Are Athletes the Cause of Change in Sport?

Are Athletes the Cause of Change in Sport?

Overall in the last 5-10 years, professional sports in America have changed in a substantial way. Baseball has allowed for instant replay, football has implemented instant replay (in some cases mandatory instant replay), they have altered rules of the game, and have implemented more drug testing.

It’s a common theory that, as the athletes become bigger faster and stronger the game must also evolve to accommodate for such an increase in physical prowess. One wouldn’t be wrong in such an assumption however, there’s quite more to it than that. From the high school level, athletes are expected to specialize their physical skills to best suit a certain sport. We are seeing more and more athletes becoming forced to play a single sport and devote all their time to that sport in order to make it to the next level. With such specialization going on at the high school level, colleges are able to recruit players that they can be plugged into their system right away, as opposed to developing the player over the course of a couple of years prior to utilizing that athlete in a game scenario. The college level of athletics has now become a farm system for professional teams. Professional teams use the college ranks to scout for players that they can draft to make an immediate impact for their franchises. The point being, when players become bigger, faster, stronger, and more specialized for one specific sport, higher levels of athletic achievement occur as a result. When this happens then the game itself has to change. If the game does not present the proper challenge, or the game does not protect the players themselves, then the game or the way the game is played, must be altered to ensure that the highest levels of competition can continue in a relatively safe manner.

One sport, particularly more than others, is at the epicenter for rules changes for “player safety.”  The NFL has been altering the rules by which the game is played for years now. They have implemented mandatory replay, changed which yard lines the ball is kicked from, but no rule change has been such an issue as that of the “targeting” rule. In an attempt to reduce the amount of concussions sustained in the game, they implemented the rule of “targeting”, basically meaning it is illegal to forcibly hit a player around the head/neck area who hasn’t  had an opportunity to protect himself from a hit.2 Rules changes like this one are changing the way football is taught to young athletes and is changing the way current football players play the game.

Rules changes are rarely welcomed in the sports world. But in order for the game to continue, it must evolve just as its competitors evolve. It’s important to know that injuries will never be governed out of sport, but the way we play the game can be changed to allow the competitors a safer environment to compete in.

References:

1Ron, C. (2014). The Defenseless Player Rule & Application: D.J. Swearinger v. Wes Welker. Battle Red Blog. Retrieved 21 March 2016, from http://www.battleredblog.com/2014/8/26/6067511/the-defenseless-player-rule-application-d-j-swearinger-v-wes-welker

2Smith, M. (2016). NFL attempts to clarify the defenseless player rules. Profootballtalk.nbcsports.com. Retrieved 21 March 2016, from http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/27/nfl-attempts-to-clarify-the-defenseless-player-rules/