NFL: The Pain is Worth the Fight

 

The NFL has a struggle on its hands before the NFL season starts in a few weeks and that is injuries. So far, quarterbacks Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills and Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals have been injured as have both Jaylen Waddle(wide receiver) and Jalen Ramsey(cornerback) from the Miami Dolphins. The question looms about what this means for the beginning of the NFL season and if their injuries can affect their teams' entire 2023-2024 season. Let's dive in and discuss.

Football is a risky business and star players like the ones I just named as well as other stars like George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers as well as Kadarius Toney of the Kansas City Chiefs, Cooper Kupp of the Los Angeles Rams, and Garrett Wilson of the New York Jets are all banged up. Training camp is the time for teams to gauge the strength as well as agility and prowess of not only their veteran players but also their rookie players like Bryce Young of the Carolina Panthers and Zay Flowers of the Baltimore Ravens. Injuries are par for the course in the NFL and I firmly believe that all of the current injured players will not hurt their teams' chances this season of the playoffs and Super Bowl. That being said, it is smart not to rush a return to action, especially for injuries as severe as Joe Burrow's strained calf and Kadarius Toney's torn meniscus. 

The priority for every NFL team is to keep their morale high and to keep their players at full strength. The rookies all have a lot to learn and regardless of the outcome of the preseason games, they should lean on the veteran players they have. For example, Zay Flowers can lean on quarterback Lamar Jackson and wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr about transitioning their game from college to the pros and what it is like being under the NFL microscope. Saying the pain is worth the fight is not just about injuries is also about being willing to make sacrifices for your team and understanding you will not be great right away. Zach Wilson is a good example. The Jets took a chance on him and when it did not work out, they snagged Aaron Rodgers to breathe new life into the team. Zach was smart and took the chance to play backup as a chance to grow as a player until he is ready to have the starting job back. CJ Stroud of the Houston Texans knows this as well. During the recent pre-season game against the New England Patriots, Stroud went  2-for-4 passing for 13 yards and an interception. While that is not a great start, we are still talking about the pre-season there is definitely room to grow before the season officially starts at the beginning of September. 

With weeks until the start of the NFL season, many things have to happen for teams to be at the top of their game. Let's start with what I mentioned about injuries. More needs to be done in order to manage them. The strength and conditioning team needs to work with other team departments and the players themselves to come up with a really good solution plan on how the team and the players injured and non-injured can be in peak condition. That leads me to coaching. Coaches need to listen to the players if things are not working. Many coaches like Andy Reid in Kansas City, Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco, and Nick Sirriani in Philadelphia do a great job of doing just that. The team is only good and even sometimes great if the players are playing at an elite level and the coaches are on an elite level as well. I am a firm believer in practicing what you preach and that means that as an NFL team if you say you are going to go all the way to the Super Bowl then back it up. Every team wants to make it to the big game but not all the teams have the skill set to get there. Adversity is important. You can not always take the easy way out, especially in sports. Sometimes you need to fight dirty. The NFL is a dog-eat-dog world and you need to obviously be strong physically to succeed but that strength also comes socially as well as mentally and emotionally. Without those strengths, you may not succeed at an elite level.