Manny Pacquiao has rattled plenty of skulls, pureed a few brains and jellied his share of legs during his 56-fight professional career.
Such is life when you?re a world champion in the poster-sport for concussions and head trauma.
The reminders are an everyday occurrence for the Filipino pugilist, who?ll need to look no further than his own corner during his Nov. 13 WBC Light Middleweight Title fight against Antonio Margarito.
Standing there, not so still, will be his jittery coach Freddie
Manny Pacquiao, right, gets his face flattened by Miguel Cotto during a 2009 bout. Fortunately for Pacquiao, he’s doled out more of those punches than he’s received in his career. Chris Cozzone/FightWireImages.com via US PRESSWIRE
Roach, the victim of boxing-induced Parkinson?s disease.
In boxing, concussions are an unfortunate inevitability.
The World Boxing Council is taking steps to prevent concussions ? including a three-month ban for concussed fighters, granting more power to referees to stop fights if a boxer is showing signs of concussions, and creating an official boxing passport that details, among other things, a fighter?s medical history.
The gesture is noble, but at the end of the day, the objective of the sport is to turn your opponent?s mind into tomato bisque.
At least the WBC recognizes there?s a problem and is attempting amends.
So, too, is professional football.
The forever image-conscious NFL is taking a hard stance this season on the frighteningly abundant amount of concussions its players are suffering.
The American Association of Neurological Surgeons estimates in a recent report that roughly 300,000 football players of all ages annually suffer concussions on the gridiron.
The NFL is aware of these dangers and is now championing its own concussion policy with hefty fines for helmet-to-helmet hits and stricter guidelines for when a player demonstrating signs of a head injury can return to action.
This makes the recent promo for Pacquiao-Margarito at Texas? Cowboys Stadium a bit of a mind juggler.
In the promo, Margarito and Pacquiao square up to one another jaw-to-jaw wearing Dallas Cowboy jerseys.
The image is a powerful confluence of the two most brutal sports on a brain.
Is the NFL sending mixed or hypocritical messages? Can the NFL be pro celebrity as well as pro cerebellum?
More than likely, it?s just some innocent cross-sport marketing ? that, or a sinister bout of mind games.
This entry was posted on Friday, November 12th, 2010 at 11:04 am and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
