Pushing injury, pain and violence to the limit in American sports

By this point, everyone’s seen the headlines. It seems like a huge number of football players are getting seriously injured this season. People are asking whether the game has become more violent than ever.

But maybe the question we should be asking is whether our culture encourages violence and injury in American sports in general. Sports writer Dave Zirin, author of “A People’s History of Sports in the United States,” says football fans need to admit to themselves that the game is inherently violent. The rest of American sports, might be a different story.

Below, watch the hit that resulted in Rutgers player Eric LeGrand being paralyzed. Beneath the video are links to controversial hits on NFL players Josh Cribbs and DeShaun Jackson, and analysis of the new ruling against such hits by the NFL from the NFL Network.