"Every Man's Worst Nightmare" - Why men need to wear a protective cup

A protective cup isn't mandatory, but guys, you will always want to wear one when you play lacrosse. You don't have to take my word for it, just read this story and decide for yourself. This story may make you cringe and wince, but it will show you just how important it is for you to wear a protective cup that properly fits you…

I was in college, and we were out at a routine Tuesday practice. The weather was warm and sunny and everyone on the team was in a good mood as we returned to practice after a big win over the weekend. The team split up to practice two half-field drills. Each end of the field was doing a routine 6 vs. 6 drill. I was at one end of the field, a full 100 yards away from the goal on the opposite end of the field, when I heard a loud, strange "THUD" on the other half of the field. My first thought was that someone had been hit in the helmet by a hard shot, but I quickly dismissed this idea because this was a sound that I had never heard before. Curious as to what happened, I (and the rest of the team) turned towards the far end of the field to see the goalie collapse on the ground shrieking in agony. His piercing wails could only mean one thing: he was just hit "down below" by the ball-something that can happen to any player on the field who happens to be in the way of a fast-moving lacrosse ball.

This wasn't your normal accident. This time, something was different. When normal injuries or accidents occur, the athletic trainer assists the injured player to the sideline where he can be examined and treated. This time, however, the goalie was not getting up and the trainer who ran to the scene was calling for help. Everyone knew it must be bad. And it was.

As it turns out, the goalie was wearing a cup that was too small for him. The cup was sitting on top of his testicles rather than encompassing them. When his cup was hit with a 95mph shot, the cup pinched one of his testicles between the cup and his leg, rupturing his testicle and causing it to swell up to the size of a softball-I kid you not. Imagine what the testicles would have looked like if he had not been wearing a cup!

Emergency surgery was performed soon afterwards and doctors tried to patch the pieces of his testicle into a whole. Fortunately, the surgery was a success, and I'm happy to say that my former teammate was able to make a full recovery and continue to play lacrosse. He learned his lesson about a properly fitting cup the hard way, and now always wears a cup that fits.