Rough Draft Final - Grade: A PDF

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1st Draft Final...

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1 Max Professor Erika Wenstrom English 122 3 December 2014 Insert Title Here: Rough Draft Athletics hold a large role in society. Whether the sport is soccer, football, baseball, or tennis, the competitive nature of sporting snatches the attention of society. That attention brings thrill seekers to partake in the sporting events in order to claim some of this attention for themselves as well. Yet as for the nature of each sport, only a certain amount of individuals are able to participate. As a result of this, large crowds of people form to partake in these sports. Through the process of elimination, a funneling process beings, leaving only a select few of the best to compete. With this spike in talent the degree of difficulty rises tremendously. As with everything with a high difficulty level, the rate of failure is equally as high; in terms of sporting, the name given to failure is injury. Being unable to compete renders athletes with a lost sense of who they are. In an attempt to escape the failure, athletes disregard the injury, along with the time it takes to heal, and continue to play. Through a series of examples, it will become clear that attempting play through or come back from an injury prematurely is not worth the consequences that ensue. Boobie Miles, one of the top running back recruits in the state of Texas, comes back to Permian High School for his senior year football season. After an amazing junior year season, Miles is seen as one of the best running backs in high school football, and immensely awaits his opportunity to play college football. This hype over his abilities

2 fuels the already egotistic personality he already has. In the scrimmage prior to the opening game of the season, Miles suffers an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. “Near the sidelines he planted his left leg to stiff-arm tackler. But the leg got caught in the artificial turf and then someone fell on the side of it and when he got up he was limping and could barely put any pressure on it at all.” (Bissinger, 56) This leads to the downfall of everything he has worked for. Directly after the injury occurs, Miles is struck by the reality that all his dreams of ever playing football at the collegiate level could come to a screeching halt; in this very moment his will and confidence shatters as well. Initially diagnosed with a six to eight weeks recover time, Miles is unable to accept that. After consulting with a doctor Miles learns that undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery will temporarily allow him to comeback with in the same season and play with the assist of a knee brace, prolonging the major knee surgery to fully heal his knee until after the season. Five weeks later, Miles attempts to make the comeback he had envisioned after learning of the arthroscopic surgery. This dream was short lived when he returned to practice to fill the role of the backup. For the next four games, Miles seldom gets reps, and when he does, just isn’t the same person. This person playing on the field now is simply a hollowed shell of the Boobie Miles of the past. Miles eventually quits the team four weeks after his comeback, every bit of his confidence shattered nearly into dust. At the end of it all, Miles puts himself through a great amount of unnecessary psychological trauma. If he had gotten the major surgery to fully recover his knee in the first place, it would have saved him all the trouble. Miles’ lack of hardiness already puts him in an unstable physiological state after the injury, but when paired with the failed

3 comeback, it completely shattered his will. The failed comeback also harms Miles’ psyche, because it in turn leads him to quit his team rather than leaving the team as an injured member....