A question with no answers

One disclaimer before we really get into this.  There will be no answer provided to this question because I honestly don’t know.  Nobody does.

That question is: Why don’t our sports evolve and change with the times? 

It’s coming folks and it’s coming soon.  An event will take place in one of our four major sports that we are not going to be able to ignore and this event will shift our entire sports landscape.  And I assure you this event will be tragic and something that far outreaches any Tim Tebow or MLB steroid story.

Yes, we have seen terrible things happen to professional athletes.  Freak accidents and injuries are part of the game.  Professional athletes get paid extraordinary amounts of money to do what they do and they all play knowing the risks that go along with competing at the highest level.

Derrick Rose knew that since he attacks the basket with such reckless abandon, a torn ACL was always a possibility.  Tom Brady knows every time he drops back to throw the possibility exists that he will get hit, and in turn, hurt.  None of these things surprise the athletes and shouldn’t surprise us either.

But evolution is a tricky mistress.  It’s a constant in almost all aspects of life.  When something new comes along, situations require change.  When Apple releases a new version of the iPhone, immediately the market evolves and changes in a reaction to that new technology.  When a family brings a child into their world, the dynamic changes and the family evolves.

What happens when something new comes along, but an evolution doesn’t follow?

Athletes are different today than they were in the past.  We are seeing NFL linemen who are well over 300 pounds move with amazing speed and agility.  We are seeing baseball players hit balls farther and pitchers throw harder than ever before.  NBA and NHL players are simply bigger and faster then they were in the past.  These are known facts.

The modern day athlete is “new”.  We’ve never seen athletes like LeBron James, Steven Stamkos, Calvin Johnson or Mike Trout. Yet the games they play are the same games legendary names like Cousy, Howe, Unitas and Ruth played.  

Healthcare and nutrition are immeasurably better now than it was back then. Workouts are more intense and effective. And yes, some athletes have resorted to artificial enhancements to better themselves.

But at some point we have to acknowledge that the way these games are played now are different then the way they were played then.  We need to update our sports so they keep up with the times.  Because if we don’t, I fear what may happen.

Sure leagues have taken some small steps to make their games “safer”.  But don’t confuse these small steps as an evolution.

NFL, NHL and NBA players are colliding at greater and greater speeds with greater and greater force.  Pitchers and hitters seem to be facing increasingly greater danger as the balls being thrown at them and being hit back at them are traveling at greater and greater speeds.  Look no further than Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Alex Cobb for a recent, disturbing example.

 These new athletes are making playing surfaces smaller and smaller, making their respective sports more dangerous.  Watching the Stanley Cup Final or NBA Finals and you can’t help but marvel at the speed at which these athletes fly up and down their respective playing surfaces.  While this is no doubt entertaining, I can’t help but think that these players look increasing like caged animals. 

This is a problem these leagues could never have foreseen.  I get that.  But the future is here and these leagues need to think long and hard about how they can make their sports safer.  Again what these answers are?  I have no idea and I’m not advocating changing the fabric of any of our four major sports.  But I know evolution is a part of life and ignoring it only leads to bad places.

 A tipping point is coming.  We just don’t know what comes after.