Chase Elliott has a life outside of NASCAR. He, and his fellow athletes, should be allowed to live it
Snowboarding is what Chase Elliott does to relax. To get away from it all. To clear his mind from the craziness that comes with being NASCAR's most popular star. His colleagues and competitors, drivers who spend their weeknights and off weekends doing everything from playing pickup basketball games and riding in cycling groups to big-game hunting and driving sprint cars on dirt tracks, have spent the week expressing a total understanding of why Elliott likes to skid his way around the slopes of Colorado.
Should these athletes be allowed to put their bodies -- the instruments with which they earn those dollars from teams, leagues and sponsors and in turn make even more money for the people who work for those teams, leagues and sponsors -- at risk by participating in dangerous activities? The challenge comes in determining exactly what should and/or could be labeled as "dangerous."
Entire conference rooms filled with league executives, agents and insurance specialists have had shouting matches standing over contracts, unsigned because of that very question. Entire law journals have been dedicated to the subject.
Meanwhile, in the full-time NASCAR world, a business proudly touted as a collection of independent contractors, a league-wide ban on hazardous activities wasn't doable.
When attorney J.J. Pristanski, now legal counsel for the New York Islanders, wrote in his 2018 article for the DePaul Journal Sports of Law that hazardous activities clauses "fail to effectuate the parties' intent, and are difficult to interpret and apply," he was referring to all of the above. And yes, 4 years before the Snowboard Crash Heard 'Round The Track, he was also referring to Chase Elliott.
We can't praise Dale Earnhardt for his love of driving bulldozers and knocking down trees and crashing a horse down the side of a mountain in New Mexico with Richard Childress and then be irritated with Chase Elliot because he hit the slopes. We can't gleefully tell stories about Cale Yarborough being struck by lightning, fighting off a bear while flying an airplane and bouncing off the ground when his parachute didn't open and then act like Chase Elliott is irresponsible because he likes to turn ollies in the powder. And we surely should not be allowed to treat Chase Elliott as an old-school stock car thrill seeker when he moonlights in the SRX series each summer but then doubt his judgment because he snaps his boots onto a board in the winter.
No, Chase Elliott just had a bad day while participating in the hobby that he loves most. He will be back in his race car soon enough. Let him heal, both his leg and his pride. And in the meantime, let's turn the volume down on any chatter about rolling athletes in bubble wrap before they do anything other than their day job.
Besides, we all know what would happen next, especially when it comes to racers. They would go on and do it anyway, just to see how loud of a popping sound they could make.
https://www.espn.com/racing/story/_/id/35812642/chase-elliott-life-nascar-let-live-it 
