A THOUGHT

Tr,

Interesting question. I think the type of throwing may have something to do with it as you suggest. I also think baseball players in general do more throwing. Arm injuries for QB's are not unheard of however. In the NFL training camps, we hear about sore arms all the time albeit not TJ type injuries in general. I hear of a couple injuries here or there on the high school level that are not related to contact. Also, Tim Couch recently had surgury and I know Terry Bradshaw did late in his career. Did Joe Montana also have arm surgury?

CD

I also wonder what the early years of the QB's in youth leagues playing baseball did not bring about some of the arm problems down the road.

I agree that arm injuries are not unheard of but they dont seem to be as common in football

TR it could be a couple of things. In baseball everyone throws. And everyone throws alot. Not just pitchers but catchers and posistion players. In football the only ones that throw are the QBs. That means that one baseball team will have more guys throwing than two or three football conferences. Plus the other thing it might be is the weather. Football starts in very warm weather and guys arms are in great shape by the time the weather gets cold. Baseball starts in the cold and ends in mild weather for the most part. Alot of kids arms are not in season shape when the season starts and are beat down by the time the weather is better. Another thing is the motion that is used to throw and the intensity of the throwing motion. Not sure if Im right here or not but I would venture to say that with the numbers of kids that throw baseballs vs the numbers of kids that throw footballs its probaly not too far off. I could be dead wrong here I was just thinking out loud.

How about Kinetic Energy? KE=.5*m*(v)^2

Doubling the mass will result in twice the Kinetic Energy. However, doubling the velocity will result in 4x the kinetic energy. High velocity throwing (baseball) will result in higher Kinetic Energy.

Just a thought.

TR,
Great topic. My thoughts are somewhat similar to rockets (although not as impressively stated I'm sure) Most shoulder injuries are the result of two factors: over-use or decelerating the arm. In football the quarterback does not make nearly the attempts as a starting pitcher. Also, a football is not thrown with the same velocity as a baseball and it is easier to slow the arm down. I would equate this to a position player having arm trouble. Rarely does a catcher have TJ surgery even though they throw the ball more than any player on the field; just not with the same intensity. Also, only pitchers are throwing breaking balls and sliders that put strain on the elbow.