“I find it incomprehensible that they could take the most violent part of sports—contact—and make it into a show with the sole goal being to knock out or injure your opponent,” he remarked.
“This is just running at each other, which is insane. In many other sports, like the NRL, AFL, and rugby union, you’re trying to avoid direct contact.”
According to Dr. Pearce, a portion of the attractiveness may be the result of a misplaced backlash against contemporary safety regulations in traditional sports.
He stated, “Many of these competitors have a football background, and if anything, it’s worse because they’ve probably already had a number of head knocks that add up much faster than people realize.”
Then there’s the notion that sports involving contact are becoming softer. But that is untrue; judging by the weekly injury reports, it is becoming much more difficult because the athletes are now bigger, stronger, and faster than ever.
