A friend of mine once gave me some very simple, but profound, advice: "Don't $#@% up the simple things." In other words, if your job involves doing some things that can be accomplished merely by following the rules, do them. And, by extension, don't do things that even a cursory inspection through the lens of common sense would indicate as falling into the "probably a bad idea" category.
Pro athletes would benefit from having this drummed into them, together with all the other drills they do. Consider the general case of a highly-prized NFL player. By all rights, his job description should basically amount to
- Show up for practice and do the drills
- During a game, do whatever is appropriate for your position: run, catch, pass, tackle etc
- At end of year, pick up multi-million dollar paycheck
- Repeat
Note that nowhere in there does it say "carry a gun". Or "carry a gun into a nightclub". And it definitely doesn't say anything about shooting yourself in [almost] the foot. Especially if you've already pulled the hamstring on that leg. Because now you have two injuries to rehab, and pulled hamstrings are tricky.
It's the little things.
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