Recent NFL injuries show why proper safety techniques must be taught early.
I don’t want to hear anything about “watering down” football to the point where we’re all forced to play with flag rules. I’m not here to preach changing the rules to where a finger poke counts as bringing a runner down.
It just looks like we’ve got a problem to deal with.
This isn’t something I’ve thought about in depth over the last couple of weeks, between covering the TCYFCC Superbowl and the ensuing United YFL Football Championships. I enjoyed watching the action at both events and like seeing Plant City represented well at them. But after last week’s slate of NFL games, I couldn’t help but think about the injuries.
And it’s not because something bad happened with my fantasy team in the Observer’s office league (future offensive rookie of the year Alvin Kamara’s concussion). It’s bigger than that. It’s leading MVP candidate Carson Wentz, who is tremendously fun to watch, suffering a torn ACL from a Mark Barron hit to the knee while diving into the end zone for a touchdown. It’s Tom Savage taking a hit against the San Francisco 49ers that caused him to have what looked like a momentary seizure — and what was confirmed to be a concussion — on the field, all while the referee right in front of him looked on, then coming back into the game a few minutes later. It’s Ryan Shazier attempting to make a tackle and damaging his spine upon impact, being carted off the field because he couldn’t move his legs, then dealing with doctors saying he may never be able to play football again. It’s Thursday Night Football gaining a deserved reputation around the league for being so dangerous to players due to a lack of recovery time.
You don’t want to see any of that happen to your favorite athletes, pro or amateur. You definitely don’t want any of that for the children learning the game. But if it’s happening at the world’s highest level of play, there’s a chance it could happen at the lowest levels.
What I want is for our area coaches to make sure they’re teaching their players proper techniques, stretching, safety procedures and the whole nine yards. When your form is on point, no matter what position you’re playing, you’re reducing your risk of going out there healthy and leaving with the need to see a doctor. You don’t even need to buy into myths like the time the NFL tried to promote “Heads-Up” tackling, which didn’t help with injury reduction or bringing ball carriers down. Technique is the root of all sports success.
It’s also important for coaches to recognize proper concussion protocol or, in other words, not putting a player back out there because he just “got his bell rung.” Even if that one person is good enough to be able to affect the outcome of a game, the potential to make a concussion even worse should be reason enough to bring in the backup for the rest of the game. Winning is fine in its moment but if you can’t remember hoisting the trophy because your brain’s too messed up, what good did it really do you?
In its purest form, the game is always going to be violent. You can’t kill off the risk of injuries without a complete overhaul of the rules. That’s why we should at least do what we can to reduce such a risk. If we want to watch the fast, hard-hitting game so many of us Americans love, we have to make sure the people on the field can be healthy enough to play it regularly.
