For all the attention on football injuries this past week, underscored by the shocking collapse and miraculous recovery of the Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin, here’s a statistic that might come as a surprise.
Of the four major professional sports in the U.S., football players have the lowest rate of injuries.
Over the course of a season:
30.8 injuries occur for every 100 National Football League players
38.8 injuries in the National Hockey League
42 in Major League Baseball
72.9 in the National Basketball Association
Does it mean the concern about football is overblown? Not necessarily: Football injuries might be less frequent, but they are more severe.
Here is a valuable lesson for looking at data - people with a point of view to highlight will leave out part of the data. Do you want Football to appear safer for high school parents - leave out the severity of the injuries in this sport - especially the concussions. In high school, girls’ soccer (due to heading the ball) has slightly fewer concussions than boys’ football.
Wall Street Journal, 01142023, US News, Josh Zumbrun
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Severity, Not Frequency, Sets Football Injuries Apart...
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For all the attention on football injuries this past week, underscored by the shocking collapse and miraculous recovery of the Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin, here’s a statistic that might come as a surprise.
Of the four major professional sports in the U.S., football players have the lowest rate of injuries.
Over the course of a season:
30.8 injuries occur for every 100 National Football League players
38.8 injuries in the National Hockey League
42 in Major League Baseball
72.9 in the National Basketball Association
Does it mean the concern about football is overblown? Not necessarily: Football injuries might be less frequent, but they are more severe.
Here is a valuable lesson for looking at data - people with a point of view to highlight will leave out part of the data. Do you want Football to appear safer for high school parents - leave out the severity of the injuries in this sport - especially the concussions. In high school, girls’ soccer (due to heading the ball) has slightly fewer concussions than boys’ football.
Wall Street Journal, 01142023, US News, Josh Zumbrun