This post today is more of a vent for me. I’ve been VENTING about this for many years now. Ever since my cousin and Toby got really hurt in snowmobile accidents ON THE SAME DAY 12 years ago. It may be 13 years ago now.
Anyway. Have you all heard about this boy from Minnesota who is now paralyzed after a hit in a hockey game? Jack Jablonski. His name is everywhere and it would appear this story has gone viral. It’s such a sad story. Such a tragic accident. I hope this boy can make it and prove everyone wrong and walk again someday.
I’m really not one to blame accidents on things. I’m more of a “it won’t change anything” so I deal with it. I’m not one who if I lost someone in a hit and run accident that I wouldn’t be able to find closure if the person never came forward or was ever “caught.” It wouldn’t bring my loved one back so to me so I’d try and find closure on my own. It wouldn’t be determined on something outside myself.
I think what bothers me is that everything now has to go so fast. Everyone now has to tackle so hard. Hit so hard. Push people so hard. Snowmobiles, cars, boats and motorcycles have to go so fast. I remember when Evil Knievel jumped a few buses with his motorcycle, the world thought he was nuts. Well, he was nuts but he was NOTHING compared to what people do now.
Look at all the athletes that are now walking around without their brains intact. There are people fighting for them now. Some can’t tie their own shoes. Look at all the boxers and hockey players are walking around the same way only they don’t have teeth either.
Why the extremes? What is it in people who LOVE to see fighting and race cars going hundreds of miles an hour just waiting for a crash? Why do people yell at sporting events “hit em in the head” and such things? I know mostly it’s for fun and just something to yell and that most people don’t mean literally but man, things are so rough now. I see football players taking cheap ridiculous shots on their fellow-man and think it’s okay to ruin their careers and play dirty. These players shouldn’t be allowed to play ever again. It’s my opinion that if you hurt someone to the extreme that they can’t play anymore, neither should you.
What’s going to happy in 10 or 20 years? How fast will cars have to go then? How hard will you have to hit someone? How many home runs will they have to hit or how many miles will someone have to bike or run? Motorcycles? Boats? How much faster can we make machines? They aren’t safe now.
When you look at the past, the sporting equipment has changed. Speed has changed. You only had to tackle someone to stop the clock you didn’t try to take someones career away. Snowmobiles used to be really fun to drive and going 30 or 40 miles an hour didn’t hurt as many people who get hurt on them now.
I know there will always be accidents but when will people step back and at least try to prevent them?
When will it stop? Do you feel this way? What will it take for us to slow down? Is it possible to go back to a time when things were a touch safer? I just feel it’s gotten to be too much.
Us Girls..Our Views 
I agree, and it’s kind of strange, because on the other hand, you have people who are into safety to the extreme. No degree of risk is acceptable unless and until someone decides to intentionally go into an extreme sport, and then it’s anything goes. It’s weird, but I wonder if the two trends are related. I mean, when we were kids, we took little stupid risks and fell and got hurt and learned what stupid means before it came close to killing us. When my kids were tots and fell over their own feet and got a scrape, I took all kinds of heat for not protecting them better. I guess the standard now is that kids don’t feel any negative results of their actions. It’s natural for kids to push the limits, so we set artificial limits and pad the kids up so they can’t explore naturally. But maybe kids have an instinctive need to fail, fall, and get hurt – get it out of their system so to speak.
THANK YOU!!! I love hockey. I love how fast the game is, how you really have to pay attention. But the one thing I really *hate* about the game is the fighting. And I hate that everyone looks at me like I’ve got two heads when I say that I hate the fighting. “That’s the whole point of the game!” No. It isn’t. It ruins a good game. Especially the bench-clearing fights. I get particularly irked when they “take the gloves off” and the Ref stands back and LETS them fight. OH, it just ticks me right off that it’s built into the game. A bunch of men acting like spoiled little kids… but I digress.
One of my dad’s favorite things to gripe about is the way football tackling has changed. Football in general, really. He makes a really good point that, if the players weren’t wearing so much padding, they’d probably be safer, because they’d HAVE to know how to tackle properly. None of this horsecollar crap, none of the ‘driving the helmet into the other guy’ stuff. They’d be using their shoulders, arms and torsos like they’re supposed to. But they’re so armored up, that they don’t even feel it half the time. And they get over-confident, and that’s when injuries happen.
I also think that mentality has moved into our everyday life. We’re so obsessed with “safety” – wear a helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, whatever pads, when you go out to do something, and we forget to actually teach safety. We never had to wear helmets while skating (ice) when we were kids, because we knew how to skate. More importantly, we knew how to fall. My dad actually taught me how to fall; how to catch myself, or twist myself, to minimize injury. It didn’t always work, I had my share of bruises, whacked knees, and even a bruised noggin once or twice. And i was out there trying the jumps. But people just don’t think of that stuff anymore. They think that if you’re wearing a helmet, then you’re invincible.
Ego! The faster they drive, the harder they hit, the better they feel about themselves. Just because a snowmobile is capable of going 130 mph (I have no idea how fast they go) doesn’t mean they should go that fast. And people think they’re invincible.
I used to LOVE Nascar. Loved it. I could sit and watch them go round and round for 3 hours. I know, doesn’t sound so appealing when I say it. But, I liked it. I didn’t watch for wrecks, and never hoped one would occur. After Dale Sr. died, I stopped. He was my very favorite, for many reasons and it broke my heart. I never watched it again. It’s a race, but at what cost?
There’s a point where pushing your limits starts to be too dangerous and life threatening. That’s where it should stop, but sadly it never will. Things will get faster, hits will get harder. I wish there was some sort of consequences for causing a wreck, or hitting someone hard enough to hurt them. Competition is healthy, but not when it hurts someone.