His ears looked in terrible shape, is that reparable after wrestling. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but just curious. It appears to be damage from wrestling.
Stupid question: Varner
- Thread starter ketelmeister
- Start date
It's called cauliflower ear. Common for wrestlers. But he does have a bad case of it. Plastic surgery can make it look better. Costly, though. A lot of wrestlers just don't give a **** and leave it as is.
Cauliflower Ear can be drained, but I believe only within a relatively short time after the 'injury' occurs. It's an inflammation of the cartilage and most wrestlers (especially in freestyle and G-R) have it. Those in freestyle and G-R tend to get it more severely than folkstyle ('American') wrestlers because they don't require headgear in the first two.
American high school and intercollegiate matches required headgear which helps protect the ears but guys still get it by not wearing headgear in practice, or by wearing poorly fit headgear.
And as Senolcyc said, most wrestlers don't care. It's kind of a badge of honor.
American high school and intercollegiate matches required headgear which helps protect the ears but guys still get it by not wearing headgear in practice, or by wearing poorly fit headgear.
And as Senolcyc said, most wrestlers don't care. It's kind of a badge of honor.
My friend had a slight case of it during hs football
. He had to get blood drained from it about twice a week until it went away if I remember correctly
. He had to get blood drained from it about twice a week until it went away if I remember correctly
You can get it drained, but it isn't really common for wrestlers that are still active to do so. It doesn't affect hearing (as far as I know), and wrestlers do wear it as a "badge of honor" so to speak. Not so much that the look is a good one, just more along the lines of 'yea, I am/was in a gladiator sport' type of thing.
Yeah, you only get cauliflower ear if you want to. I got it several times in high school and had it drained each time. Just went to the walk in clinic and they stick a syringe in there, pull all the fluid out, and then sew cotton onto each side of the ear so it can heal up. I didn't even have to miss any practices, just had to be extra careful about wearing my headgear for a week or two.
The only time I am ever reminded of it is if I try to wear those cheap iPod ear buds, they won't fit in that ear.
The only time I am ever reminded of it is if I try to wear those cheap iPod ear buds, they won't fit in that ear.
Definitely is a badge of honor to the wrestlers. Also true for rugby players as well, who also get cauliflower ears from the scrums where their ears get rubbed badly on those somewhat abrasive rugby shirts. Cael Sanderson still has those ears and, with his income these days, I'm sure he could have them repaired if he wanted to.
This is only true if some high school wrestling is your only exposure. If wrestling is your exclusive sport in high school or you wrestle at some level in college, it's harder to NOT get cauliflower ear, even with constantly wearing your headgear. Style and technique have quite a bit to do with it as well (Varner is a grinder/phyisical style of wrestler), but when you're constantly banging and rubbing the side of your head on another person's head...even a headgear will move and bang into your ears.
The only way to really keep from getting it, is develop a style that keeps you from locking up with your opponent. Even Burroughs (the other Gold medal champ) only got cauliflower ear this past summer while training for Olympics because he rarely ties up...he keeps his distance and uses his quickness.
You can't wrestle while having it drained, they stick a small tube in your ear skin to drain the fluid that will "fix" the torn cartilage in your ear. I had mine drained, but there's still noticable thickness to my left ear.
i went to the welcome home for the olympians this morning - murphy asked him about the $250k and that he could go on a nice vacation (he had just said he was going to take a little time off and decide 'what's next'). he paused (i think the guy has a pretty good dry sense of humor) and said that someone was taking a lot of that money. (politicians on the side of the stage - gov, and lt. gov, boswell and latham). was a great comment, especially given all the politics that has been encouraged regarding the 'rich'.......
