Just gross...

Minnesota will suspend wrestling for eight days following outbreak of herpes among grapplers.

http://www.startribune.com/526/story/969346.html

 

Apparently they took the crotch-grabber moniker too literally.

 

Naw, it is apparently a strain of herpes you can get from wrestling mats.

How long before they just axe wrestling as a public health danger? Seriously, is there any disease you can't get from those mats?

 

It's amazing the stuff these athletes get from the mats. That alone makes me glad I never tried this sport.

And if that doesn't do it, don't forget that the Greeks competed in the nude during the original olympics. That included wrestling. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

I always found wrestling dull to cover, and full of the craziest parents.

On the other hand, it was also full of some of the nicest, hardest-working kids who loved the sport because they had finally found something that had less to do with innate athletic ability than it did busting your ass.

But I seem to read two or three of these "outbreak" wrestling stories a winter anymore.

 

When I was a wrestler, I always went to the mat with less 'gear' than my opponent. [/JDV]

 

You'd think staph infections would be fairly common in wrestling as well, considering the contact they have with each other and the mat.

Yet another reason to never roll around half-naked with another sweaty guy.

 

You need more than one?

 

Only because your 'gear' kept shrinking from the 'roids.

 

Nope.

 

My son's team is under strict orders to shower the moment they get home. Once all these kids leave practice, they practically flood the floor with disinfectants.

It is not breaking my heart that this is a sport my son is cooling toward. First, there's the disease, and then there's getting up at five in the morning to sit around and wait all day for the nine minutes (tops) your kid is wrestling.

 

And then there's the eating disorders it can give young boys.

As I've said, some of the nicest HS kids I've ever dealt with have been wrestlers. But it is some fucked up shit.