Even if you don’t particularly care for sports, you should still hopefully, find this interesting. It all came about from a discussion that happened in my Governomics class today.
I watched the UM-MSU football game this weekend like all die-hards. I lived with our team and died as I watched that final play. In processing, talking, reading and analyzing the game after the fact, I came back to a few key points.
This all made me more depressed than I feel comfortable admitting.
Then, I heard about Cam’ron Matthews. He’s the fifth high school student since SEPTEMBER to die directly due to football related injuries, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina. The others are Tyrell Cameron, Ben Hamm, Evan Murray, and Kenney Bui . A sixth, Rod Williams collapsed at football practice and died of a congenital heart defect. Seven other high school football players have died this season due to indirect causes such as heatstroke. The United States is averaging three fatalities per year over the last 10 years.
Suddenly, in light of this information, I’ve found my thoughts on the Michigan loss have changed their perspective.
Football as we know it is going to change soon. My prediction is a ban on full contact football in high school within the next 10 years. High school students are dying to play this game. Fans who decry this as a wussification of the United States will likely refer to themselves as die-hards. That’s convenient for them to say. They won’t be dying, hard or otherwise, from watching in the stands. And yet, they are demanding that the players risk their lives for the fans amusement. How long will the public, lawmakers, coaches, teammates etc. stand by and mourn the loss of more and more young men in such a violent, preventable way? Brain research suggests those who played football before age 12 were far more likely to experienced degenerative neurological damage in their adult lives. Since most independent brain research suggests one’s brain does not even fully develop until 21-25 years old, one might suspect a growing movement to limit players from being subjected to brain trauma like they get from repeated helmet to helmet contact. Football is not the only sport dealing with concussions, neurological damage and other complications. But it is the only sport where kids are dying, regularly. A change is going to come soon.
Thanks to the USA Today High School Sports section and the Washington Post for information for this post.
I watched the UM-MSU football game this weekend like all die-hards. I lived with our team and died as I watched that final play. In processing, talking, reading and analyzing the game after the fact, I came back to a few key points.
- That was a stupid way to lose a game. Not that Blake O’Neill was stupid. He’s a young guy who made mistake after dropping a low snap. Whatever. It was just a stupid way for a team to lose on a final play.
- It’s the worst loss I’ve ever experienced. I was at the Colorado-Kordell Stewart-Hail Mary game. I listened on the radio while my newborn slept in the backseat as App State blocked our FG attempt. I was in the ‘Shoe when John Navarre threw an INT in the end zone and lost our chance to knock OSU out of the Big 10 Title, and this was by far my worst lost.
- If only we had done X, then things would have worked out differently. If only we’d saved our timeout and let 2 more seconds tick off the clock and then thrown a bomb to no one as time expired. If only we’d gotten a first down then we wouldn’t have had to punt. If only Bolden hadn’t been ejected, then he might have stopped the 75 yard pass fullback. If only…If only…
- In the aftermath of the game, word spread of death threats being levied at O’Neill to the point that the Athletic Department at U of M had to write an open letter defending O’Neill and admonishing fans. My conclusion is that anyone who made a death threat to O’Neill is one of the lowest, most debased sorts of persons and I hope they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
This all made me more depressed than I feel comfortable admitting.
Then, I heard about Cam’ron Matthews. He’s the fifth high school student since SEPTEMBER to die directly due to football related injuries, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina. The others are Tyrell Cameron, Ben Hamm, Evan Murray, and Kenney Bui . A sixth, Rod Williams collapsed at football practice and died of a congenital heart defect. Seven other high school football players have died this season due to indirect causes such as heatstroke. The United States is averaging three fatalities per year over the last 10 years.
Suddenly, in light of this information, I’ve found my thoughts on the Michigan loss have changed their perspective.
- What a stupid way to lose a child, brother, friend, classmate, teammate. These are young guys whose only mistake may have been strapping on a helmet and taking the field in a sport and system that does not do enough to protect them. Whatever. It’s a stupid way to lose these young men.
- The greatest loss these young men’s’ parents have ever had on a football field was their sons. I lost a game as a fan. They lost their sons. Siblings lost their brothers. Friends lost their friends. Many of them were there and watched the plays that took these men’s lives. I am willing to bet many of them were killed to the sound of fans’ cheers. Now, that’s a loss.
- If only X had happened then these young men would still be alive. How torturous must this be for the families, teammates, coaches, opposing players etc.? The ache of knowing how little would have had to change for these boys to still be alive must be agonizing to endure.
- Threatening the life of a college kid over something he did in the midst of game is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard of. Not only for the fact that he already feels bad for having made that play; there’s nothing anyone can do about it. A threat on someone’s life for an error made in a game is deplorable and moronic, but even threatening a kid like that when the fact is that simply by stepping on the field and participating in the rituals of this game, his life was already under threat.
Football as we know it is going to change soon. My prediction is a ban on full contact football in high school within the next 10 years. High school students are dying to play this game. Fans who decry this as a wussification of the United States will likely refer to themselves as die-hards. That’s convenient for them to say. They won’t be dying, hard or otherwise, from watching in the stands. And yet, they are demanding that the players risk their lives for the fans amusement. How long will the public, lawmakers, coaches, teammates etc. stand by and mourn the loss of more and more young men in such a violent, preventable way? Brain research suggests those who played football before age 12 were far more likely to experienced degenerative neurological damage in their adult lives. Since most independent brain research suggests one’s brain does not even fully develop until 21-25 years old, one might suspect a growing movement to limit players from being subjected to brain trauma like they get from repeated helmet to helmet contact. Football is not the only sport dealing with concussions, neurological damage and other complications. But it is the only sport where kids are dying, regularly. A change is going to come soon.
Thanks to the USA Today High School Sports section and the Washington Post for information for this post.