Ben Roethlisberger year has been pretty tough so far. Sure, he got to be on the Super Bowl team and get a BIG championship team– but he has had to overcome serious injuries. Roethlisberger got into a terrible motorcycle accident earlier this year and this past week suffered a concussion against the Atlanta Falcons. Well, you would think that he might say that he would take some time off to recover– but the team doctors have cleared him to play today.
Steelers Quarterback Ben Roesthlisberger
I would say that the Steelers and Roethlisberger are taking a huge risk and this could lead to a potential crisis. What if something else happens to Roethlisberger– and he isn’t able to play again because of it? How would the NFL and the Steelers communicate this to their fans and other audiences? They would have to explain their actions and reasons for putting a man that had a recent concussion out to play.
It seems that the team doctors are trying to do “miracles” to just get the players on the field today, but they are not thinking about what this would mean to their future health. It seems that both athletes and team doctors today are only thinking about the present, and not the future. You would think that they would want to grow old to see their children grow up and still be able to walk and breath on their own. But these athletes also want to go out and play–even if they are not physically able to– so what do you do?
There are many things that I will miss about being a track and field athlete: the meets, working out, traveling, and throwing– but there is something that I won’t miss, and that is dealing with team doctors. I was lucky at USC where we had a good medical team, but I wasn’t so lucky when I was at the University of Florida. During my time at Florida, I was diagnosed as having a “degenerative disc” in my lower back. Yeah, it was pretty painful — there were times where I could barely walk, and sitting in class was torture.
was the cure that the doctors offered me? Well, they said surgery–but they didn’t know if it would actually help me, or put me on every medication known to man, including Vioxx. Of course, I had to quote from a Tobey Keith song: “She not only said no… she said HELL no!” Today we know the effects of Vioxx, and I am so glad that I didn’t take it, even though I was one of the only throwers on the team that wasn’t on any medication.
And what happened? I haven’t had a back problem in two years, and it was due to losing some weight and working on my core strength– and all without taking any medications. 🙂 So my opinion is about the Roethlisberger case is simple: be careful, and be aware of the risks that you are taking that could impact your future.
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