When you look into sports you always have people warn you about injuries and the risk of doing athletics. Most individuals usually ignore the risks because of how rare they are.
But if you have children or loved ones that are interested, it is good to look in their best interest at what are some dangers of playing such a sport.
In this article will we be covering the 5 most dangerous positions in football and a few other commonly asked questions!
The top three most common injuries in American football are actually located in our previous article here.
To summarize what we spoke about in that segment of such article, here are a few photos to describe and show the top three injuries in football. Credit to nfl.com for such information.
With that information shown above, these are only major injuries, as common injuries like sprains are very common, as I have in my four years of playing, have played on sprained ankles, multiple sprained fingers, and a plethora of other minor injuries.
Most fans of football fantasize about becoming a skill position, which includes the athletic, different shape and size wide-receivers.
On the outside, it looks to be one of the most fun positions to play in all of football as receiving the football and scoring touchdowns is a common thing for such a position.
Unfortunately, when you see a massive hit or tackle it's usually on a wide receiver catching a pass. The health of a receiver is very dependent on the quarterback throwing the ball. The placement and timing of passes can change the outcome of either a touchdown or a long recovery from a major injury.
According to a Florida blog,
“The second most frequently injured position were those students playing wide receiver who received about 11 % of all football injuries.”
For example, if you see a receiver like the Chargers’ Keenan Allen he was named as an injury-prone bust after his first few years in the league. He missed 26 games in his first four seasons, but when healthy he showed the potential to be great.
Since 2017, he has only missed 3 games total. Becoming one of, if not the most reliable receiver both in health and on the field converting third-downs into firsts.
To me, wide receiver is a dangerous position due to its dependence on quarterback play and its constant wear and tear on lower-body muscles.
If you are more of a physical player with a more stout frame, playing running back may be more of an option for you. Usually, in little league and younger leagues for football players, the most athletic kids will play running back.
If you are a child or a parent of a child that is interested in playing running back, understanding the risk of playing football in general, but specifically running back should be noted.
What are some of the dangers of playing the position?
Running back requires you to be on the field nearly every single play if you are the starter. The tread on the player's tires will run thin the more he or she plays. Whether it's running, blocking, or receiving, running backs are required to do all.
Beyond the tread on the tires, the constant of getting tackled by bigger defensive linemen or smaller defensive backs is part of the risk of playing running back.
According to a Florida blog,
“Running backs were most likely to sustain an injury to an ankle, while the second most commonly hurt body part is the knee followed by the head.”
This quote shows that running backs are frequently injured at a student-athlete level, either in the head, ankle, or knees.
Overall, playing running back is extremely fun as you have a responsibility that is quite important to the team every single play, but that can also lead to more injuries and overall fatigue.
If you are a concerned parent and want your child to enjoy the sport of football, but ensure the safety of your children, you wonder what position can bring the best of both worlds.
According to my research, playing special teams-based positions will minimize injury. Whether it is long snapper, kicker, or punter, the basic football rules are to protect such positions, whether its penalties to line up on the snapper, or to hit the kicker or punters in a certain way, football protects these positions.
According to a Reddit thread,
“Safest is longsnapper. Hands down. Rules do not permit the defense to line up in front of them, so they are never compromised in a vulnerable position. On most kicks, they snap it and stop. Then, on most punts, they are the last to head downfield.
Dangerous? Slot receiver. Usually, he's a smaller guy and is frequently asked to cross the middle.”
All in all, playing a specialist position can be fun if they have leg talent, but these positions are usually on the field the least out of all the other positions. As they say, “safety first” so if you agree with that statement, I recommend you to play a specialist position.
Every day when you participate in football or athletics in general, you are putting yourself at risk of getting injured. It is just human nature to mess up whether in a minor or major way and that causes consequences.
So, what are some ways you can make this risk lower and increase your chances of staying healthy?
A sports medicine website has given quite a few tips;
To talk from both personal experience and research, let's go over each one of these tips.
"When you stop exercising, many physiological changes occur. You begin to lose the cardiovascular gains you've made, such as your heart's ability to pump blood more efficiently, your body's improved capability to use carbohydrates for fuel, and your muscles' enhanced capacity to process oxygen."
To build on what has all been said thus far, what are the most dangerous positions to play in football?
A Linebacker's job in the game of football is to hunt and hit. In other words, his job is to find the ball carrier and hit them as hard as possible.
Of course linebacker's have other responsibilities like covering tight ends and running backs, but an old-school style linebacker is to hunt and hit. As newer-school linebackers are smaller and quicker and more relied upon to cover, but stopping the run (hitting players) is still a huge part of their job.
According to a quora user,
"Linebackers probably suffer the most overall physical damage, without anything specifically greater than other positions. They get the damage from the repeated sub-concussive hits, they play through the head (non-brain) and neck damage, shoulder injuries."
When your job is to at the end of the day, is to hit someone as hard as possible, chances are you are going to get hit back a few times, and that can lead to injuries.
Playing on the defensive line, your job is similar to linebackers, except instead of coverage, your second job is to hunt after the opposing team's quarterback.
The flashiest play a defensive lineman can do is land a large hit on the opposing team's most valuable asset, their quarterback.
Their most important job is to stop the run, which leads to tackling the ball-carriers, which are usually running backs or wide receivers.
According to a LiveScience article,
"Defensive ends engaged in more severe impacts than any other defensive position"
Note: Defensive end is a position along the defensive line, next to the defensive tackles.
The offensive line is the least forgiving position in the entirety of the sport. As someone who played here for four years, you never get noticed until you mess up (or injured).
The job of an offensive lineman is to protect your quarterback and ball carriers. You are known to take the hits from the defensive lineman to make sure your ball carrier doesn't.
As said by a Washington article,
"Offensive lineman give and take a lot of hits. Unfortunately, so do their brains. While these hits may not be as high-impact as, say, a cornerback laying a hit on a wide receiver, these smaller, more frequent hits have been shown to be maybe even more damaging."
One big hit can cause a season-ending injury, but multiple small hits can cause life-changing injuries over time, such as the non-curable CTE disease.
Jump above to look at more in-depth reasoning on why Wide Receiver is one of the most dangerous positions in the sport.
To summarize above,
Unfortunately, when you see a massive hit or tackle it's usually on a wide receiver catching a pass. The health of a receiver is very dependent on the quarterback throwing the ball. The placement and timing of passes can change the outcome of either a touchdown or a long recovery from a major injury.
According to a Florida blog,
“The second most frequently injured position were those students playing wide receiver who received about 11 % of all football injuries.”
In a 2010 article written by a Falcons based football page, they share their findings in this graph:
This graph shows that in the NFL running backs are by far the most injured position in the entirety of the league.
For a more in-depth detailed approach to why running back is one of the most dangerous positions in football, scroll up!
As I stated above,
Running back requires you to be on the field nearly every single play if you are the starter. The tread on the player's tires will run thin the more he or she plays. Whether it's running, blocking, or receiving, running backs are required to do all.
Playing running back requires a lot of athleticism and the ability to endure large, frequent hits.
All in all, playing running back in football is the most dangerous position in the totality of the sport, but it shouldn't be looked down upon as you are showing toughness and grit to your peers. The reward of playing running back is getting the ball more frequently than nearly any other position on the field as well.
