ESPN just did an article on former Hokie great Antone Exum and how he played through a rib fracture and an AC joint injury in the same game. Huge props to Antone for playing through both injuries and never giving up!!! Way to represent DBU Antone! GO HOKIES.
Full article here.
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I respect the toughness, to a point. Personally I feel like we shouldn't be praising anyone for playing through such serious injuries. Sends the wrong message to high schoolers.
That's the end of my rant. Love you, Antone!
While I respect the concern, I think it should be noted that Antone Exum is an adult, who made the decision entirely of his own accord. He wasn't told by coaches to stay in. He made a judgement call about what to do with his body as it concerned his profession. High schoolers, by contrast, are minors and amateurs, and one would expect that it would entirely fall to coaches to ensure they were pulled from the game. There are plenty of bad messages high schoolers can take from people in the league. This really isn't one of them.
I'd have to disagree - it's the culture of football at all levels. Sure he's an adult, and so are the players on a college team. Yet we talk about players needing to be "tough" and when they need to come out of a game, there's astigmatism of them not being "tough enough" or "injury prone", and that affects you in all sorts of manner in the NFL. The more we encourage players at all level that it's ok to say you're hurt and you need to come out then the safer it'll be for the players.
So if Exum went on and injured himself even more severely, should we still just say "Well he's an adult, he made his choice," when we know someone could have prevented that happening? I disagree.
Yep. It's called personal responsibility. Used to mean something.
Wasn't my point. He's free to make those decisions. My point is we shouldn't praise him for playing through injuries, because it sets a bad standard for kids who look up to him and other players as role models.
I do think there is a cultural concern. Just because Exum was not explicitly told by his coach to stay in the game does not mean it's not expected of him. At my job, I'm never explicitly told to work long hours, but it's expected that I work as long as necessary whether that be 8, 12 or 16 hours a day.
I get that Exum ultimately makes the decision to stay on the field, and if he finds his work to be too physically grueling, he should find another job (just like I would search for another job if I was unsatisfied with my work/life balance). There are plenty of jobs that do physical damage to the body, but I can't think a job outside of sports (specifically football) that admires people who battle through injury, knowing that it could significantly alter/hurt their quality of life down the road. Maybe Soldiers, Fire fighters, Police, etc, but those people are sacrificing themselves in order to improve/save someone else's life. Football players are just doing it to entertain.
I would say huge props, but if a player ever has the thought "I could die if I go back out there," then there is absolutely no reason whatsoever they should keep playing. This makes me pissed at team doctors for not diagnosing Exum before he kept playing. Exum was placed on the IR two days after this game.
It wasn't a concussion so no one in football cares.
#1!!!
I do agree with the sentiments above for him not being taken out of the game/diagnosed by team doctors, I think it's terrible that they didn't do that during the game or VERY shortly after. But it is a VERY impressive feat to be able to play through injuries like that and not be a complete liability to the team. Such a huge display of mental toughness and competitiveness....perhaps a little too extreme yes, but nonetheless a great teaching tool for coaches at every level!