Does the lack of in-season padded practices increase game injury risk?

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This idea literally just popped in my head, so I don’t have any great data to back this up or anything. It’s just a correlation that I noticed.

I understand that the NFL has a 17 game regular season followed by a potential of 4 playoff games, and so it doesn’t make sense to wear pads every day of practice in season. I also understand that training camp exists specifically to get guys into “football shape”, and to prepare guys to gake hits all season.

But, here’s the correlation I noticed…

The NFL has seemingly fewer padded practices in season, and seemingly more injuries (relatively speaking) than college football. Specifically, more star players seem to get hurt in the NFL.

I get that there are more star players to get hurt in the NFL, but the point still stands. The NFL is what it is because of it’s best players, and the goal of the league should be to have it’s best players out there as much as possible.

I wonder, if maybe the NFL cut back on two or three weeks of training camp/preseason (you only really need two weeks of fall camp to get fully acclimated IMO), and replaced those practices with padded practice in season, if we would see fewer guys get hurt on gameday?

I also wonder if the body taking a week off in between hitting like that, especially after hitting every day for a whole month, has anything to do with susceptibility to injury?

Of course I get that the NFL is faster and talent is more equated, but key injuries happen all the time in the NFL and not in college football, where my understanding is that they put pads on for in-season practices more frequently.

What do you guys think?

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Seems like a study that should be conducted by medical doctors.

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Hmmm

College guys are not built like NFL players

The NFL is 100x more violent

As Hutch said, the NFL is like playing OSU every week. So in essence the physicality of the NFL is exponentially higher

I am only interested in that now college kids are getting paid how much more serious they get about things in practice and working on their bodies

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If you look at Maui Thai or Tibetan Monks and how they condition their bones and Bodies I would say there is some evidence to support the theory.

I’m not sure how that would impact soft tissues though.

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I suspect on the whole the injury numbers are pretty similar between the NFL and college. Small sample sizes can sway them one way or the other but I doubt there’s really much of an appreciable difference.

On our roster alone Jamo, Rakestraw, Mitchell and Hooker tore their ACLs in college, Levi’s back issues started, Hutchinson’s Michigan injury is supposedly worse than the one he just suffered, JRM and Wingo lost most of their last seasons to a shoulder injuries, Ukwu missed all of 2019 and 2020 through injury, and Paschal had freaking cancer.

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When I played in college…early 2000’s training camp was 3 a days practices… Was freaken exhausting but we were prepared for gamedays… Modern football is the opposite…Barely practice and wonder why everyone is injured and gassed in the 3rd quarter

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I have no evidence to back it up but it feels like injuries have increased since the elimination of two a days and decrease in the overall number of practices. Like I said though, no evidence it just feels that way.

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Made me think of that’s sports science episode several years back.

Btw….his “soft tissues” seemed to survive. As hard as that is to believe

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This is my assumption, without doing any actual research. But as a CFB fan I’ve definitely seen plenty of seasons derailed by injuries to key players. If it seems like there are fewer injuries overall, it’s likely because you just don’t follow other teams closely enough to realize how many there are. The NFL has 32 teams and fans know the QBs and star players across the league, so you’re aware of it when someone goes down. There are 133 FBS teams and even big fans of the sport probably couldn’t name a player on 75% of them.

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College players = younger and far fewer NFL players to go against

NFL players = older, bigger, stronger, faster = more potential for injury

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The padded practice argument doesn’t make sense to me, most injuries that keep players out aren’t caused by impact alone. Tendons, ligaments and muscles stretching, twisting and snapping are the most common injuries, and getting hit 100 times in the leg isn’t going to make your ACL or hamstring any less likely to tear, in fact in probably makes injuries more likely because damage to the surrounding area will affect the overall structural integrity of the leg. Players play through pain and discomfort all the time, what they can’t play through is when their joints and muscles don’t work properly.

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Logic makes it difficult to imagine how less contact could possibly increase injury risk.
There is a noticeable (if not documentable) reduction in In-season practice injuries. Less wear and tear in practice allows the body to withstand further abuse in games.
My thought is that the perceived increase in injury is because of two factors:
1.) Bigger, stronger, faster, athletes playing on “grippy” turf surfaces creating more violent collisions and greater stress on bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments.
2.) Greater reporting & visibility to injury compared to the past.
There are now mandatory injury reporting W, Th, & Fri of every game week and over a dozen entities communicating these injuries.
The advent of new categories of injury (such as concussion) that were not reported in the past.
Also, the extra Injured Reserve designations that allow for return after 4 weeks encourage teams to use for hamstrings and similar short term injuries.

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