[quote]Eielson wrote:
Nobody ever defined what manly is so we won’t ever agree when we don’t even know what we are trying to agree on.
Here are a few reasons why football would be considered manly.
First of all, injuries are happening every game, shoot almost ever practice. I’m not saying that getting hurt is manly. I’m just saying that football players have to play through a bunch of pain and play a sport that is extremely hard on the body.
When you sprain an ankle you aren’t expected to miss any games or practices. You aren’t even expected to take it easy. It isn’t just ankle sprains that was just one thing that popped into my head right away.
The way you are rewarded for getting hurt is getting to get up and go to practice at 8 in the morning and go through a 3 hour practice. A practice that has a very good chance at getting you hurt again.[/quote]
I’ve seen guys(football players) be out for weeks due to a sprained ankle. Big guys, tough guys walking around on crutches, certainly not playing a game. When your ankles the size of your thigh you cant play football, period.
When I was a freshman i came to school covered with several foot long road rashes, a football player said something to me like “i would have stayed home if i had that”, i bet he would have played football and let it bleed all over still too…Not.
Ive never heard of a football game being canceled for less than 6 inches of snow. I race downhill mountain bikes and there can be 3 feet of snow the night before and practice will continue on iced ground and by race time youll be in slush and mud, which is just as bad.
I saw a 40 year who cracked his skull the day before go on to race the next day. Last year in angel fire, new mexico, a guy separated his shoulder of all but one tendon on a mountain cross course. He went on to race and during it his shoulder ripped apart internally(the rest of the way), he then lost control and ended shooting a bank and flying into a tree. He separated the other shoulder on impact.
Shitty injuries happen in every sport, and weather or not they continue to play is based on the person and their choice. These people exist in all sports, not just football. Football isn’t the epitome of dangerous, manly sports.
Football isn’t the best, mountain biking isn’t the best, rock climbing, soccer, baseball, there all dangerous, period. Just because you or me enjoy one more doesn’t make it better.
[quote]
You can’t forget that football has the biggest, strongest, and even sometimes the fastest athletes. What is more manly? Lining up against a 6’5 270 pound man planning to run you over or a 5’6 135 pound guy that might bump into you when you have been running a lot and might be tired?[/quote]
A guy may be 6,5 and 270 lbs but hes still got a bunch of similarly sized guys going against him.
A weak 135lb guy hitting another is probably more dangerous then a 6’5" 270lb guy hitting a guy of equal size. This is because the weak guy doesn’t have weight training and muscle mass to defend his skinny ass OR big ass armor on therefore his weak ass is more likely to get injured.
Also, what about the fact that the soccer player could go run for hours while the football player has a heart attack because hes not conditioned for it.
Peoples view of a manly sport is skewed because of what they think is most important. Everyone has to understand that. Sports require training for what they do in the sport.
So the football player may be lifting weights, and slamming into one of those sled thingys. But, the soccer player will be out running, and kicking balls just as much. And I will be out riding my bike cross country, as well as sprinting and practicing technique.
What we should focus on is not which sport is harder, requires more training, or is better just because we like it more, but getting all the lazy kids, and adults off there asses and playing them.
The reality is we’ve got too many lazy people not playing sports. What makes a man isn’t what sport you play, its breaking away from the crowd and going out and doing something with your time and training to excel at whatever that is.