I’ve been reading the Sports Guy at espn.com for the last several years. One of his regular columns is a mailbag in which he responds to actual emails he receives. Anyway, the following is from the most recent mailbag…
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Q: Brady’s injury gave me an idea for your mailbag: “If you had the power, would you take so-and-so’s injury yourself so that he could play? In this case, would you allow your knee to be blown out, have surgery and go through rehab if it meant Brady’s knee never got injured and he played the whole season? Or if you’re a Vikings fan, would you give yourself a sprained knee so Adrian Peterson could have played all 16 games? How severe would an injury have to be before you said “No way I’m taking on that so that (insert star player’s name here) could play.”
– John B., Valley Stream, N.Y.
SG: Excellent idea. I think it depends on your mindset as a sports fan in that specific time, as well as your age. For instance, I wouldn’t absorb Brady’s injury because I wouldn’t want to be on crutches for a few months when I have two young kids, and besides, they won three Super Bowls this decade. But let’s say you’re my friend Mike Tollin, a die-hard Philly fan who’s a little older than me and has older kids. If the Mets and Phillies were tied with a week to go and Ryan Howard’s wrist was broken by a pitch, would Mike do the switcheroo and take the broken wrist? Well, I called him and here was his first response:
“The left one or the right one?”
We talked it out for a few minutes and Mike ultimately decided he would sacrifice the left wrist in any scenario, but he’d sacrifice the right wrist only if he was guaranteed a World Series trip because, and I quote, “That’s my writing hand, my BlackBerry hand and my shaving hand … and I wouldn’t be able to play basketball for six weeks … although I guess I could run …” For all I know, he’s still debating it. I’m going out on a limb and saying Philly needs to win a title soon. For everyone’s sake.
