Improper Treatment of Sports Injuries

        Injuries in athletics are impossible, for the most part, to avoid.  A main concern for participants in the sports world today is how to deal with these injuries.  Athletes, physicians and coaches need to handle injuries in a more cautious way in order to allow athletes to heal properly before returning to their sport.  However many athletes do not give themselves enough time to recover completely.  Playing injured puts athletes at a greater risk to develop more major injuries that can effect their life for the long term.  In her psychological study about sports injuries, Jane Crossman found that most athletes and coaches can have unrealistic goals concerning how quickly an injured player should be allowed back into the game.  

       Being naturally competitive, athletes want to get back to playing as soon as possible; it’s an athlete’s instinct to fight through whatever pain they have in order to continue playing in the sport they love.  According to British football manager Gernald Houlier, this type of athletic character is considered a “good attitude”.  Players with this wrongly labeled “good attitude” are willing play no matter what kind of pain they may be in.  The “good attitude” characteristic is looked positively upon by other managers, coaches and teammates despite the negative effects that could come as a result of playing through pain.  

        Take former NFL player Kyle Turley for example.  As Yahoo! Sports writer Michael Silver reports, Turley had received various minor head “dings” throughout his football career.  However in 2003, during a game against Kentucky while Turley was playing for the St. Louis Rams, he was knocked unconscious after receiving a huge blow to the helmet.  Although Turley was pulled from the game, he did not receive proper treatment, even after his “bizarre” behavior that occurred in the locker room later that night according to his teammates.  Years later Turley is suffering from blackouts, collapsing and seizures due to these untreated injuries.  Turley is now showing symptoms of what doctors believe is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).  Shocked and irritated by these life threaten results, Turley wants to sue the NFL after realizing how many times he had been simply put into a dark room to recover from various minor concussions throughout the years instead of being properly treated.  As a result of his frustration, Turley has come up with many plans and ideas to prevent future athletes from going the suffering he now has to live with.  

      Kyle Turley’s story has opened the eyes of the NFL.  The NFL realizes that they have given unacceptable medical care in the past, and according to Michael Silver, they wish to improve their methods in dealing with injuries.  To enhance medical care, athletes need to develop a great amount of trust with their physicians.  Many physicians face pressure from coachers and employers to “heal” an athlete in the fastest way possible.  A majority of doctors fall into this pressure and resort to giving athletes a high amount of pain killers.  An athlete needs to be able to fully trust their physician, quite literally, with their lives.  Every athlete must have full faith that their physician is treating them in the best way possible to help them heal quickly as well as healthily.