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Mind games in sports
Athletes are taking chances by playing through serious head injuries |
by Alex Janco
Staff Writer |
The old Budweiser saying is “know when to say when.” The NFL and other major sport leagues should consider using this saying to refer to the many concussions and other head injuries that its players have been sustaining.
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Photo stolen from the Web somewhere
49ers Quarterback, Steve Young, is pondering retirement after his latest in a series of concussions. His doctors have urged him to leave football.
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Two prime examples are Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young. Both have been knocked senseless this season, and it isn’t the first time it has happened to either of them. This is the sixth time in Aikman’s 11-year career that he has suffered a concussion and the second time in three weeks. Young has suffered four concussions since the start of the 1996 season. His most recent was in a Monday night game against the Arizona Cardinals that left him lying motionless on the field for several minutes.
Aikman’s history of concussions is astonishing. His first came in his rookie year in a game against the then Phoenix Cardinals. He set the NFL record for passing yards by a rookie with 379 even after receiving a helmet-to-helmet hit that left the inside of his ear bleeding. Then, in the 1994 NFC Championship game against Young and the 49ers, Aikman took a knee to the head and after the game couldn’t remember it, which the Cowboys won.
More amazingly, Aikman played in the Super Bowl the very next week against the Buffalo Bills. It’s hard to tell which is more frightening, that Aikman actually played in the game or that the team actually let him play in the game. At the time, he was only 27-years old and the Cowboys had a competent backup in Bernie Kosar.
Granted it was the Super Bowl, but does that give the person the right to risk the rest of their lives over a game? Even after Aikman found out how dangerous it can be to play too soon after a concussion, he was asked if he still would have played in the Super Bowl. His response was, “sure.”
Both Aikman and Young could retire right now, and neither would have to worry about their standing in NFL history. Young is the NFL’s all-time passer ratings leader and has thrown for 33,124 yards.
Aikman, on the other hand, has won an unprecedented three Super Bowls in a four year span, unmatched by even Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw, and has one the highest completion ratings in the history of the NFL.
The NHL is another sport that has seen too many players being knocked out by concussions, most notably Geoff Courtnall of the St. Louis Blues.
Courtnall is currently recovering from his second major concussion in only two seasons. He was forced to miss 58 games last season after being knocked out, and it is unknown how long he will be out this year after receiving another concussion six games into the season.
Future Hall-of-Famer Pat LaFontaine was finally forced to retire after a series of concussions that left him with lingering migraines–also known as Post Concussion Syndrome. Paul Kariya of the Mighty Ducks also missed most of the 1997-98 season after suffering a concussion that left him with migraines for over three months.
To put into perspective what happens when a player receives a concussion, every time they get hit, their brain bounces around inside their heads like a pinball and becomes bruised, causing dizziness, memory loss and possible brain damage later in life.
How do you stop this? Both the NFL and NHL have introduced new equipment and have instituted new rules to help stop head injuries. But if anything, its getting worse.
Both leagues have put added support inside the players helmets, and have come up with bigger facemasks and chinstraps with extra padding and visors. But until players realize that more padding doesn’t give them the right to take head shots at another player, all the padding in the world won’t help.
It seems as if someone is going to have to die on the ice or on the field before players start taking concussions seriously. Young and Aikman should follow their consciences and retire while they still have a conscience.
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