THE ANSWER IS TWO
d.: Well, I bailed Cal.E. and Tucker out of the local kennel, but they’re talking to a lawyer. She thinks that it’s best for Cal.E to keep a low profile while this is straightened out. I think they should listen to her, because she was the only lawyer I could find who spoke both English and Catonese. Anyway, I’ll be doing this blog solo for the foreseeable future. That works out fine, because I have an issue I would like to address.
I suffered multiple leg injuries while playing high school football, as well as a concussion which resulted in post-concussion syndrome. I missed most of my sophomore year due to having post-concussion syndrome, which could have been avoided, in my opinion.
When I played football, the helmets weren’t very good, according to recent studies. Additionally, getting hit in the head wasn’t considered a serious situation back then. Before we took the field, the coach would tell us that, if we were knocked silly and were asked by the trainer to tell him how many fingers he was holding up (their way of checking for a concussion), the answer would be two. The trainer always held up two fingers. He didn’t check to see if our eyes were dilated or if we knew who we were, where we were, or what day of the week it was. Asking any of those questions would have saved me from post- concussion syndrome, because I was only oriented to my name. I did know how many fingers were being held up when checked out, though (two). I was fortunate that a friend suggested my mother (a teacher at my school) take me to a doctor to be checked out. Not everyone is that lucky.
Now, rules prevent a player from getting hit in the head, a good measure. It has been illegal for a player to use his headgear on another player for a long period of time. Hitting someone above the shoulder pads with either a helmet or shoulder pads when that player is considered defenseless is now illegal as well. Doing so will result in the player committing the foul to be suspended for one-half of a game. This is a good measure to protect the players. Play is also stopped when it’s suspected that a player has suffered a concussion after being hit in the head or hitting his head on the turf. They do more than hold up two fingers now to check for a concussion. The training staff may even have an EEG done on the player to check his brainwaves if he isn’t’ oriented to person, place, time and situation. Modern medicine is amazing, but not fool-proof (as demonstrated by the situation with the Miami Dolphins and their quarterback). Nothing is.
The leg injuries I saw in the two games I watched this weekend were numerous, and the cause was obvious. I spent twenty-three years in agriculture, treating turf. Anyone who has ever been outside in the winter knows that grass is dormant this time of year. It doesn’t make a good cushion when one is knocked to the ground. It is also difficult to get good footing on. Some may have said that the play was sloppy, to some degree, in these two games. I disagree. I think the players were playing fine. It was the surfaces that were sloppy.
During the six years I played football (five and one -half, really, not counting one-half of my sophomore year) I never played on an artificial surface, but all three of my sons did. My two younger sons played quarterback for a time. Both said that getting tackled on that surface (which is inevitable if one plays that position with a subpar offensive line) is like getting tackled on a concrete surface with a thin rug thrown over it.
NFL players want to play on real grass, even though they can run faster on an artificial surface. Grass, they say, is more forgiving. I doubt many (if any) could attain their top-end speed, though, on a grass surface playing a game in the middle of January. The grass is dormant and offers no resistance. The underlying dirt is soft, making it difficult for a player’s cleats to grip the surface. It makes for a messy surface and some seemingly sloppily played games.
I don’t have any answers to this problem, other than to require all NFL teams to have an inside stadium. Not only would that be extremely expensive, but some of the northern teams regard the weather at their stadiums late in the season to be a valuable asset. Can you imagine the Green Bay Packers having an inside facility, or the Pittsburgh Steelers? How about the Buffalo Bills? It’s an advantage for those teams to play on sloppy surfaces, because they're accustomed to practicing and playing in those conditions, while many other teams are not.
This was d.c. scot, with one man’s (correct) opinion. Please join me tomorrow for another episode of Cal.E’s Korner.
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