If Packers Were Ponies
Yesterday I pointed out that that several NFL players would have to die each year during games for professional football to be as deadly as Thoroughbred horse racing is for the horses that race.
I underestimated.
Michael asked our local experts – the Green Bay Packers – if they could give us the actual data we needed to turn my estimate into a more accurate comparison. Since they are nicest team in the USA, (as well as the best – Go Pack!) they dug out the exact data that we needed.
Have I mentioned how nice the Packers are?
So – how deadly is professional football compared to Thoroughbred horse racing?
If the National Football League had the same fatality rate for their players during the regular season as racehorses have during races, more than 50 NFL football players would die each year from injuries sustained during games.
More than fifty deaths?
Football would get banned.
The individual Michael spoke to at the Packers office, btw, said that the only game-related player fatality in the NFL that he could personally remember occurred back in 2001, and it didn’t actually occur during a game: a Vikings team member died of heat stroke during a practice.
It’s time for the Thoroughbred racing industry to clean up its act. Provide cash incentives for longevity and soundness. Require synthetic surfaced tracks – which have already cut the fatality rate in half where they’ve been installed. And stop rewarding the genetics of greed.
Critters, Here's an idea..., Musings, Politics and Culture | JAS | 
May 7, 2008 6:14 pm
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By Dan, May 9, 2008 @ 2:34 pm
Wow, that’s some interesting statistics.
It’s sad to see anything suffer (except for Bears fans; we like to see them suffer).
As a whole, I think attitudes about animal rights have really changed though. The feelings of the animal in the recent past (some unknown time before I can remember) were usually not considered all that important. Now, well, from what I know, it appears better. An idiot like Michael Vick – the Dog fighting champ who was sent to prison recently, is a good example of how society now takes action on such behavior. Of course, race horses usually were/are treated pretty darn good – so long as they perform. I’m glad to see that now people actually question the brutality to an animal in a sport from a new perspective. It’s not enough though and it’s too bad that it has to come at Eight Belles expense.
So if any changes actually were to happen, how they could change the sport? Could they make some sort of physical that measures bone and muscle size? Maybe penalize breeders who have a high fatality rate?
By JAS, May 9, 2008 @ 11:08 pm
Dan, the first thing they could do to change the sport is quit racing babies. A horse’s leg bones have growth plates that are still open at the early ages, and stressing them at top competition levels is just asking for damage. They can x-ray to see the plates. Penalizing breeders alone is hard, because it’s both the breeding and the training and the demand for faster money for the horses’ buyers. Changing the winnings payouts to give huge prizes to older horses rather than young ones might drive the market so that breeders start breeding for horses that have structures that will last. Incentives may work better than penalties. Thirdly, ban the anti-inflammatory drugs that are allowed which mask the animal’s pain. A sick/injured horse shouldn’t be drugged so it can run injured. Fourth – safer tracks. Those are some of the big things that might make a difference. Fifth, make it part of the industry’s costs to re-home horses that can no longer race, the way that Wisconsin law does for racing greyhound dogs. That gives breeders and owners a monetary reason to breed and train responsibly.
By Dan, May 12, 2008 @ 8:25 pm
Ah! Now that sounds like ideas from someone who knows what they are talking about. Better yet – they sound like reasonable measures.