With the recent accident surrounding Damar Hamlin, the issue of injuries in sports is becoming a very important topic. Sports injuries happen all the time with players out for a few games, or even up to a whole season. How can 

The NFL recently offered a new style of helmet for practice. These new helmets, called Guardian helmets, add more padding to the helmet to lessen the blows of defenders and reduce concussions in practice. However, The NFL is not all sunshine and rainbows. During the 2022 NFL Season. Miami Dolphins breakout Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has been reported to have received three concussions. The Dolphins and the NFL let Tua play through the first of these injuries. This led to him being concussed once again and only then was he not allowed to play. There are also rumors that Tua was playing with brain trauma after being cleared by the untrustworthy concussion protocol staff. 

Football is not the only sport suffering from the injury bug. Baseball players all around the world deal with arm pain and the Major League Baseball association, MLB, do not regulate how often players throw, which could lead to repeated injuries. Players are required to wear helmets when batting or baserunning to protect their heads but they do not have much more protection. Following the 2015 season, the MLB implemented rules against sliding into defenders to stop injuries. When people think of baseball injuries, they mostly think of batters being hit by out of control fastballs. However, there are not many physical ways to stop baseballs coming at you at 90+ mph. Therefore there should be more rules or requirements to lessen injuries. 

Research is always in progress for more safety for players. Even when it does not get the recognition it should. Safety is a big part of any sport. Without it, players would get injured all the time and they would have shorter careers. The sports leagues around the world, from games in the sandlot to the pros, should have special protocols in place for injured players. These rules should make sure they do not come back too early and learn how to not get injured as much. Individual teams should be required to have more funding for their athletic trainers to ensure athletes are properly protected and healed back to full capacity. Athletic trainers in the major leagues have an average salary of about 30 to 60 thousand dollars a year. With more funding for trainers, the quality of trainers would increase and players would be much safer on and off the field. 

According to ESPN.com In the MLB, there were over 250 injuries this past season. There are 270 starting players in the MLB and with 250 out of 270 being injured clearly, there is an issue. About 21 percent of the entire MLB gets injured. There are a total of 1696 players in the NFL with an average of 247 injured players per season. Also, about 8 players were injured per team per year. 

Injuries can be helpful or harmful in sports. When asked how injuries have impacted him positively, Casey Brodnicki stated “when our teammate was injured I remember the whole team being uplifted and we played better than ever before”. Injuries can give the team a good reason to play. But on the other hand, the player who injures someone is shamed. When players get injured it can spark something in the team. This happened recently when the Buffalo Bills wore a number 3 on their jersey for Damar Hamlin. On the first kickoff of the game, Kick returner Nyheim Hines returned the kickoff for a touchdown. The Bills won that game, which the team dedicated toward Hamlin. 

The recent injury of Damar Hamlin was caused when Tee Higgins hit Hamlin in the chest. Although Hamlin most likely had heart problems, some people blame Higgins for the incident. An ESPN announcer Bart Scott suggested that Higgins was partially at fault for throwing himself into Hamlin. Dallas Cowboys Linebacker Micah Parsons responded by saying, “Are we serious?!!? why do we let some people speak on tv?!,” enraged by this statement and showing that it was a freak accident. While people supported Hamlin and hoped for a quick and safe recovery, many people also showed support for Higgins. Higgins opened up saying he was in a rough spot, feeling bad for what he may have caused until Hamlin’s mother reached out to him and told him Hamlin was doing fine which made Higgins feel much better. Injuries around sports are getting out of control, and if we don’t do something to prevent or slow them, we may not be able to play the sports we love for much longer.