NFL

I was listening to a fantasy football podcast the other day, and one of the hosts commented that maybe the QBs are overly protected, so they become fragile. Which at first sounds silly, but I got to thinking about it more.

I'm not necessarily talking about the RTP calls, but rather the way practices are held, where QBs are not taking any hits at all. Like, yeah, it makes sense to not rough up your $45m/year face of the franchise. But maybe there is something to this.

I'm a fan of pro wrestling, and don't let that cloud what I'm about to say. There are many pro wrestlers who have gone years and years without a serious injury. Arguably, their bumps are more planned and controlled, in other words, their legs aren't getting tangled up and rolled up on like an NFL player is. Through time, they are callousing their body. Wrestlers who miss even a week of bumping will complain about it. I was thinking about how the Rock made a return match years ago at Wrestlemania, and he got super injured. He tore a quad and also had to have an emergency hernia operation. The Rock had been removed form a wrestling ring for a long time at this point and blew himself up out there.

I'll go out on a limb here and say that the average QB is not as calloused and banged up as the rest of the league. Mind you, this doesn't stop freak tackles that roll your entire leg up under you or break your ankle. I don't know how those can be helped. But I do think there is perhaps something do this. There's probably a tradeoff, though. Have a QB at 95% health throwing bombs with the risk of getting injured, vs. a QB at 75-80% health doing his best impression of Tom Brady back when NE would dice up their opponents via death of a thousand 4 yard plays.