Kaspers Korner

Many players are asked to play hurt, which sometimes is a whole season as was the case for San Diego Chargers cornerback Antonio Cromartie.  When asked about the situation he went through last year Cromartie’s assessment of it is right on.

Cromartie played all of last year with a broken hip that obviously affected his play.

He was quoted in the San Diego Union-Tribune saying, “I need to make better decisions on how I play hurt.  I should have shut it down for a few weeks and let it get better. … If that happens again I will just sit out.”

Cromartie is right as time and time again players are asked to play hurt when they should be sitting down and resting.

First, when a player is hurt and is still playing that portion of the body is weakend and with one good blow to the area the injury will only be much worst than what it was at first.

Second, usually when a player is hurt his level of performance is not what it was before, and usually his backup is usually better, but for some reason coaches want players to play hurt,

Finally, opposing coaching staffs watch so much film on thier opponents that they know when something is wrong and will then start game planning around this development.

In the end players need to stand up for themselves and tell their coaches that they are hurt and need to sit, because after all it is their body and they live the rest of their lives with it.