing to drive as open-wheel cars. There was the career-ending crash of Lee Petty in the early 1960's; the death of defending champion Joe Weatherly in a tire test in the mid-1960's, and the ironic death of popular Fireball Roberts in a gasoline fire after a crash in the same time period; the career-ending crash of Bobby Allison in the 1980s; and the string of deaths in the late '90s and early 2000s, including Kenny Irwin Jr., Adam Petty, and Dale Earnhardt Sr. But since then, things have massively improved in safety. Only twice in the past decade has a Sprint Cup driver been injured enough to be unable to start the race the following week, despite dozens of horrific crashes. Like open-wheel racing, there is a large pit crew to be concerned about in addition to the driver; nearly every week, someone is almost run over on pit road. It is still a dangerous sport.
I know I've left out discussions about various other sports, such as lacrosse, or track, or cricket, or swimming. But that's partially because not only do I not know enough about those sports to offer any argument for or against their dangerousness, and partially because I don't have time to write anything up just now.
![[Image: NDIBirc.gif]](http://i.imgur.com/NDIBirc.gif)
[/SPOILER]