Competitive sports can be tough and painful. Injuries are often a part of team sports like football, baseball, basketball and hockey, and they can keep athletes out of action for months with broken bones, torn ligaments and damaged muscles. However, athletes suffer bruises and cuts frequently in a majority of sports. In most cases, the athletes keep on playing despite them.
Baseball
Baseball players suffer a variety of bruises. A player who runs around the bases and slides to avoid a tag may suffer a skin bruise on their upper thigh and buttocks area. The skin turns a reddish-purple as a result of the slide. Baseball players refer to this bruise as a "strawberry" because the skin takes on the hue of the popular fruit.
Football
Players suffer painful contusions, but they continue to play with them despite the discomfort. Running backs often play with bruised ribs and thigh muscles after absorbing hard hits. Quarterbacks suffer many painful conditions, including bruises to their fingers when they make contact with opponents' helmets after following through on passes. Linebackers may get kicked in the face when attempting to make a shoe-string tackle.
Basketball
Basketball players are subject to serious bruises when they dive to the floor for a loose ball. When competing players hit the floor to try to gain possession, one player's head may hit another player's shoulder, head or upper body. The process of hitting the hard floor can result in a contusion or a cut. When players battle for rebounds, they tend to swing elbows. That can knock out an opponent's tooth or cause the head to swell.
Hockey
Hockey players engage in fights with each other from time to time. They square off and exchange punches for a few seconds or much longer. Fights often result in bloody noses, cut lips or black eyes. More serious injuries occur, but they are rare. The process of checking -- players legally hitting each other as they skate in pursuit of the puck -- results in numerous bruises that players tend to ignore.
