Player Safety: Are We Doing Enough?

By Mo’Asia Ferrell
​
Are the health and safety precautions of football players prioritized? Many questions are on the minds of people around the world considering the different reactions the Damar Hamlin incident encountered. Skip Bayless wrote on Twitter, “No doubt the NFL is considering postponing the rest of this game- but how? This late in the season, a game of this magnitude is crucial to the regular season outcome… which suddenly seems so irrelevant.” That set off many negative reactions from athletes and fans across Twitter. I mean how could you be so heartless? A player’s heart stopped in the middle of a game and he went into cardiac arrest!  This is a big deal.

Are people really questioning if the game is more important than these players' well-being? This makes me wonder here at East High School what are the actions, steps and protocols to ensure our football players are kept safe? Yes they have the shoulder pads… the thigh pads… the knee pads… mouth guards... pants…socks… and cleats (for each skill group). I mean the list goes on - and - on but Damar had all of that and the incident still took place. A former East player said “We tackled with our heads up to avoid head to head contact and in practice we didn’t hit each other below the hips because many players get injured like that, we stretched for a while also to avoid injuries such as ACL tears… especially on turf because that's when its most common”. Even though pads and helmets and other protective gear has always been seen as enough, the new situation with Damar Hamlin may end up changing things for high school athletes around the country. We’ll have to see what happens next year.