While football season is the best time of year for football fans across the nation, it can also be a really scary time of year for players. Football is a very dangerous sport full of opportunities for players to get injured.





Given that athletes' careers ride entirely on the functioning of their bodies, one simple injury is enough to ruin the rest of their careers. An injury can not only be devastating enough to remove a player from their passion, but it can also impact their finances as once their contract runs up, it's unlikely to be renewed.



A recent study by Weiss and Paarz tracked exactly how prevalent injuries are in the NFL based on team. It turns out that our local Atlanta Falcons are actually some of the healthiest players in the league comparatively.





Based on the count of players who did not play in a game between 2014 and 2018, the Atlanta Falcons have the fewest players benched due to an injury of all teams in the NFL. We had a total of 619 players sit out during the five combined season. While this may seem like a high value, it's nothing in comparison to the Seattle Seahawks' 1,569 injured players.



For the Falcons, the most injury-prone season was 2014, with 157 players out. This number dropped to below 100, 91 to be exact, in the 2017 season.





A player in the NFL can be injured without being placed on the injured reserve list. However, the Falcons are still the healthiest team in the league when the temporary or less severe injuries are ruled out. During the 2014 through 2018 season, there were 446 Falcons players on injured reserve. There were over 24,770 players total in the NFL on the injured reserve list - with five teams (the Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, Baltimore Ravens, and New York Giants) of upwards of 1,000.



This study also measured the number of injuries caused by each NFL team, and these statistics are a little less in the Falcon's favor. The Falcons 'caused' 1,314 injuries in the four seasons under study. While this doesn't even put the Falcons in the top 10 for most aggressive teams, we're still in the upper half of the NFL for causing injuries. The Kansas City Chiefs are the overall most aggressive team, causing 1,416 injuries over the four seasons.





Football players are easily replaced by younger athletes who are healthier and more talented than seasoned veterans, that's why football players must always be wary of protecting themselves in any way possible. They have to be extra cautious in everything they do both on and off the field in order to protect the future of their careers.



