Abhorrent Behavior, Part 2

So yesterday I wrote about adults in athletic situations not stepping up and doing their duty, and now we have the most recent example of abhorrent behavior in this regard. On Saturday, Virginia Tech player Greg Nosal got the tip of his finger caught in the face mask of the opposing quarterback and ripped the tip of his finger off. He didn't know it at the time and even though it hurt he played a few more plays until he looked down at his glove which was covered in blood, so he ran off the field to seek medical attention.

When they took his glove off, Nosal said he could see the tip of the bone, and so they sent people back onto the field to look for the tip of his finger, which they couldn't find. Then they looked in the glove and found that it was still in the glove. The team surgeon examined the wound and decided that the tip could be reattached, and then gave Nosal the choice: Stop playing now and have it reattached, or take some pain killers, have the finger put on ice and keep playing. Nosal chose the second option, and so he played into the fourth quarter in a game that they were leading 31-7 and eventually won 45-21.

The coach, Frank Beamer, said "For him to continue to play, it says a lot about him and what his effort for this football team is." In an interview with ESPN the team trainer, Mike Goforth, said that he's seen a lot of crazy things in football, but that he didn't consider this all that crazy it just proved how tough Nosal is, and then said "it's not like he lost a bone, it was just the skin at the top that got taken off."

This is disgusting on so many levels that it is just boggling to my mind. First, what type of doctor considers it okay to just drug up a player in order to allow them to play rather than surgically repairing his finger which has been torn off? He gave the player the option? Are you kidding me? What medical school can possibly teach this as appropriate medical behavior?

Second, the coach says that this proves his toughness and how much he cares about the team. Hey coach, aren't you supposed to care about the well being of your players? I understand that winning is important, but number one, you were already blowing the other team out, and number two, in the end it's only a football game. The long-term well being of your players should come first and foremost on your mind. It doesn't matter that he could still play. People have played with broken bones, but that doesn't make it right. You are the adult in the situation you need to stand up and say no, go get medical attention.

I have written a lot about concussions and football players, teams, doctors, coaches and the media not taking this seriously enough. There is a trend moving that in the opposite direction. One team recently hid the helmet of a player who had a concussion and wanted to go back in, but couldn't because he couldn't find his helmet.

That is a team that understands the seriousness of this issue. Because here is the problem. Most people say the biggest issue that needs to be overcome in order to be serious about concussions is the tough guy attitude that pervades athletics in general, and football in particular, that you suck it up and keep playing no matter what, and that is what leads people to keep playing with traumatic brain injuries which the shouldn't be playing with.

How is any player or team going to take concussions seriously and not want to keep playing in order to show how tough they are and show, in Beamer's words, how important the team is to them. If they are not going to stop playing when they are bleeding profusely because they are missing the tip of their finger, why would they ever stop for any injury which they can't even see, like an injury to the brain?

We need to be well past this macho man mentality and coaches, trainers and doctors need to be disciplined for allowing this to happen, let alone encouraging this type of behavior. This is simply unconscionable. What's even worse was the fawning displayed on ESPN and in the sports columns about this. I have yet to see a single person say that this was wrong, let along make the obvious connection to the problems in protecting players who have concussions who want to keep playing to show how tough they are and how important the team is to them.

It's time for the adults to act like adults. These players are given into your charge and it is your duty to protect them. Sometimes that means protecting them from themselves. I played enough sports to know about playing through pain, and breaking through walls, but this is way past that.

This is where it become asinine, and someone needs to start holding these people accountable. These are not gladiators out to entertain who can be disposed of at our leisure. These are kids who have their entire lives left in front of them, the vast majority of whom will never even sniff a professional team.

We need to be setting the examples for them, teaching them what is acceptable and what is not, and this is an absolute failure. The Virginia Tech coaching and medical staff should be ashamed of themselves, as should the media for not only not holding them accountable but for not even calling them to task.

Concussions and Sportsmanship

Apparently some people understand the new NFL rules on concussions. During Saturday’s game against the Bears, Cowboys tight end Jason Witten sustained a concussion after being hit by two bears defenders before hitting his head on the turf. He then was seen to be stumbling as he made his way to the sidelines.

After the doctors made the diagnosis and told Witten that he could not return to the game, Witten could be seen berating the training staff for twenty minutes. This included him getting right up in their faces and pointing his finger at them and reportedly saying that if the Cowboys lost that it would be their fault. The medical staff held their ground. I hope that Witten will come to understand why they did what they did, although he does say he will play this weekend.

However, I do have to wonder where the coaching staff was during this? Why did they not come over and tell Witten to shut-up and sit down that the doctors were doing the right thing? The impression it certainly left with me was that the coaching staff does not agree with the new policy and so are not going to defend their medical personnel when they follow the NFL rules. So a hearty thumbs up to the training staff for their actions, and a hearty thumbs down to the coaching staff for theirs.

Another hearty thumbs up go to the coaches for the Atlanta Falcons. They were blowing out the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday and were again in the red zone when they decided to take a knee of four consecutive plays. They could have just as easily tried to score more points in order to make the game even more lopsided. That would certainly have been what most teams would do, but they didn’t. It’s not often you see good sportsmanship like this in the NFL and so when it happens it should be pointed out. Good job Falcons.

The same could also be said of the coaching staff for the Wisconsin Badgers. Up 20-19 over my Arizona State Sun Devils and with time running out, they too took a knee in the red zone rather than scoring more points. This was the #11 team in the nation squeaking out a victory against an unranked opponent. Certainly a 27-19 score would look better in the sports pages, but that is not what the coaches did. Instead they did the right thing and took the victory, which is really what mattered. So congratulations to the Wisconsin Badgers, you are playing the game correctly.

Random Sports Thoughts For The Week

Some people seem to be upset that Derek Jeter faked being hit by a pitch on Tuesday and were wondering whether it was cheating or just gamesmanship. I fall of the second, and not because I’m a Yankee fan. If Dustin Pedroia had done the same thing, I’d still say it was okay. It is the batter’s job to get on base any way they can, plus, and here’s the thing that non-baseball fans don’t really understand, “cheating” is part of the game.

Players are trying to steal signs all the time. Why do you think catchers go through a range of signs when someone’s on second? Because they want to make sure they can’t signal to the batter what the pitch is going to be, and that’s absolutely fine. How often do we see outfielders try and make it look like they made a catch when in fact they trapped it or it had bounced first? That seems to me to be exactly the same as what Jeter did.

In last year’s World Series, Ryan Howard caught a ball at first that had bounced first. The umpire, however, was blocked out and thought it was a line-drive catch, and the Phillies ended up turning a double play that never should have happened. Ryan Howard knew he hadn’t caught it and yet he did not tell the ump he had made a mistake.

When you look in the history of baseball, the “cheating” in the early days was huge. When there were a lot fewer umps, players would sometimes run directly from first to third if the ump wasn’t looking. It’s part of the game. Now do I think there are limits? Of course I do.

Players and coaches trying to steal signs or seeing a pitcher tip off his pitches, that's fine. Putting someone in the bleachers with a radio and calling in the signs (like the Giants were doing in their famous playoff game against the Dodgers. Bobby Thompson could hit a home run because he knew what Ralph Branca was going to throw), that’s not acceptable.

Reggie Bush has decided to return his Heisman trophy rather than having it possibly taken away. This was a great PR move on Bush’s part, but I’m struck by two things: The first was the reaction of most of the commentators on ESPN. Most of them said that in their minds Bush will always be a Heisman trophy winner, because what he is accused of doing had nothing to do with his on-field performance. He wasn’t taking steroids or doing other things that would enhance his performance, instead it is alleged that his parents were receiving special benefits because of who he was. I really expected ESPN to tow the party line on this but they didn’t, and so I congratulate them.

The second is about the money. I’ve written about this in the past, and posed the simple question, how millions of dollars did USC, the NCAA and even the New York City Athletic Club/Heisman Foundation make off of Reggie Bush? Are they going to give any of that money back? Until they do, this is all just a charade.

And why is Bush being singled out? Certainly he is not the only player to have done this. Study after study shows that people stop committing crimes when they think they will be caught for what they did. Going after one high-profile case does absolutely nothing other than make the NCAA feel good about themselves. And as long as we’re talking about “justice” in this situation, how is it that we allow the NCAA to be the judge, jury and executioner? Where is due process?

AJ Green has been suspended for selling a game-used jersey, his jersey, on Ebay. He has “profited” off his status as an athlete. I just did a quick search for “game used jersey” and found several different sites that will sell you a game used NCAA jersey. So apparently what the NCAA is upset about is that he was trying to cut in on their business.

As Michael Wilbon points out in this excellent article, Georgia and the NCAA are making millions off of Green as well, including selling 17 different jerseys with his number on it. As one head football coach said to Wilbon about major athletic programs, "They're now fully engaged in robbing the poor to give to the rich."

While these students are receiving free tuition, etc., how many of them actually graduate? The number, especially for basketball and football, at most major schools is rather pathetic, and universities are held little accountable for this. It has been proposed, and I agree, that there should be a minimum floor level for athlete graduation rates, and if you don’t hit that target then you are not eligible for post-season play. If that were to happen, which it never will, then maybe we’d return the student to the student-athlete equation for many of these teams.

Although the NFL has made the issue of concussions more of a point, including issuing a poster of it (way to get tough NFL, although, as I said earlier, at least it’s a start), apparently this has not sunk through to many teams. On Sunday, the Eagles had two players, quarterback Kevin Kolb and linebacker Stewart Bradley, receive concussions. As if that is not bad enough, both were sent back into the game.

Now I know that there are some issues with diagnosing a concussion, but there is absolutely no way that Bradley’s concussion could have been “missed.” He was so “punch drunk” as they used to call it, that he couldn’t even make it off the field, but fell down on his stumbling way to the sideline, and yet he was sent back in just a few minutes later. (here is the video) The Eagles are now following the NFL’s new protocol on concussions in having independent doctors confirm what the team doctors are saying, but they are still trying to get both players back for this Sunday’s game.

NFL, if you would like to get tough on concussions and show that you are serious, here are my recommendations.

1. Anytime a player gets sent back into a game who has a concussion, the team gets fined $10 million dollars with the money going to fund research into concussions and advertising about their dangers to college, high school and pop warner football players (and the fact that they are finding significant brain damage in football players as young as 19 should itself be enough to terrify us). This fine is per infraction, so the Eagles would have to be writing a check this week for $20 million.
2. Every head coach who sends a player into a game who has a concussion will be suspended for 4 games, per infraction. That means that Andy Reid would be looking at sitting out for 8 games. I know the head coach is not making the diagnosis, or even the decision to send him back in in some cases, but he can be the one who sets the tone for what is going to take place on his team. If the same thing occurs when an interim coach is in place because a head coach is already suspended, then the interim is out 4 games. This goes on until they are no longer any coaches on the field.
3. Every player who is diagnosed with a concussion must sit out of games and practices for a minimum of two weeks. This can be extended at any time by medical personnel who make all decisions.
4. Any team caught violating this policy, or who try and exert pressure on medical personal to clear a player to play will be fined $100 million dollars and the GM and head coach will be suspended from all team activities for 1 calendar year.

Football players take on enormous risks in their lives, and most with live with constant pain and injuries for the rest of their lives. But there is a big difference between having knees that ache when you are fifty because of playing football and not knowing who you wife and children are at fifty because you suffered permanent brain damage when playing football.

There has even been recent work that many head injuries suffered by football players and boxers are masking themselves as ALS. Is it possible that Lou Gehrig did not have the disease named for him, but instead suffered brain damage from the concussions he sustained playing football and baseball? Maybe.

The NFL is looking into an incident in the Jets locker room in which Ines Sainz of Mexico's TV Azteca was greeted by catcalls as she waited to interview Mark Sanchez. She reports that she felt “uncomfortable” and rightfully so. Other players later came out and showed their inner Neanderthal which only got them more in trouble and increased the coverage on the story.

I have two thoughts. The first is that I hope the NFL does something about this. I thought we were way past the time when this was an issue. The second is that Sainz does have to look in the mirror a little bit. I have obviously never seen her reporting, but have seen pictures of her, and maybe they were cherry picked, but all of them showed her wearing clothes in which she was greatly showing off what God had given her in the way of physical attributes. This is not a “she was asking for it” thing, because she does not deserve to be treated this way no matter how she looks.

I have two daughters. I want them to be able to do whatever they want to do, and since they will grow up watching a lot of football and baseball so that they will know more than most of the men they will be around, that might include sports reporting. But I can’t help but notice that most TV female sports reporters are also very attractive. I’m sorry, but that means they are using sex in order to help them. This is not true of all reporters (and ESPN seems better about this then most). Maybe it’s the networks who are pushing them to wear what they do, but at some point one of them also needs to stand up and say I want people to respect me for what I know and the job I do and so I’m not going to wear something that takes the emphasis away from my reporting, and puts it on my physical attributes. For the sake of my daughters I want us to be better than we are.

And finally, the Romeo, Michigan high school football team won their game last week on the strength of their kicker, Ashley Flinn. After their regular kicker went down, the team coach, Jason Couch, who is Flinn’s uncle, asked her to come kick for them “as a joke.” As a joke? Are you kidding me?

The article on this then goes on to say that he shouldn’t have been surprised, because he had seen her kick before. Flinn’s brother was an all-state kicker and she used to go to kicking camps, with Couch, although she did spend most of her time shagging balls rather than kicking them. Are you kidding me?

Clearly Ashley was the after thought for the coach because she was just a girl, and you know girls cannot be any good at sports, especially sports that boys play. Again, I would like to think that we are way past this, but I know were not and these stories just highlight it even more. Good job Ashley, now I just hope you can kick some sense into those around you.

Do you know what NCAA 1-A team fielded the first female football player? It was my alma mater, the University of New Mexico. Katie Hnida was also a kicker.

Concussions

Last December Chris Henry, who played for the Cincinnati Bengals, died after he fell out of the back of a truck following an argument with his fiance. As part of a study supported by the NFL, his brain was removed and sent to the Brain Injury Research Institute at West Virginia University.

The researchers there found that Henry had "chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) -- a form of degenerative brain damage caused by multiple hits to the head," which was unrelated to his death. What was even more concerning about this discovery in Henry's brain was the fact that he had never been diagnosed with a concussion during his playing career.

Concussions have been suspected as the leading cause of the brain impairment that many former athletes who have played violent sports have developed, but this finding says that it may be more than just concussions contributing to the problem. All violent hits to the head, whether leading to a concussion or not, cause damage and the cumulative effects may be devistating. Henry's family is now wondering whether the CTE even helped contribute to his death by causing his brain not to function properly leading him to become involved in the situation that led to his death.

Although the NFL, as late as three years ago, was denying any link between concussions and later brain impairment, they are now changing their tune and yesterday released a new poster which will be put in all locker rooms talking about the dangers of concussions.

In particular, it states that "Traumatic brain injury can cause a wide-range of short- or long term changes affecting thinking, sensation, language or emotion. These changes may lead to problems with memory and communication, personality changes, as well as depression and the early onset of dementia. Concussions and conditions resulting from repeated brain injury can change your life and your family's life forever."

Michael Wilbon, who is a columnist for the Washington Post and also works for ESPN, has said that his concern is so great that he will not allow his son, who is two at the moment, to play football because of the long-term ramifications. My brother has stopped watching football because he cannot morally justify watching a sport which does permanent physical damage to its participants as a form of entertainment. I struggle with the same issue, but I like football too much at the moment to take that step.

But I do have serious concerns about the long-term impact it has, and the more information that is discovered the more scarry this reality becomes. So, I applaud the NFL for their change in attitude towards this issue and for making this move. It is a step in the right direction, but it is only a small step. I hope that similar posters are also displayed in every lockerroom in America, especially in high schools.