Serious Injuries Remain a Big Part of Football

Sunday was a brutal day for the St. Louis Rams in Dallas. Not one, but two of their players were dealt serious neck injuries in the game with the Cowboys.

Second year starters Jason Smith from Baylor and Darell Scott from Clemson both had to be carted off the field. Smith’s injury is believed to be very serous. His breathing was labored and trainers had to remove the mask from his helmet in order to function easier.

A pall was cast over the Cowboys’ stadium.

Friday night, right before halftime, Ladue’s 2,000 yard rusher Deavin Edwards limped off with a severe ankle injury. His brilliant senior season might be hanging in the balance.

Ladue’s coach Mike Tarpey readily realized injuries are a big part of the game, knowing some other players must step up and take Edward’s duties should he not return for this week’s final district game.

No getting around the fact, football at all levels is a violent sport. One medic once told me that upwards of 50 percent of all football player will incur one sort of major injury or another during their playing days.

I question the sanity of some aspects of the game.

For one, is it totally necessary to have kickoffs after touch downs? Anyone in the game will tell you colliding g-forces is a recipe for disaster. The impacts at the point of collision can be quite violent.

I’ve proposed eliminating kickoffs and start the play on a team’s own 20-yard line. That call has definitely fallen on deaf ears. Players mangle each other trying to advance the ball a few more feet on these crazy return plays.

Over the course of many years of covering football, I’ve seen a wide variety of serious injuries to players, and an occasional coach, reporter or team statistician standing too close to the action on the field.

Players sail out of bounds sometimes with violent force. Some objects lurk in the path of players such as storm drain covers, paved runways for track events, hard metal benches, tables and the like.

Much has been done to address a higher level of football safety over the years. Helmets are better designed. Medical personnel attend endless clinics, dealing with safety issues. Virtually every team has trainers and doctors standing by now. That wasn’t the case years ago.  Too often, lower level games like freshman, JV and little league have no medical coverage per say.

One time, a player suffered a very serious injury at Webster Groves' Ray Moss Field and it took more than 20 minutes for EMS personnel to arrive. Response times are much better these days. Some schools even have ambulances standing by.

I for one would like to see a more coordinated, universal effort be made to provide sideline safety at all football games for all levels of football. That should be mandatory.

Parents want their kids to play contact sports, but worry often about what might happen. Serious injuries can lead to a lifetime of medical issues. just recently in a three-part series.

Let’s take a moment and hope and pray for speedy recoveries for Jason Smith and Darell Scott of the Rams. Both were just doing their job when they got seriously hurt.