Ronika Stone Love, a professional volleyball player and wife to Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love, offered an interesting critique of television networks and their coverage of football players’ injuries.
‘Can we just talk about how unhinged sports networks are when it comes to showing injuries?’ the 27-year-old Oregon Ducks legend asked her TikTok followers in a self-shot video.
‘If it’s a gruesome injury, worse thing they’ve ever seen in their lives, and it’s just too graphic to show their viewers, they’re not gonna show it again,’ she said. ‘But if they’re like, you know, “he only got kind of f***ed up,” they’re gonna play that a thousand times.
‘My husband plays in the NFL,’ she continued without mentioning her 27-year-old beau by name. ‘The amount of camera angles they will pull out to show an injury, and then commentate on it just to see if it’s as bad of a hit as they really thought it was.
‘”We’re gonna show you five different angles and we’re gonna slow-mo it,”‘ she said, imitating NFL announcers. ‘It’s insane.’
Jordan is no stranger to serious injuries. The Utah State product and former first-round draft pick suffered a concussion in the Packers’ Week 16 loss to the Bears and will remain sidelined until the postseason begins next week.
Jordan Love poses for a photograph with his now-wife, Ronika Stone, in San Diego
Jordan Love reacts after suffering a serious groin injury during a 2024 game in Jacksonville
He previously suffered thumb, elbow, groin and knee problems not to mention another concussion in 2018.
Ronika knows the risks her husband takes, but admits it’s easier to handle when she’s watching him live, in person, rather than tuning into his games on television.
‘Watching a game on TV is a thousand times worse than watching a game in person,’ she said. ‘God forbid he gets injured, but if he gets injured while you’re there, it’s like your heart falls out of your chest and you’re sick to your stomach, but then the game goes on and you’re still thinking about it, but you’re not seeing it anymore.
‘When you’re watching it on TV, buckle up,’ she continued. ‘They’ll come back from commercial and be like: ‘In case you missed it, here’s how he got f***ed up on the last play.’
‘Then randomly throughout the game, they’re be like: ‘If you’re wondering why he’s not in, we’re gonna show you… 20 more times.’
The debate over networks showing serious injuries has gone on for years. Some feel it’s a service to the audience to show the real brutality of the NFL, while allowing viewers to see the telltale signs of a concussion.
Braxton Jones #70 of the Chicago Bears reacts after an apparent injury against the Detroit Lionsduring the second quarter at Soldier Field on December 22, 2024
Chris Nowinski, the co-founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation and a former college football player, admits to being squeamish about injuries, but thinks networks are doing audiences a service by showing the realities of head trauma.
‘I usually look away when I see a knee explode or a bone break,’ Nowinski told The Athletic in 2022. ‘It dredges up memories of pain from previous injuries of my own. It also doesn’t teach us anything we don’t already know, so it’s mostly about the spectacle.
‘However, replays with brain injuries don’t bring up those memories because you don’t have nociceptive pain nerves in your brain, so most concussions are painless,’ he continued. ‘… concussions can be difficult to recognize, even for doctors.
‘Therefore, showing replays that allow us to see how concussions happen, as well as the signs athletes show that suggest they need to be removed, provides value to the public by training the audience to recognize concussions in their own lives and protect their children.’
