Dec 11, 2017 3 min read

Football is a dangerous game.

There was no better example of that than when Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier fell to the Cincinnati turf during the Dec. 4 game against the Bengals, grasping at his back while his lower body went limp. The defensive leader of the team suffered a serious spinal cord injury while making a tackle, requiring surgery and leaving his prognosis uncertain.

Shazier’s future in football is a secondary concern right now. His long-term health and ability to walk are much more important.

It was a jolt of reality to the game many people love. But there are other hidden dangers with football and many other sports, especially at the professional and collegiate levels.

Sometimes those dangers don’t come in the form of broken bones or torn ligaments, but the addiction to painkillers after an athlete suffers a severe injury.

That was illustrated by Pittsburgh Penguins great Kevin Stevens, who became addicted nearly a quarter-century ago after suffering a gruesome facial injury after falling to the ice during a 1993 NHL playoff game. After years of addiction, Stevens apparently has come to grips with his demons. He is now working in the Penguins organization as a special assignment scout after becoming sober 18 months ago upon pleading guilty to oxycodone charges last year.

Preventing such addiction in the first place is so important. That’s why local college and university athletic programs are taking the matter seriously.

None of the athletic trainers at Washington & Jefferson College, Waynesburg University and California University of Pennsylvania is permitted to prescribe pain medication, and the most they will give student-athletes are over-the-counter pain relief medication, such as Tylenol and Advil. Even those are dispensed carefully, with Cal U. trainers giving out those medications one dose at a time.

Going further, the trainers counsel the student-athletes on the dangers of drug abuse, whether it be opioids, performance enhancing supplements or even alcohol.

“We talk with all teams at the beginning of the school year, about how to handle injuries, classes, time management and use of drugs and alcohol,” said Mike Lesako, a co-head trainer at W&J.

Of course, the collegiate divisions and competition can make a difference. All three local schools are subject to NCAA drug testing, although athletes at W&J and Waynesburg, both Division III schools, may only undergo testing during the playoffs. Still, both schools go beyond that with their own random testing.

“We want to make sure everyone is OK,” Lesako said.

At the more-competitive Division II level where Cal U. sits, NCAA drug testing is more regimented, a deterrent to use abuse any sort of drugs.

Most importantly, though, educating these young athletes on the danger of drug abuse is most important to keeping students clean and focused on what really matters; a college education.

All three local institutions and their athletic departments deserve credit for taking the threat seriously and ensuring their student-athletes are ready not only to take the field, but also be prepared to take on life’s challenges after they graduate.