Let's Try This...

Those of us who have played sports at different levels have probably had to deal with an injury at some point in time. Some may have been as serious as a broken bone, separated shoulder, knee injury or even a concussion. They also may have been as small as a blister, jammed finger or a slight ankle sprain. How it affects the injured party as in pain level could possibly end a sports career due to loss of playing time experience or fear of getting reinjured.

I know a few people who have been injured often, who worked hard to get back in the game by doing all of the physical therapy to heal quickly. I also know of a few others who had a low tolerance of pain, that seemed to hold the athlete back and take a long time to get back on the field of play.

For the former, they know that playing days are limited and they can’t stand sitting and watching, they want to play.

For the latter, those things may not mean as much and they want to heal up right and not have to play in pain. When your favorite team is playing and the big stud on the team is injured and watching from the sidelines, fans know that each game without the best player may not end in victory, which we all pay admission to see.

Injuries happen in a lot of different ways. Many times they are caused with contact from another person, whether that person is an opponent or a teammate doesn’t matter that much when it happens. An injury is an injury, especially when the pain doesn’t go away.

Most fans can deal with an injury when competitive athletes work hard to try to bring their respective teams victory. But when a player runs amok, plays far from clean and bodies fly when anyone is near them, it is difficult to stand by and watch when one of your team’s players get hurt because of it.

I’m sure many of you have seen the incident during a NBA game when Metta World Peace elbowed James Harden from the Oklahoma City Thunder, in a late season game. The elbow dropped Harden to the court and he did not return to the game.

World Peace is not a newcomer to the world of NBA trouble. When he was known as Ron Artest, he was involved in a near riot in Detroit when he went into the stands to go after some fans. What World Peace did to Harden with his elbow would have been viewed as an assault if it happened on the streets of Los Angeles or Oklahoma City. But when it happens during a professional basketball game it is a foul, if it is caught by an official. This was one of the flagrant variety.

As the replays ran from ESPN, to the nightly news, the NBA bigwigs needed to take a stand. They conferred and handed down a five game suspension to “Mr. World Peace.” Now this was a pretty good start, but I think that professional sports need to send a real message.

This is what I would propose: if a player deliberately injures another due to a cheap shot or by violence, that person should be suspended for a minimum of five games. If the player that is injured has sustained a severe injury and is out for more than five games then the person who causes the injury will sit out one more game than the player who was injured. In other words if the injured player misses 10 games then the player who caused the injury sits out 11.

If the injured player cannot return competitively and needs to retire early then the player that caused the injury is banned for life from that league.

Too harsh?

I don’t think so, because I know we all get tired of these pathetic acts that can end a very promising career. Are these the things we would want our kids to do in a game? Of course not, but if these well paid professionals get by with a slap on the wrist it is hard to persuade youngsters that this is really that bad. To that I say drop the hammer and get rid of these bad apples and clean up the leagues.

Let’s try this, and maybe these bad boys can learn to play a game we can recognize.