4. It Could All End In A Split Second
Imagine a 19 year-old college basketball sensation in some top US school. Hes the real deal, with agents and scouts and sponsors swarming to get a piece of the next Jordan or Kobe or LeBron. During a practice session, he jumps to make an easy lay-up, falls awkwardly for no obvious reason, and blows his knee out. Career over, the agents and sponsors have forgotten his name before sundown. And thats basketball, not one of the most physically dangerous sports around. A career-ending injury is a potential outcome every single time athletes take to the court or the pitch or the track or the ice or the field. This is not a risk that your average dentist faces in any significant way. A lucrative, or at least sizable, contract gives the athlete a financial safety net should their careers be cut short through injury. Too bad our star basketball player never inked a professional deal. Ah well, such is life.