It’s a sports cliche that older athletes, no matter their era, love to tell younger players that their sport has gone soft. But with modern leagues scrambling to take collisions, crashes and hits out of games, today’s athletes increasingly find themselves agreeing with the old-timers.
From widespread criticism of the NFL’s uptick in roughing-the-passer calls to an NHL star’s surprisingly long suspension to MLB’s criticism of the so-called unwritten rules of baseball, leagues are struggling to strike the right balance between safety and competition.
Critics of the toughness of today’s sports see a clear generation gap.
“Guys coming out of college aren’t as callused up as they used to be,” Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh told reporters in July after two of his rookies missed time with soft-tissue injuries.