Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Research Christmas 2008: Sport

Rugby (the religion of Wales) and its influence on the Catholic church: should Pope Benedict XVI be worried?

BMJ 2008; 337 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.a2768 (Published 18 December 2008) Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2768

Rapid Response:

Beware of Contact Sports

Contact sports (such as boxing, hockey, rugby, and American football) are
parodies of manhood, and atavistic, anachronistic, sadomasochistic, barbaric
bacchanalia, which create the euphoria of victory, machismo, and fun, and the
sickness of injury, disability, and pain. The euphoria of victory, machismo, and
fun, and the sickness of injury, disability, and pain, are polar opposites, which
reinforce each other: the euphoria blinds you to the sickness; and the sickness
makes you crave the euphoria. Ironically, contact sports create and aggravate
the very sickness they seem to cure.

Competing interests:
None declared

Competing interests: No competing interests

04 January 2009
Hugh Mann
Physician
Eagle Rock, MO 65641 USA