How come lots of football player don't wear cups any more?

who told you that?

cause they grew a pair and became real mens instead of burrowing some.

who says... wrote:

who told you that?

No one told me, but it is obvious from watching t.v. that lots of pro players don't wear cups. I don't remember this being the case 10 years ago. They also don't wear thigh pads as much as they used to. Particularly wide receivers don't wear thigh pads. It used to be every player wore thigh pads.

Why you lookin'?

dick butkus wrote:

it is obvious from watching t.v. that lots of pro players don't wear cups.

Maybe you should be watching the game.

Despite the fear that most men have, the balls are really quite elusive to hits. The kick in the balls is only painful because the balls are trapped between the body and the foot. When the hit is from the front, as most football hits are, the balls are able to squish out of the way. It's like trying to pop an under inflated water balloon. When you squeeze the thing, all the stuff inside just shifts and you can't hurt it.

The hits that hurt your balls just aren't the type of hits that you take in football.

LC wrote:

Despite the fear that most men have, the balls are really quite elusive to hits. The kick in the balls is only painful because the balls are trapped between the body and the foot. When the hit is from the front, as most football hits are, the balls are able to squish out of the way. It's like trying to pop an under inflated water balloon. When you squeeze the thing, all the stuff inside just shifts and you can't hurt it.

The hits that hurt your balls just aren't the type of hits that you take in football.

You are either a woman or a man who has never been hit in the balls.

Your post was perhaps the most delusional thing I've ever read on this board.

All I know is that I played 5 years of football without ever taking a serious hit to the balls, despite not wearing a cup. I never saw anyone else injured in that way either. Football hits just don't occur in a way that leaves the balls vulnerable. If you doubt me, maybe you can provide some stories of guys having their balls injured while playing football.

I think soccer players have a greater chance of taking a hit to the balls and none of them wear cups. I actually hit a kid in the balls in PE when I was in HS during soccer. I felt really sorry for the guy. I was a former soccer player and I had all the power in my kick but no control so it hit him. He was on the ground for a few minutes.

Actually this guy was sort of a goofy stoner skater type but his girlfriend in the same class was FINE.

I cover the NFL for a major newspaper and can tell you without a doubt that players wear cups.

On a side note: do you remember when distance runners quit wearing jock straps?

I can tell you. When I started college in the fall of '71, everyone wore a jock strap under their running shorts for practice and meets. Sometime around '75-'76, shorts with built in briefs came along and I don't think any of the runners I knew wore a jock after that.

Ok, makes sense. So maybe my real question is how come football players used to wear cups?

Re Side Note

What's a jockstrap? Is that just a bra for your balls? Why would that be necessary? I can run free balling and it doesn't feel bad. It sort of sounds strange though.

not old enough wrote:

Re Side Note

What's a jockstrap? Is that just a bra for your balls? Why would that be necessary? I can run free balling and it doesn't feel bad. It sort of sounds strange though.

yes....we realized that is WASN'T necessary around the mid 70s. I guess people thought you could injure 'them' or something, with them bouncing around.

NFL writer wrote:

I cover the NFL for a major newspaper and can tell you without a doubt that players wear cups.

Really? I guess I have no reason to doubt you. I know this seems like trolling and I am as amused as anyone by the potential for wise cracks here. But as a regular football fan, I sure have noticed that it seems like a lot of players do not seem to wearing cups.

In any event, how come thigh pads are no longer in vogue?

When you ain't got nothin', you got nothin' to lose.

LC wrote:

All I know is that I played 5 years of football without ever taking a serious hit to the balls, despite not wearing a cup. I never saw anyone else injured in that way either. Football hits just don't occur in a way that leaves the balls vulnerable. If you doubt me, maybe you can provide some stories of guys having their balls injured while playing football.

I agree. I played football all through pop warner from flag through my freshman year of HS before I decided that I was more serious about running and joined xc. I think some time around 4th grade when I was able to make my own decisions about what to wear I stopped wearing it. I broke my wrist once and two fingers another time. Not once did I get hit in the balls. You just don't get hit between the legs in football. The only think I could think of would be getting stepped on if you're on the ground.

LC wrote:

All I know is that I played 5 years of football without ever taking a serious hit to the balls, despite not wearing a cup. I never saw anyone else injured in that way either. Football hits just don't occur in a way that leaves the balls vulnerable. If you doubt me, maybe you can provide some stories of guys having their balls injured while playing football.

Stories? Like one time I was playing and took a knee to the balls? Or the many other times it happened to a teammate, or guys grabbing your nuts while fighting for a loose ball, or a helmet catching you in the groin?

If you played a contact sport and never took a nut shot, I submit you either rarely played or didn't come close to playing hard enough.

And the delusional part of your OP was that if you get hit straight on in the nuts it doesn't hurt: it surely does.

I totally agree. I played running back and you get hit and grabbed everywhere.