I like that CBS is using their bully pulpit to bring attention to this. The "killing season" line is a great attention grabber.
I'm surprised and then not surprised at this. Not surprised due to the "old school" nature of sports. Run until you puke to prove your tough type BS. So dumb. Surprised that places with tons of $ like Oregon do not have experienced masters/PHD level exercise phys or physical therapy type people doing the work....
A whole psychological and medical dissertation could be done on the extreme narcissism, grandiosity, and delusional nature of the strength and conditioning field combined with, as you correctly call it, the "old school nature of sports." There are so many advanced ways to effectively track the medical status of the athlete these days, yet a lot of this strength coaches don't seem knowledgeable or qualified enough to utilize such technology. Despite the claims of the Psychology field that it too is based on a medical model, the truth is that you can't take a blood test for depression or an X-ray to determine anxiety, and that nobody knows where the so called "cable signal" comes from that makes up the unique traits of an individual; therefore, it is easy to fall victim to a Neanderthal Conman with big biceps who can get the young athlete to increase their bench pressing prowess during the off-season, unaware of whether doing such is doing permanent damage to the yet to be fulling developed young athlete. They are also pushing some of these kids without the proper access to good nutrition and legal supplements needed to repair damaged and growing tissue. That does not even include the strange saga of developing growth hormones, including testosterone and steroids. There is now a doctor in Asia who has reportedly figured out how to genetically alter rats, so that they can double their muscle mass in two weeks. Of course, nobody knows what the long range medical and psychological consequences of all of this will be.