Blog: Can Sports Kill You?

I have practiced sports law for almost 20 years. I thought I had seen it all, but that was until I was asked by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help chair a task force designed to reduce workplace injuries NAICS Sector 71, which includes Arts, Entertainment and Recreation. Nestled within this large sector are people who work in all professional sports and sports facilities. In total, there are 1,928,740 employees in the sector, including (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics) 12,450 athletes, 36,710 coaches and scouts, 29,900 life guards and ski patrollers, 42,290 usher/ticket takers, 158,560 fitness and aerobic instructors, 25,640 recreation workers, and so on.

I thought I worked in a relatively safe industry. Boy, was I wrong. In 2008, there were a total of 229 workplace-related deaths in Sector 71. Forty of those deaths were in the category of performing arts/spectator sports. While you might assume that younger, inexperienced workers would make more mistakes and would be more likely to die as a result of them, the 45-54 and 55-64 age ranges had the most and second-most deaths.

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