Big Hit

Welcome back, and may i remind you it is time to talk some sports! So let's jump right in!

What I wanted to tackle (perhaps literally) is to end a long running question that has gone back and forth between people. Which of our 4 Major sports is the hardest to play/has the toughest athletes.

While I have heard an argument from many of my friends about which sport it is, the arguments are usually based solely on the fact that it happens to be that persons favorite sport. Well I have thought a lot about it and feel like I have come up with an answer!

I was inspired to write this post after first hearing a story on ESPN radio and then reading an article about the incident in question. Brendan Witt, who is a defense man for the New York Islanders, (Oh I know hockey! Blahh) was hit by an SUV making an illegal turn last week. So what happened?

"Witt was crossing Arch Street to get a cup of coffee when a gold Yukon truck made an illegal turn and hit the 34-year-old. Newsday says Witt tried to jump on the hood of the vehicle before being thrown to the ground as he was struck.

"I'm okay," Witt told the crowd as he dusted himself off, according to Newsday. "I've got to go play some hockey. I'm a hockey player. I'm okay. No big deal."

He refused to call the police or press charges. Pretty tough dude. So this got me thinking about which sport has the toughest players. I grew up playing baseball and I have always loved football. The NBA I can i am impartial about, and those dude aren't usually giving 100 percent every play anyways.

But I am going to say flat out that hockey players have the most grueling and are arguably the toughest players in any of the 4 major professional sports. (And for those soccer fans who complain that the MLS is a major sport and that soccer players are toughest, it's simply not true.)

Look at baseball first 162 game schedule played out from April till October if you make it to the World Series. That is a lot of games, but they aren't particularly physically challenging. Hey I would love to say that baseball players are super tough dudes and some of them are, but baseball is a mental sport more than a super physical one. And it is still my favorite sport to sit down and watch.

Look at football. Bone jarring hits and you certainly have to be able to take a pounding for 60 Minutes every Sunday, but it is a 16 Game Schedule. Not nearly as long as other sports, but certainly more demanding than baseball or basketball.

I already reviewed the NBA, but it goes on for 82 games and then you have playoffs. I do play basketball once a week every Thursday night and it certainly does take a lot of physical endurance if you are hustling out every play. Same with Soccer. They are in great Cardiovascular shape, and have really built up great endurance. I am not taking away from that. I am strictly basing this post on toughness.

Now we come to the NHL and what I think is the roughest of the four American major sports. The NHL like the NBA also plays an 82 game schedule. But for 60 Minutes it is constant movement and the chance of being smashed into the boards. There are constant sprints and also a caution to make sure you are not the recipient of a should when you have your head down. Physically it is far more demanding than our 4 major sports. Given the amount of games they play and the level of physicality that is involved. And that is on top of the fact that you have to learn how to skate and stick handle.

I think that Brendan Witt demonstrated what true toughness is. He gets hit by a car and gets up probably uses a few expletives and says no big deal I am a hockey player and I have a game tonight. I think that small act by one man symbolizes how tough those guys are. How many of these guys are missing teeth? A majority of them are. And they wear that as a sense of pride. Up until not to long ago some players even skated with out helmets. Are they nuts? A hockey puck isn't exactly Downey soft. Getting hit in the head with a puck minus a helmet = big time damage. This is why I am giving my vote to hockey.

I love Baseball and Football, and I love watching both of them over hockey, but I think they each really just don't have that same level that the NHL plays at. I am not trying to say that either of these sports are by any means easy, and there is a reason that I am not in the NFL or MLB and am instead writing this. All of the major sports take a great deal of skill and commitment to play. But based on toughness my vote goes out to hockey! (Now if rugby was included in this discussion I might have a good argument. It's the only sport I have played where someone can come out of the game, stitch them self up on the sideline and re-enter the game five minutes later. But I digress)

-C-