Last Monday morning January 2, 2023 I was in conversation over coffee with Jon, an American friend up here in British Columbia. Somehow the subject of a tragedy on the track came up ( I think I may have mentioned the Bob Soth incident in the 1959 Russian dual meet that occurred on national TV) and Jon reflected on an event that he witnessed at the Big Ten men's indoor meet in Minnesota in 2002. At that event, Kevin Dare, a young pole vaulter from Penn State, lost control on his descent and landed head first into the vaulting box and was killed instantly from the impact. The tragedy was further compounded by the fact that Kevin's parents were in the audience. It was immediately clear from the level of physical trauma of the injury that Kevin would not survive. Nevertheless after Kevin was taken away by an emergency medical team, the officials in charge decided that the meet would go on. The scheduled 3000 meters was run only a few feet from where Kevin Dare had just died. It was only on the second day of the event that it was decided to cancel the rest of the meet.
Later that same day after Jon and I had our conversation, the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals were engaged in a much awaited battle of NFL powerhouses. Shortly into the game in the first quarter an event witnessed by thousands in attendance and millions on television brought the football game to a halt. The defensive player Damar Hamlin for the Bills after making a routine tackle on a Bengals player suffered a cardiac arrest. While Damar's teammates gathered around him, the game was stopped and a medical team went into action, performed CPR and shocked Damar's heart twice to restart it before transporting him to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. After an hour the game was postponed and since then, the NFL has stated that it would not be resumed. It is now five days after the event, and it is reported that Damar Hamlin is responding to treatment and will most likely make a reasonable recovery. Whether he will ever be cleared to play again is not an immediate question.
One death, one serious injury, two different responses to those situations. That conversation about Kevjn Dare and then the Damar Hamlin incident 12 hours later sparked a thought process that got me wondering how many times on the playing fields we are put into situations like this and have to respond to the question, "Do we continue, or do we stop the game?"
A quick Google search came up with the following statistic.
"Since 1980, 20 athletes have died pole vaulting, while 38 have suffered skull fractures and 44 have sustained serious injuries, the Daily Pennsylvanian reports. And while pole vaulting may be the most dangerous, the javelin throw and hammer have the potential for serious injuries, as well.May 29, 2012"
That's 20 deaths in 32 years in pole vaulting and 82 serious injuries. Obviously many of those injuries and deaths did not occur in competition.
In the early 20th century football had a serious history of deaths on the field. FYI Teddy Roosevelt came down hard on the sport in 1905 because of this.
Teddy Roosevelt and Football link
By comparison, in an NFL game all the focus of all the players and all the spectators, and all the TV audience is on the injury when it occurs. In track with its multiple event nature, much of the focus is shared at different places at different times with several competitions going on simultaneously. Maybe that is why the Hamlin injury was so much more of a collective shock.
Television allows the public to witness violence on a grand scale. How many shootings are repeatedly replayed on CNN, MSNBC and FOX? How many times have you witnessed George Floyd being strangled to death on TV? Did the 'news' stop their presentation when it was known that George Floyd had died? No, they haven't, but now the standard caution is "some of the events you see may be disturbing". Yet in replaying the Damar Hamlin injury, no network to my knowledge has shown him collapsing after getting up after the tackle. I have no desire to see it, but for some reason the networks seem to have shown restraint in playing it over and over in distinct contrast to the way they did with George Floyd.
In other sports, death occurs. It's a guarantee in Bullfighting. In boxing and MMA people pay to see fighters try to knock each other out and perhaps leave their brains permanently damaged. In the arenas in Roman times, gladiators fought to the death and people paid to see it. We like to think that our civilization has evolved to a higher level and no longer needs such entertainment. But in film and gaming, we pay big money to see people if not really, then sort of be blown up, killed, or tortured.
As a young boy, going to the auto races was a big part of my life. I was present at several races where drivers lost their lives. I cannot think of one time when a race in which there was a fatality that it was cancelled and spectators sent home. And yet in football where violence is a huge part of the game, when it is taught, when it is rewarded, when it occurs on national tv, it was stopped. Will this be the new normal for the next serious injury? I don't think the league would get through the playoffs and Super Bowl if they did. I remember a college football game where a Penn State player was severely injured. But I do not think the game was stopped, except to remove him from the field. It was Adam Taliafero the Penn State player who was left paraplegic after tackling an Ohio State player in Ohio Stadium in 2000. The game didn't stop. Fortunately Taliafero didn't stop either and made a recovery, but did not play again. He's now an advocate for rights of disabled in New Jersey.
Will the game be made safer by rules changes such as the new and controversial penalty for targeting a ball carrier? If it is reduced to touch football with players wearing ribbons on their wastes to grab and stop the play, I doubt that many fans will show up.
On November 3, 2007 while competing in the US Olympic trials marathon, Ryan Shay, one of the favorites suffered a cardiac arrhythmia and died. But the race wasn't stopped. At the time, no one probably realized the degree of his heart arrest.
My late friend Steve Price organized a marathon near Monroe, Ohio back in the 1970's. It passed near his mother's house, and during the race one of the runners collapsed. He was brought into Steve's mom's house, and he died on her living room floor. But the race didn't stop and it was held for many years after. In fact the marathon commemorates and honors the death of Phidippidès who died at the finish line.
Before last Monday night, few NFL fans knew who Damar Hamlin was. Only the most rabid of Bills fans or Fantasy Football players might have known of Damar Hamlin. Now Damar is a household word. His charity for toys for children went from $2,500 to more than $6,000,000 overnight. That outpouring of sympathy for someone we hardly knew is overwhelming and commendable. Yesterday a first grade teacher in Virginia was severely wounded by one of her students, but I doubt there will be a similar outpouring of grief and donations to her favorite charity. What happens on the playing field that is different from the routine occurrences when we go to work or to the grocery or the movies?
If a water boy or girl or a Bengals cheerleader on the sidelines had dropped from cardiac arrest during the game or Jerry Jones the owner of the Dallas Cowboys had had a similar episode during a game, it is doubtful the game would have been stopped, postponed, or cancelled. What it seems to mean is that when someone is elevated to a playing position on an professional sports team, they take on a status reserved for only a few in our society. It puts an incredible responsibility on the shoulders of those few and anything out of the ordinary on their part is greatly amplified, perhaps way beyond what it should be. It's not fair to them, they are not my definition of a hero. Their most heroic acts are more likely to occur off the field.
George Brose
I ran in that Monroe, Ohio road race where someone died. I heard about it while running but he had not died at that time. The starting time was 2:00 on a Sunday afternoon and the temperature was extremely hot. As I saw the Lebanon Correctional Institution off to the left, I wondered who was more fortunate, them or me. The entire race was no fun.
And hockey players have had the same problem being hit in the chest with a puck...
George,
I read your Blog today about “Injuries” and it brought me back to my Grandmother’s advice back in Lowell, Mass.
She told me three things to be aware of for keeping safe:
- Watchout and avoid “machines”(automobiles)
- Stay away from playing football
- Keep your bowels open
We’ll see if these will get me to 100?
Bill
Ps) Grandma only got to be 94 but three of her daughters made it to their late 90s.
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