You will never make a great player if you are afraid of getting injured. This statement applies to all sports and all levels of athletes. And, there are good reasons for this.
Most important here is that when you are afraid of getting injured, you will hold back and play “conservatively”. As a result you usually change technique somewhat or try to avoid certain situations making your movements somewhat uncoordinated. This does not mean that you should go wild and do things that can easily cause injury. It simply means that you should go all-out and play your best without even having the thought of getting injured cross your mind.
However it now appears that many football players, in a sport known for its many injuries, often disastrous ones, do not want to play an extra one or two games for fear of getting injured. For example, Roger Goodell, NFL commissioner, is proposing that the league change its off-season training programs.
Rather than having four preseason exhibition games he would like to have this cut down to two games and have the other two games added to the season schedule. It would still be the same number of games played.
However, the players appear to be against this, expressing their concern about an increase in injuries. Most likely these are the players who would not ordinarily play in the preseason games for the same reason voiced by the coaches and management. This is a sad state of affairs.
Even though football is a violent game, players can be trained in a manner that will prevent many of the injuries. It is impossible to prevent all injuries but it is possible to cut them down greatly.
This requires a little science applied to the training, both in terms of development and in recovery. The latter is one aspect that is especially ignored by the professional and collegiate teams. But yet, they are extremely important when it comes to injury prevention and rehabilitation.
Right now players and coaches believe that less playing time is the key to prevention. This is true only in relation to playing the odds, not when it comes to sound training practices.
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