Clash of the tight ends? Kyle Ross/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Images
The Super Bowl – an annual celebration of promoting, calorific bar meals, Roman numerals and occasional on-field motion – is upon us, once more.
At 6:30 EST on Feb. 12, 2023, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles will take the sector in Arizona earlier than moments later trundling off for one of many many breaks which are a function of soccer.
But there’s an upside to all these breaks. It means you may learn an article or two from The Conversation’s archive. To that finish, under is a collection of tales tackling what is going on on this planet of soccer, however not essentially on the sector.
A sport of wounded warriors
A particular a part of the anatomy of Kansas City star quarterback Patrick Mahomes has been scrutinized within the weeks chief as much as the Super Bowl: his proper ankle.
You see, regardless of Mahomes’ being extra useful together with his palms than together with his ft, he nonetheless wants to have the ability to transfer round with some dexterity to be efficient – and Mahomes’ mobility is a key side of his sport. And on Jan. 21, 2023, the 27-year-old athlete awkwardly fell after a sort out and sprained his ankle.
But what precisely in an ankle sprain? The University of Pittsburgh’s MaCalus V. Hogan, a surgeon who focuses on sports-related ankle accidents, defined that they happen when somebody rolls an ankle joint, ensuing within the stretching or tearing of ligaments that maintain the ankle collectively.
The excellent news for Chiefs’ followers? Hogan reckons their quarterback can be OK come gametime: “While Mahomes will not be at 100%, given the average severity of the harm, his health and the top quality of care he’s receiving, I count on that he can be able to play an thrilling sport come kickoff on Super Bowl Sunday.”
Of rather more concern are the life-threatening accidents of the type that troubled Buffalo Bills security Damar Hamlin and Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa earlier within the season.
Both collapsed to the turf after jarring tackles, Hamlin from coronary heart issues, Tagovailoa from a concussion. As paramedics administered remedy on the sector, broadcasters confronted a dilemma, as Nicole Kraft of The Ohio State University defined.
“When catastrophe strikes on a dwell sports activities broadcast, it’s simple to say one thing flawed, particularly in an age the place phrases might be distributed broadly, dissected and criticized on social media,” wrote Kraft, noting that broadcasters even have a choice to make over whether or not or to not present replays of the harm.
In the case of Hamlin, ESPN and others behaved responsibly, Kraft concluded. Instead of filling the air with hypothesis, broadcasters as a substitute appealed to the NFL to droop the sport.
Read extra:
Patrick Mahomes harm: An ankle surgeon explains what a excessive ankle sprain is and the way it may have an effect on Mahomes within the Super Bowl
Read extra:
Sports broadcasters have an obligation to report accidents responsibly – within the case of NFL’s Damar Hamlin, they handed the check
The rise and pitfalls of sports activities playing
A subplot of this yr’s Super Bowl promoting rush is the rising presence of betting firms like DraftKings and FanDuel.
It’s solely been 5 years for the reason that Supreme Court opened up legalized sports activities betting throughout the states. Since then, “a complete trade has sprouted up that, for tens of thousands and thousands of followers across the nation, is now simply a part of the present,” wrote Penn State’s John Affleck. He added: “Betting’s seamless integration into American sports activities – not possible to disregard even amongst followers who aren’t wagering – represents a outstanding shift for an exercise that was banned in a lot of the nation just a few years in the past.”
The harm being completed by the explosion of easy-to-bet apps and web sites is simply simply being understood. Lia Nower, director of The Center for Gambling Studies at Rutgers University, has been tasked by New Jersey to judge the affect of sports activities playing by interviewing gamblers and analyzing each wager positioned on-line within the state since 2018.
She reported that “these wagering on sports activities in New Jersey had been extra seemingly than others who gamble to have excessive charges of downside playing and issues with medicine or alcohol, and to expertise psychological well being issues like anxiousness and despair. Most alarming, findings recommend that about 14% of sports activities bettors reported ideas of suicide, and 10% mentioned they’d made a suicide try.”
Read extra:
How legalized sports activities betting has remodeled the fan expertise
Read extra:
Data from New Jersey is a warning signal for younger sports activities bettors
It actually is time to drop the ‘chop’
Kansas City followers contained in the State Farm Stadium in Glendale in the course of the Super Bowl may at numerous factors in the course of the sport interact in what is named the “tomahawk chop.” Outside the stadium, Native Americans intend to protest. What they need – together with an finish to that offensive gesture – is a brand new title for the franchise.
Such re-branding is just not, in fact, exceptional. Washington’s NFL staff dropped its racist moniker in 2020. And final yr, the Cleveland Indians modified its title to the Guardians.
But as Peter Dreier of Occidental College famous, not all groups are on board with jettisoning their problematic names. The Atlanta Braves are one staff that refuses to maneuver on, sticking with its title, together with its “tomahawk music” and accompanying crowd gesture.
“Today, many followers – to not point out many Native Americans – cringe on the music and the chop. To them, it displays a stereotypical picture of Native Americans as violent and uncivilized, related to those who appeared on TV and in motion pictures for a few years,” wrotes Dreier.
Read extra:
The Cleveland Indians modified their staff title – what’s holding again the Atlanta Braves?
Editor’s notice: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.
