Ok, I’ve wondered this for a long while but last night reminded me to post this for discussion.
Why on earth are athletes, in this example NFL, allowed to use drugs and return to the game? Last night Romo got hit in the back. He left the game for a while, got a shot in his back to dull the pain, and then returned to the game. I’m not debating whether he was in bad pain, or whether he needed the shot, I fully believe he did.
Is this not performance enhancing though? Why not just give everyone shots whenever they are sore or experience any level of pain? Just have them sitting on the sideline for the athletes to grab and shoot real quick. Hand out pills like candy and dope the guys up so they feel no pain at all. Why not?
If someone can no longer play in a game without the aid of drugs to deal with an acute injury then they should not be allowed back in the game. He was injured and using drugs to mask the pain long enough for him to come back in the game is risky to his health and unfair to other players who may be in pain as well. Period.
How is this ok? How can a doctor be ok with this? How can the league be credible when it says “We’re serious about player safety” yet allow an injured player to dope up to play through a painful injury? Not sure if this happens in the NBA/MLB/NHL.
I just wanted to clarify that I’m specifically talking about DURING the games. Between games players see their doctors and get fixed up etc… no way around that. I’m specifically talking about scenarios where a player would not be able to continue playing without a dose of painkiller/drugs etc… DURING the game. If you need drugs in order to continue playing then you shouldn’t be allowed to continue playing.
I actually feel similarly about linemen and other super heavy players getting oxygen on the sidelines during the game. If you need to be “supplemented” in some way in order to continue playing you shouldn’t be allowed to continue playing.
In theory these drugs are medically approved and would be just like you taking medication for pain and continuing to do your job. I’m sure there’s plenty of room for abuse here, but if we’re just talking about treating pain I don’t see any reason to disallow it.
It’s been many, many, many years since I’ve paid any attention to this kind of thing, but they’re just injecting Novocaine, right? It’s not that these players are getting shots of morphine. So, yes, they’re numbed up and can do more damage to themselves (or course, I wonder if that means they could also damage other players more as well), but it’s not that they’re running back out on the field high. FTR, I’m agreeing with you, I’m assuming they can also take some Advil on the sidelines as well. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that players take some NSAIDS before a game just to knock down any swelling before it even happens.
I’m not sure I understand why it’s unfair to the other players. Is there a reason the other players can’t get the same treatment?
To be clear, I do understand what you’re saying. In a game that’s at least partially about how much pain you can endure, is it fair to use drugs (on the sideline, during the game) to endure more pain. Should you have to tap out when you’ve reached your limit?
Unless the stuff they are taking is OTC I don’t see it as being the same. Once you need a doc to administer things it gets murky IMHO.
It’d be like me having a sore back from sitting in my chair all day or sore wrists from typing all day working on some project and heading down to the company’s aid station, getting a shot in my back or wrist, and heading back to the office to power through the rest of the proposal/product test/crank out more widgets.
Could you imagine the shit storm this would kick up if it was revealed that WalMart was “offering” it’s employees Cortizone shots in the breakroom on Black Friday just to keep them out on the floor working?
(FWIW I’m being a bit contrarian here just to see where this conversation leads. I’m not really passionate about it one way or another)
I’d have to imagine the WalMart employees were making millions of dollars a year for it to be the same situation.
I do think it’s a practice open to abuse, but that would be in specific cases, not in general. As Joey P suggested it’s probably just novocaine and the real harm is to the players who could injure themselves worse. It’s unfortunate that some of them are UNC graduates and wouldn’t know enough to even question the trainer who tells them they need it. And he brought up a good point, would you stop them from using anti-inflammatory drugs before the game? How about using ice packs? I don’t think it gives a team an unfair advantage, it’s only the possibility of abuse that bothers me, and I have to assume the player’s union approves of this practice or it wouldn’t be done.
Well, on the one hand, as TriPolar kind of mentioned, that’s not really a fair comparison. Walmart already has a bad reputation (deserved or not, that’s for another thread) for not treating their employees well, so yeah, the way you phrased it, that would be a problem. But if you paid them $75 an hour plus benefits, I don’t think anyone would care…or even notice.
OTOH, millions upon millions of people get cortisone shots specifically so they can keep working. Often times their job will even pay for it via worker’s compensation insurance. Also, it should be noted that cortisone shots usually have some Novocaine in them to very slightly numb up the joint for a 24-48 hours to give some intimidate relief until the cortisone starts to take effect.
It’s one thing to get pain meds to be able to continue working. But here, we’re talking about pain caused by the work. Pain is your body’s way of telling you something’s damaged, and if you keep on doing what caused the damage, you’ll make it worse. If you hurt yourself on the field badly enough that you can’t play through the pain, then you shouldn’t be on the field.
Pain can be a way of indicating some form of underlying damaging process is at work, but the presence of pain does not necessarily indicate that damage is actually occurring. If Romo’s doctors felt that no significant damage occurred, and that re-entering the game wasn’t putting him at undue risk for tissue damage/injury, then blunting/numbing the pain and allowing him to go back to doing the job he’s getting paid for doesn’t seem all that unreasonable, if you ask me.
I’m not sure about the problem here. Are we also bothered by the use of IV fluid bags for cramps?
Whirlpool baths (or ice bags) at halftime for pain? Stationary bikes on the sideline to recover from leg issues?
Is the issue that something “artificial” is being used to keep a player in the game, or is it that prescription drugs (administered by a physician) are used?
All the techniques you describe actually are an attempt to fix underlying problem, not just temporarily make the pain go away. Other than the IV, which I do have a bit of a problem with, they are things any athlete can do.
And, yes, pain in this context does mean damage, and no, I don’t trust NFL doctors–the ones who were perfectly okay with all the head injuries. The doctors serve the game, not the patient.
It reduces swelling. But there’s some controversy about that because swelling may be good for you. Except sometimes it’s not. But at least the people who do it believe they are treating their injury, in addition to allowing them to hurt themselves more.