trying to say this in a mild, even-keeled way.. painkiller usage in professional sports, or even any level of sports, really, is not something that can ever be dealt with to a significant degree of 'positive change'. it's gnarly and uncomfortable to truly process what athletes do to their bodies from a young age, but as viewers, we have essentially zero say.
this is coming up because the rhetoric of "these professional athletes are destroying their bodies for our entertainment thus the systems and coaches are evil and the players do not know better because they're not educated" that occasionally pops up within these discussions is so infuriating. most importantly (and keep in mind this entire thing is generalization galore), every athlete knows exactly what their body is going through. the average person can not fathom how much a professional athlete who knows their limbs are the only thing making them money thinks about the state of their body. and that since the moment they go through puberty, they know the biological clock of their physical prime starts to tick. they're here for a good time, an impactful time, a 'i can play the sport i love for a living' time, and many other types of times, but absolutely not for a long time. and why should they? at a certain level, by their second contract, they have enough money to set them and their families up for the rest of their lives. it's not about the future and by future i mean post-retirement. it's about their playing careers, however long that is, but my god will they try to keep it as long as possible, because that's what truly is life.
you have so many formerly great players that stick around past their prime, even going to lesser leagues, fighting through extreme wear and tear to return for truly mid seasons, and the question always comes up: why don't they just retire? if they've already written their legacy in the league, won things, definitely have the money, why not just fade out with grace? why prolong and why ruin the career numbers with shitty final seasons? because dedicating your life to a sport since before the second grade means you become intimately aware that the high of playing the sport can never be replicated. and if announcers run their name through the mud about 'tarnished legacies' and others, that is not even a blip on the radar compared to playing the sport truly living life.
that's why painkillers will always be a part of sport. the human body is not meant to dedicate its complete function to a very specific set of movements that every sport has. anyone that has done a sport to some level of dedication knows this. you pop advil before races in middle school to get through the joint aches. you chug a five hour energy before meets in hopes the adrenaline washes away the stab in your foot. you vomit the moment your event is over while your vision blacks out and all you can think is 'i have never felt better about my performance'. your coach slaps you on the back to help get it all out and exclaims you pr'ed and you want to taste the bile in your mouth again next week and the week after and maybe every day the rest of your life. and if you do a modified practice because coach knows about your joint issue, you watch everyone else get to work their ass off in real practice and the best way to describe the feeling is sitting at a table when everyone eats caviar while you eat a piece of a stale lettuce. you don't reach the high unless you put your entire body on the line and you can't put your entire body on the line unless you fight through the pain and aches that became permanent sometime when you hit double digits in age.
and to say athletes are not aware of the long term detriment that this does to their bodies is insulting. they know. they just don't care. and not in a reckless, dumb, way. they understand more deeply than anyone that their careers are temporary and could end at any minute and they would do everything to not miss a game, a practice, a meet, a race, because that's another day of life that is missed. every person has a different interpretation of what keeps them chugging through life, and in this specific subset of population, it just happens to be something that their bodies start to fight against way before anything truly starts.
the issue of leagues being greedy by having too many games/not enough rest does come up. but if you're a professional sports fan, look me in the eye and say you aren't bored during long breaks. if the nhl added three more games to the regular season schedule, would you boycott those three games and not watch? simply a rhetorical question. and any athlete would never say they want to play less. so you have the money makers, the viewers, and the athletes all in tandem that the number of games is not going to go down any time soon. like what do you say to that.
it's a problem for sure. it's a massive problem. but in my opinion, if you want to die on that hill, which is a noble one, then all sports need to be cut down to a level of basic eradication. and not just the big leagues. it's good bye to all organized sports leagues from college to high school to the club levels. there's no 'ideal middle ground' with painkillers and sports. you can't untangle the two because they come from the same root.
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