The Heart of Sport

Bronny James via Getty Images

In the post-COVID era, survivors are left to pick up the pieces.  We ask, “why them?” and “why not me?”  Then there are angry survivors.  Those who demand answers where there are none.  Those who want someone to blame.  Those are the survivors who put a spotlight on Damar Hamlin, and on Bronny James this past Monday. 

Athletes have always put their lives on the line for their sports.  They have always pushed their bodies to the limit.  Their bodies have always given out.  Whether a heart, a lung, fingers, calves, even a brain, athletes have killed their bodies for us. 

Vaccine truthers want the layman to believe that this is not true.  That heart attacks have not been the leading cause of death for athletes since the statistic was recorded.  Of course they are wrong.  Heart attacks plague athletes: 1 in 53,703 NCAA athletes a year die from a heart attack.  Then there are further risk factors.  1 in 37,790 male NCAA athletes a year die from it, 1 in 21,491 Black NCAA players a year die from it, and 1 in 8,978 male basketball players die a year from it. 

Put all of that together, and Bronny James doesn’t look like an outlier.  He doesn’t look like a COVID statistic, he looks like a Black, male, NCAA basketball player.  He is thankfully alive and well.  Bronny will not contribute to these statistics.  These are extreme cases.  Bronny is a textbook case.  To blame COVID or the vaccine is to blame the inhuman for the human.  Athletes push the limit of what is possible, even if their body won’t cooperate. 

Blame the body.