I have spent a good deal of time in my life being impressed by the feats of various athletes throughout history. One of the terms which I have come to use when I am confronted with a particularly manic player, one who gives his all to the point of bodily injury, playing without regard for his own safety is “Hardcore”. There are players who play hurt, people who run straight into walls, and the clinically insane.

People who played football and hockey before helmets are hardcore. Chuck Bednarik is Hardcore. The man played 14 years and only missed three games, he played both offense and defense, he played 58 minutes of a 60 minute game. He is on my list. I would also lump Ty Cobb into this category, he was of course the ultimate hustle player, born into a world of baseball where you had to leg it out, you had to stretch every hit, he rose above others doing the same thing. He also supposedly sharpened his cleats and slide towards people, Insane. There are way too many athletes on my personal list to throw them all here. I have a new one I wanted to share though.

Ben Czislowski, know him? Probably not he’s an Australian rugby player. I honestly don’t know much about rugby except that my 6’2″ tall frame would get snapped in half should i attempt to play a “friendly”. Violent game, but back to Ben. Ben played a game a while back wherein he got into a nasty scrum with an opponent. This resulted in a gash on Ben’s forehead, which was sown up after the match. Ben continued to play for three months despite having headaches and an eventual infection in his one eye. upon reexamining the previously sown wound the doctors found that the opponent’s tooth had become embedded in Ben’s Skull… I’m going to wait a minute for that to sink in.

.

.

.

In a world where players don’t play because of crap reasons like arm soreness, and other such silly excuses this dude played for THREE MONTHS with another mans tooth EMBEDDED IN HIS SKULL! Ben you get voted to the top of the Hardcore list in my book. Get well soon, you’ve earned your rest, if you even need it.