NFL needs to stop worrying about custom facemasks and start worrying about knee injuries
The NFL has made the news over the past days regarding safety. That new safety step was implemented the other day by banning custom facemasks. The NFL will no longer allow players even with a medical pass to wear a custom facemask. While the NFL has been worried about something that has caused zero injuries, the NFL seems to keep overlooking the knee injury bug that has blown up over the past year.
So far in non contact OTA’s Kiko Alonso, Sean Lee, Sean Witherspoon and Jon Beason have all been lost for a significant time for a knee injury. Last year the NFL was taken over by knee injuries, and this year it is already happening again.
According to the American College of Sports Medicine, NFL teams reported an average of 43 total ACL injuries a season from 2002 to ’12. Sunstone Analytics research says there have been 65 ACL injuries in the 2013 season, though that includes injuries suffered in spring practices, training camp and the preseason.
USA TODAY Sports surveyed 293 players on 20 NFL teams and asked what body part they were most concerned about injuring in a game: 46% said knees or other parts of their legs, 24% said head and neck and 26% said none.
I don’t know about you, but it seems like the NFL is worrying about the wrong thing, what do you think?
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