It`s All Fun and Games Until Somebody Gets Hurt

A.J. Blazek
Wednesday May 16, 2001

It`s me again fans, A.j. Blazek. I am still holding my position as the bottom-feeding rookie here in Chicago. You`ve all heard of the harsh lifestyle that rookies live in professional football. Me, I would not trade it for anything in the world. As of last Saturday evening, I was loving this Arena Football game that I have slowly been learning over the past two months. But right before half-time against the strong Indiana Firebirds, I was injured. No surprise, that same shoulder that was always nagging me at Iowa for the past three years was here to try and ruin my fun again.

It happened when I was trying to pick up a blitz from Indiana`s "Mack" linebacker and when I went to cut him, I landed with all my body weight (a slim 295 lbs.) on the bum shoulder. But like any other competitive athlete, I tried to push the pain out of my mind and just make it through to the next snap. Unfortunately, every snap made it worse and worse. By the end of the night, I felt like ten men had beaten me with bats (well, ok, maybe eight). Indiana was by far the most physical team we have played so far.

With injury comes many extra hours of icing, ultrasounds, electric stimulation, and many other different rehab techniques. If practice starts at 8:00 am, those of us with injuries have to be in the training room at 6:30 am. We are not excused from practice for rehab or physical therapy. After practice, Lou Bustos (our head trainer), requires us to get more treatments and different kinds of physical therapy to hurry along the healing process.

With competition comes injury. This is the risk we players take every game, every practice, every repetition, just to enjoy a game that we love: FOOTBALL.

 

The opinions expressed in the article above are only those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts, opinions, or official stance of ArenaFan Online or its staff, or the Arena Football League, or any AFL or af2 teams.

A.J. Blazek Articles
A Passionate Man Can Go All the Way 6/28/2001
So, What Else do the Players do? 6/22/2001
Veterans Walk the Walk 6/14/2001
Money Ain`t Everything 6/8/2001
Family Business 5/31/2001
A Lesson in Transportation: The Road Trip 5/24/2001
It`s All Fun and Games Until Somebody Gets Hurt 5/16/2001
Player Perspective: A Week of Practice with the Rush 5/5/2001
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