Sports Injuries & Sickness Perceived by the Boston Media

Blog #2 Sports Injuries & Sickness Perceived by the Boston Media

            Something that has interested me of late, is how people view certain injuries or sicknesses and how they can become so harsh when judging people based on their inability to perform, pain level displayed, or money they are receiving. When a player is hurt, there seems to be this go to guideline, a bone takes 6-8 weeks to heal so that means in exactly 60 days from the injury, he or she will be back to normal competing at 100%. Other guidelines are sickness, a flu takes 1 week and after that 1 week everything is fine. The media has a weird way of going about their business. Inspiring me to write this piece, is my very own injury. I recently suffered a broken ankle which was dislocated and fractured in three spots, yet I to am expected to make a full recovery in 4 months because I am young, whereas someone who may be 65 will take 6-8 months. All these guidelines tend to be followed, yet in life nothing is as planned. We take these guidelines for granted, especially the media, and if things become elongated, uproar and disagreement are the result.

            Take the Red Sox Eduardo Rodriguez for example. He was coming into the season as the teams #2 pitcher, with a lot of upside and extreme potential. Just one week into spring training he suffered a sprained knee. In most cases, he would take as much time needed to get back to normal and be healthy, which was his plan all along. But being in the spotlight, the media expected him to be back in just a few days at 100% like nothing had happened. Fast forward 6 weeks later, and he is still rehabbing the sprained knee. Even these professional athletes whom the media considers to be other-worldly, suffer these set backs. Originally, the day of the injury media outlets were somewhat skeptical, but they said it would be a week-long injury. The Providence Journal wrote, “Eduardo Rodriguez will be held out of baseball activities for 72 hours after an MRI performed Sunday revealed a dislocated right kneecap. Based on initial tests and what the team believes, we believe this is nothing that will threaten the start of the season. We expect him to be ready in 1-2 weeks.” Doing some further research on the issue, this was not the team’s reaction to the injury in fact this was the writer’s reaction. The team had said, “Rodriguez suffered the injury Saturday when he caught his spike in the grass during a fielding drill. His knee has not been put in a brace. How long it takes for him to get back on a mound -- and whether the injury threatens his readiness for the start of the regular season -- will first depend on the outcome of his next examination.”

 You have the media outlet talking a different story and the Red Sox giving completely opposite information. The media outlet was down playing the injury based on initial tests and what a “dislocated knee” normally entails. Fast forward to today, April 11, nearly 6 weeks from the injury, and Eduardo has yet to throw a pitch due to the increase in swelling and pain that came with the injury. Eduardo received quite the criticism with regards to his injury, one writer named John Morissi of the Boston Globe didn’t criticize Rodriguez as much as they criticized the Red Sox management of the injury. “A professional athlete who initially is going to be out for a few days to a week… its now been 6 weeks and the team needs him at the big league level. How does a professional medical staff miscommunicate this time table for a return to the media and to the player himself? Clearly the Sox still have medical issues… (In turn) players then receive criticism from us, (The media.) All of this could be avoided with an accurate diagnoses.” Says Morissi, He has quite the point, in 2015 when their “ace” Clay Bucholz got injured, it was the medical office who once again said 4 weeks, fast forward 4 months and Bucholz missed the rest of the season. The issue is at first the media questions the team, but then it becomes a question of the players toughness, his pain threshold, and his will to win. The media can take these injuries and grow them into something much larger and a bigger story than they really are.

The other local star athlete Tuuka Rask, recently “Calls out sick” as a recent article had it put. In the finally regular season game in a must win game for the Bruins, Tuuka Rask could not play because he was sick. Details came out following the blow out loss which means the Bruins missed the playoffs for the second straight year (If they won the game they would have made the playoffs.) According to two tweets close to the source, Rask was sick and it was “coming out both ends.” Some what amusing, somewhat gross, but the point is he was “unable to perform” in the biggest game of the season. Fast forward a few days before and you have the Bruins analyst (who the Bruins are interviewing this week potentially to hire as their next manager) Mike Millbury reflecting on how Tuuka Rask threw his teammates under the bus, "You're in a big game and here's a guy playing goal for you, you've given him all this money and I watched him after the game and he didn't say anything after the game about 'I stunk,'" said Milbury. "I'm still ticked off about it. I want to see my goalie just concentrate on stopping pucks. He was doing an examination of what the Bruins were doing, how they were playing. How about you, Tuukka?"

Looking at the game regarding him being sick, there was a video online on CSNNE discussing the sudden illness, and one of the reporters even goes on to say how it is “Bad, it’s a bad look.” Another reporter asks Michael Felger, “I mean, if it is coming out of both ends, can you really expect him to play?” And Felger responds, “I mean yeah, (It’s a must win) Basically.” Again the player’s toughness and the way the information and the report was released by the team to the media comes into question leading us to believe, either he was sick and really couldn’t go, or that this guy was a “sally, and disgrace to his team” in the words of Michael Felger.

            Especially in the sports world and here in Boston in particular, the media expects greatness from their teams. And when they do not perform, or false information is leaked, or even just not enough information is released, the media can take it and run with it. Players feel the pressure of playing in Boston as I analyzed with my last blog post, but what about the media’s misconception of what the player’s deal with, particularly with injuries and sicknesses. Clearly, the media has their ways of being quite harsh and in the case of the Red Sox and Bruins, they can be quite wrong in their depiction of what actually is occurring because they take stories that aren’t finished and run with them.

Works Cited

Brian Macpherson. "Eduardo Rodriguez Sidelined with Knee Injury." Providencejournal.com. Providence Journal, 28 Feb. 2016. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

Cross Check. "Milbury 'ticked Off' by Tuukka Rask." CSNNE.com. Comcast Sports Net New England, 2015. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

Michael Felger. "Felger: Why Didn't Rask Play Sick?" CSNNE.com. Comcast Sports Net New England, 2016. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.