My wife and I were talking about this morning. We have two great examples here in the Commonwealth with both Noel and Ware. USA Today (I believe it was them) changed their sport's section for a day to honor Noel and he received a lot of national attention beyond that. Ware is doing interviews with the Today Show, huge support campaign nationwide, etc. Both are completely fine.

 

Then I think about a guy like Marcus Lattimore. Better at his respective sport, imo, than either Noel or Ware that tears his ACL, makes a comeback, only to tear his ACL again and the attention is miniscule. Willis McGahee tore his ACL in the national title game once with more viewers than Ware and very little is said (granted social media is different now). Is it just because we have conditioned ourselves that football injuries probably happen 20 to 1 compared to basketball injuries and the number is probably higher for season ending type injuries? We are just numb to it all and accept that injuries occur far more often in football? Why are Noel and Ware's injuries a greater story?

Without giving it much thought...

 

Basketball injuries tend to be more visible. Typically high quality video/pictures are available for basketball injuries whereas football injuries commonly occur on the bottom of a pile-up or as a result of a tackle (with somebody else on top). If the injury itself isn't more visible, the player is.

 

Also, I think the nature of the sport plays a role. Everybody knows that injuries are a part of the game in football. When we talk about basketball injuries, we think about rolling an ankle or taking an elbow to the face...not a compound fracture of the lower leg.

Ware's injury is a special case. It was a gruesome injury that happened in a regional final with millions of people watching around the country. That's created a story where there wouldn't have been one nearly as large during the regular season or even in an earlier round of the tournament.

 

Aside from that, I agree with Colonel Crazy's assessment that it's the nature of the sport. People don't worry as much about football injuries because people expect football injuries. In the same way that people were only mildly surprised when Sidney Crosby took a hockey puck to the face last week. Brutal, but not unusual.

Without giving it much thought...

 

Basketball injuries tend to be more visible. Typically high quality video/pictures are available for basketball injuries whereas football injuries commonly occur on the bottom of a pile-up or as a result of a tackle (with somebody else on top). If the injury itself isn't more visible, the player is.

 

Also, I think the nature of the sport plays a role. Everybody knows that injuries are a part of the game in football. When we talk about basketball injuries, we think about rolling an ankle or taking an elbow to the face...not a compound fracture of the lower leg.

 

Pretty spot on, IMO.

In football the helmets make players a faceless cog in the machine in terms of perception. In basketball guys are right there for everyone to see and relate to...

In football the helmets make players a faceless cog in the machine in terms of perception. In basketball guys are right there for everyone to see and relate to...

 

Boom. Same reason why a human is much more likely to flip off a car in front of them as opposed to one passing them. Football players are dehumanized due to all of the equipment, specifically the helmet/facemask.

Plus it's 5 guys on the court vs 22 in football. 1 going down out of 5 is a lot bigger proportion than 1 out of 22. Now if a QB went down than it usually attracts more attention than a lineman.

Ware's injury is a special case. It was a gruesome injury that happened in a regional final with millions of people watching around the country. That's created a story where there wouldn't have been one nearly as large during the regular season or even in an earlier round of the tournament.

 

Aside from that, I agree with Colonel Crazy's assessment that it's the nature of the sport. People don't worry as much about football injuries because people expect football injuries. In the same way that people were only mildly surprised when Sidney Crosby took a hockey puck to the face last week. Brutal, but not unusual.

 

Sidney Crosby is made of glass but I see your point.

Because of all these mommies who say little Johnny can't play football because she is afraid he will get hurt but allow him to play basketball and when he gets hurt it shocks them because they just knew Johnny couldn't get hurt. After all the players are only playing on a hard wood court with no protection for their head or body. At least in football you have pads and play on grass.

You would think with the amount of attention this is getting that Ware would be dying or something. While incredibly gruesome and devastating, at the end of the day, dude broke his leg. Just my opinion, but it seems the amount of attention is a bit overkill.

Without giving it much thought...

 

Basketball injuries tend to be more visible. Typically high quality video/pictures are available for basketball injuries whereas football injuries commonly occur on the bottom of a pile-up or as a result of a tackle (with somebody else on top). If the injury itself isn't more visible, the player is.

 

Also, I think the nature of the sport plays a role. Everybody knows that injuries are a part of the game in football. When we talk about basketball injuries, we think about rolling an ankle or taking an elbow to the face...not a compound fracture of the lower leg.

 

This.

 

But, I'd also argue that football injuries get more than their fare share of the spotlight. Take concussions for example. You aren't going to find anybody out there who is a more of fan for the 'concussion awareness' and what not, however, I wish the media would focus on the overwhelming majority out there who have played/playing who haven't had any type of head injury, too.

 

To me, this is a car crash vs. plane crash type deal. Thousands of car crashes happen everyday, and very few are talked about. When a plane crashes, not only is it on the news, but it's on the news for what seems like a month. If the media talked about the thousands of planes that land safely everyday, like they do the small percentage that crash, you wouldn't have near as many people who are afraid to fly.

You would think with the amount of attention this is getting that Ware would be dying or something. While incredibly gruesome and devastating, at the end of the day, dude broke his leg. Just my opinion, but it seems the amount of attention is a bit overkill.

 

Amen.

Because of all these mommies who say little Johnny can't play football because she is afraid he will get hurt but allow him to play basketball and when he gets hurt it shocks them because they just knew Johnny couldn't get hurt. After all the players are only playing on a hard wood court with no protection for their head or body. At least in football you have pads and play on grass.

 

So true.

Honest question here, and it might have already been talked about elsewhere, but was Theisman's injury as bad?

 

I will say this, despite the sport, that was the nastiest injury I've ever seen. Ever.

 

At least with McGahee and Lattimore, they were knees. While still nasty injuries, knees are made to bend.....bone just isn't supposed to do what we all saw.

Honest question here, and it might have already been talked about elsewhere, but was Theisman's injury as bad?

 

I will say this, despite the sport, that was the nastiest injury I've ever seen. Ever.

 

At least with McGahee and Lattimore, they were knees. While still nasty injuries, knees are made to bend.....bone just isn't supposed to do what we all saw.

 

 

Good question. I'd say they are equal yet different. With Theisman we saw the leg break but it was covered up by pants and even with today's technology I'm not sure what we would have been able to see other than his leg bending and breaking like we know it shouldn't. With Ware it took a second before we realized what happened. I thought Tyler Thornton had something in his eye. No clue what happened to Ware until I saw the replay and then I realized he broke his leg immediately after seeing it. It wasn't until the next day that we got to see the bone sticking out of his leg and then it was easier to see why the players and coaches acted why they did. Leg uncovered and gruesomeness for days. Seeing both I'd go with Ware is worse than Theisman but not by much and only because his was more visible.