The Selfish Truth: Injuries in the NFL

4,493

That's the number of injuries that afflicted NFL players over the 2011 season. This is kind of a scary statistic when you consider the NFL only has 1,696 active players at any given point. This is mostly minor injuries that only hold a player out of practice for around a week, but even those injuries can lead to missed games. 

There is no greater shame in sports than when an athlete can't compete because of injury. It's like if you had the job of your dreams and you couldn't go because of something out of your control. It hurts the athlete most of all, of course. But other people are affected by it as well.

The obvious group of people affected are fantasy owners. This has been a very controversial topic over the past few years since Fantasy Football has reached it's peak. Some athletes have embraced the phenomenon, supporting their virtual owners while maintaining their integrity on the field. In 2009, Maurice Jones-Drew slid at the one-yard-line on a wide open run to help the Jaguars burn clock and win the game. Fantasy owners were less than pleased, but he responded to them. 

"To my fantasy owners, I apologize. I have myself today, so it was a tough call. But whatever it takes for a victory, that's all that counts."

And everyone laughed and had a great time. Fantasy was being accepted as a viable part of the NFL, and why not? Fantasy has become a huge business with $800 million being directly pumped into leagues and resources and over $5 billion going to indirect stakeholders such as sports cable packages. Fantasy leads to increased viewership of some of the leagues not-so-exciting games according to Anthony Crupi's article "Billion Dollar Draft" in November 2011's issue of AdWeek:

"Before fantasy, you wouldn't think of staying up late to watch two iffy AFC West teams lock horns on Monday Night Football. Now, there's no such thing as a blowoff game. You stay up for the Chargers-Chiefs game because you need to see your starting signal caller put points on the board."

But despite all of this, some athletes will not embrace fantasy football as an important part of the business they are involved in. Some of them because they only worry about what they do on the field to give their team a W. Others because they have been made uncomfortable by the intrusion of fantasy owners.

Take Houston Texan's Running Back, Arian Foster. When he went down with a hamstring injury early in the 2011 season, he tweeted out a picture of his MRI. He caught heat from analysts and fantasy owners for this action. His reply wasn't as friendly as his Jacksonville counterpart's.

And, as a fantasy owner, you either felt bad or you got mad. This created a rift between the players and the fantasy owners. Jamal Charles and Chris Johnson both followed suit with Foster in similar fashion. The rift got bigger and bigger.

Now, I know people on twitter can be harsh and don't have any filter or desire to use one. Foster was no doubt directing his anger at people who had been plain ignorant to him. But he has since spoken quite a bit on fantasy and essentially equated fantasy owners to "faux fans". And all of the non-fantasy fans who think fantasy is ruining the NFL hear these comments, smile and pat themselves on the back.

Do I think fantasy owners are completely innocent when it comes to their concerns over injured players? No. But they are no more selfish than regular fans.

Fantasy owners are bashed because they only care about a player for their own selfish reasons. If the athletes do well, so will their team and they have no care about the person themselves. Is this any different from the fans of teams? Would anyone have concern for Arian Foster pulling his hamstring if he was an investment banker?

No. Whether you're a fan of fantasy or a fan or the Texans, you care about Arian Foster because he plays in a game that millions of people invest money, time, and emotion into. When the Texans win, people have a positive reaction. But when they lose, the negative reaction can sometimes weigh more than the positive would have.

Want to know what has bearing on winning or losing those games? It's a lot of factors, but one of the major ones is the health of players. If players get hurt, it affects the teams chances of winning which affects a fan's mood. Even though this expands to every person in the city, it doesn't make you any less selfish than a fantasy player. If Arian Foster retired the day after he was injured, very few people would care about his injury.

I love RG3. From what I can tell he is a great person and a great role model and I respect what he does on and off the field. I die a little every time I see his leg whip around Haloti Ngata. I am one of his biggest fans and I can admit if he was on another team and got injured, I would wince, but it wouldn't affect me the same way as it would with him on R*dsk*ns. And if he was just some guy and not an athlete? Who knows.

I would even extend this selfishness to the players themselves. Though I understand there are many players who have a deep love for the game and a desire to play hard for the fans, they're all working for a paycheck. It's their job, that's why they ultimately play. But I wonder how many get injured and think, "Oh no! I'm going to disappoint the fans!" It's probably more along the lines of, "Oh my contract extension!" "Oh my free agency!" In some players minds, "Oh my team!" might be the first thought. Call me cynical, but I would think that has to be the minority.

So are fantasy owners selfish? Of course. But so are all of us. It's human nature. Professional sports are a unique industry. Whether you're a fantasy owner, team fan, or an athlete, there is some level of selfishness there, it's about how you use it that makes it into positive drive and determination or negative greed.

None of us want any of those 4,493 injuries to happen. Whether you're an athlete or not injuries suck. We should be respectful about it to anyone in that situation. If we could eliminate injuries from the games, or even the world, I believe we all would. That isn't out of selfishness, but out of humanity. Out of all bad things, people always try to find the good. I think among all the selfishness, you could find a bit of hope.

At least I hope so. Until then, I'll wear my Fantasy Badge of selfishness like a scarlet letter. Until the rest of you wise up and realize you're no less selfish than the rest of us.