Super Bowl Weekend ...and the Injuries It Leaves Behind

  

Most times when you mix the camaraderie of guys, food and adult beverages, the stimulus of a giant football event, several days of pre-partying, and the hours of extra time on Super Bowl day waiting until the game starts, the result will be a recipe for a momentary lapse of reasoning.  Most guys like sports and most have played sports sometime during their lives, and all have had delusions of grandeur of being the best in their sport. Even if this delusion was just for one quick moment, it is something that is always remembered.

Some of the best memories for many men involve sports.  A great leaping catch of the football, landing stretched out with only their toes dragging in the field of play as they flopped down in a mud puddle and slid 10 feet to a stop.  Or the time when they connected with that ball, feeling the meshing of the ball and bat for a very brief moment when both objects seemed to become one, not feeling the usual jarring vibration of the wooden bat hitting the ball, surprisingly watching the ball take flight over the fence.  Or the time during those games when you just knew the ball was going into the net even before it left the tips of your fingers, every time and every way you shot the ball that day it would be nothing but net. 

So what happens when these fond memories are combined with adult beverages, hours of time to fill, aging bodies and a party-like football atmosphere?  A pre-Super Bowl pick-up football game between the 'Weekend Warriors' and the 'Mid-Life Cruisers' in the backyard between the keg of beer and the grill!  As Murphy and his law suggests, something will go wrong and some unlucky couple will end up in the emergency room with some type of injury to the wide-body wide receiver or the rotund runningback of the BYFPL, or the BackYard Football Party League.

After the party has ended, the food put away, the living room cleaned and the walking wounded have returned from the hospital, Rehabmart can help with the healing of the after-party injures.  Starting at the bottom of the fragile body of the backyard gridiron star we begin with one of the most injured areas of the out-of-shape sport warrior, the Achilles tendon.

        The Bauerfeind AchilloTrain Pro Achilles Tendon Ankle Support is a knitted ankle support with a knobbed viscoelastic insert placed alongside the Achilles tendon.  This extremely comfortable ankle support is made with a breathable and lightweight anatomical knit that will not retain heat while the soft, proprioceptive stimulating nodules along the longitudinal grooves massage the upper tendon and muscle-tendon transition to accelerate the healing process.

        It has been said that for professional sports athletes, the knees are the first to go.  For the non-professional BackYard Football Party League semi-semi-athlete, the knees are sure to go.  When this happens, a Hinged Knee with Buttress Pad may come in handy.  The 'hinged stay' is to prevent the damaged hyperextended knee from extending anymore so it can help keep the pain to a minimum and heal more quickly.  The leather covering the medial and lateral aluminum hinges adds support and protection.  The removable interior felt buttress pad with hook attachment helps provide lateral, medial, superior and inferior patellar support.

        Trying to go back to recapture the feeling of running a post-pattern and diving in for a touchdown can also presently capture a physical pain in the back.  When this happens, the Bauerfeind LordoLoc Back Support may help you get back to the future of a healthier back.  This breathable and lightweight elastic back support is designed to help stabilize the spine and relieve lower back pain and the agony of defeat.  The four 9 ¼ inch flexible, stainless steel stays can be adapted individually to provide the most excellent stabilizing orthosis for the lower spine and the transitional lumbosacral vertebrae.

        During the pre-Super Bowl back-yard game, just as sure as the sun will rise and a woodchuck will chew on some wood, some players will hit the ground and when they do they will sometimes throw out their arms so they won't be hitting the surface face first.  Good idea but sometimes the best laid plans of mice and football men go awry.  When this happens Rehabmart can offer the Liberty Leather D-Ring Wrist and Thumb Splint.  This soft, pliable leather splint has ¼ inch padding and a soft, fleece-like lining which helps keep the skin dry and comfortable.  A wide wrist strap provides additional support to the thumb and wrist while the metal radial thumb stay, the metal removable volar wrist stay and the flexible plastic stay along the dorsal opening will provide greater immobilization.

        Playing organized football, a person is taught to tackle by hitting the opponent with the shoulders and wrapping them up with the arms.  In back-yard football this should be more of a theory than reality.  The Mueller Shoulder Brace can be very helpful for the after-tackle injuries.  This brace has a rear attachment that creates a downward pull and backward pressure on the shoulder to help reduce subluxation of the Acromioclavicular joint, or AC joint.

       

Football is fun.  I love watching it and I enjoyed playing it when I was younger, as many guys do too.  A problem arises when the male ego is taunted by the multiple hours' of consuming party favors which usually leads to the temporary denial of age and maturity, combined with a primal personal sport memory and a curtailed common sense.  This type of thinking can lead to a plethora of injury possibilities.  It is often stated that youth is wasted on the young, but during Super Bowl weekend, the wisdom of age is often wasted by trying to be a youth while not being young.   

Bill Stock
Executive Editor,
Content & Social Media Services
and
Hulet Smith, OT
Rehabmart Team Leader & CEO