Sportsiology

The end of any season brings with it player injuries. Whether the team can overcome them is often less important than whether the player can overcome them. Our first response to player injuries in all sports is “suck it up” and it is because of this response that games like Madden feel they have to promote the danger in playing with a concussion. While gender roles have changed over time, much of our perspectives on things like masculinity haven’t, especially not in sports. In the 1970s, we looked to Brannon’s characteristics of masculinity and, today in our sports, they are as true as ever. Our sports stars are always “the big wheel”—the successful individuals that we continue to look up to regardless of what they do. They “give ‘em hell” as we celebrate their aggressiveness, elbows to the face and bloody uniforms. We do not allow the “sissy stuff” and expect the “study oak” that represents being tough, hard and confident, and far away from anything that might be considered feminine. And so we expect Amar’e to play with back spasms and Kobe and Rose to play with sprained ankles. And we chastise Jay Cutler because he wasn’t study enough to not get hurt or giving them enough hell to force himself back into the game. Are our masculine expectations leading our athletes towards further damage? Or is that just the cost you pay to be the big wheel?