Safety should always come first

More and more emphasis is being placed on safety in sports these days.

Not surprisingly football is leading the way with new rules that account for the well being of players on and off the field.

From the top reaches of the National Football League right on down to city-league ball everyone seems more aware of protecting the players from head and spinal injuries.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association has recently passed stricter rules concerning the treatment of concussions and when a player is considered fit to return to action. Various state and national high school associations to ensure no high school football player returns to action before they are fully healed are looking at similar measures.

Long gone are the days when football players were expected to tough it out through thirst and injury as they endured a three or four hour practice with perhaps one water break.

Football is full of legendary stories about a young Paul “Bear” Bryant playing in the Tennessee game with a broken leg for the Alabama.

Football has always been about toughness and proving that playing through the pain is worth it.

I carry the scars on my left shoulder and neck that will forever mark me as a football player.

That said, I can’t help but wonder how my life might be different if today’s precautions had been in place when I was playing high school ball in the mid-1970s.

I remember the day like it was yesterday. It was spring practice 1975 and the linemen were doing a tackling drill.

I was a rising senior, and a guy from my church was a rising sophomore out for football for the first time. I was determined to show the “fresh meat” what the game was all about.

I hit him low with a good tackle, but didn’t get my arms wrapped tightly around his churning knees. As he went down, one of his knees hit my neck causing a pain that was so intense tears immediately came to my eyes.

But I was a football player and I wasn’t going to say anything and break the code.

My coach, seeing that I was in pain, sent me to the trainer who checked me out and concluded I pinched a nerve in my neck.

A little less than 28 years after that May day in 1975 I found out I had three fractured vertebras that were crushing my spinal cord. That was seven years ago Saturday. Monday marks the seventh anniversary if you will of the first of two neck surgeries that without which I’d probably be crippled today.

Sometimes I wonder how my life would have been different had a stayed down when my necks was hurting so badly. I can’t help but believe that God was watching over me for a lot of years as I led a normal active life.
I also can’t help but think that many of today’s athletes are too quick to claim injury when they are in a little pain.
I’m not saying anyone should play with a broken leg. And I strongly recommend if a player feels neck pain not to take my approach to the situation.

Deep down I know things are improving for the better and that there can never be too many precautions when it comes to dealing with the health and wellbeing of student athletes. I also realize there is a fine line between legitimate caution and fear of injury.

The fact is being tough isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.

Athletes should always learn to play through the pain. But when it comes to injuries, safety comes first.