The game of football’s most timeless standard of an unwritten code is “toughness.”
As a player, from Pop Warner, to high school, to college, and even the NFL, you’re told ad nauseam to sacrifice your body for the sanctity of the team. Be it a knee injury, an ankle sprain, or perhaps a separated shoulder, many athletes in football have “come back” from an injury sooner than they should have, in turn exacerbating the recovery process for the short-term goal of a potential victory. It’s cliche but “rub some dirt on it” has more meaning in this violent, gladiatorial game many love than in really any other athletic activity.