EDITORIAL: Steps need to be taken to keep football safe
It’s tough enough to navigate the minefields that come with being a 12-year-old, but Patrick Berton of South Strabane was carting around a burden that made that passage through life all the more difficult – a concussion he sustained while playing football.
As detailed in Monday’s edition of the Observer-Reporter, Berton ended up legally blind, had to use a wheelchair and endured constant pounding in his head. Doctors were finally able to diagnose Berton’s injury, and he is now a political science major at a Florida university, a rigorous therapeutic regimen having helped Berton’s injury heal.
Berton’s family launched the nonprofit Answers 4 Patrick Foundation in the wake of his ordeal, and has now started IMPACTED Inc., a nonprofit with a mission to inform parents, students and coaches on how dangerous concussions can be, and how sports can be made safer for young people. IMPACTED recently donated 65 helmets to the Washington School District that are tailored to help ease the impact of direct hits to the head.
Barb Cyprowski, a member of IMPACTED’s board, told the O-R’s Karen Mansfield, “Kids are going to play sports anyway, so our mission is prevention.”
Indeed, given how deeply ingrained football and other high-impact sports are in the American psyche, the prospect that they will vanish anytime soon is highly remote. That’s even as figures as disparate as former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre and former President Barack Obama have both mused that they would, if they had sons, be wary of letting them participate in football because of the risks. Of course, young people can’t be placed in protective cocoons until they reach maturity, and participation in sports confers both physical and social benefits. So, the wisest and most realistic course is to change laws, equipment and rules on the field to reduce the likelihood of other young players going through what Berton did.
Or worse.
Two years ago, a study by a neuropathologist published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that, after examining the brains of a little more than 200 deceased football players, 110 showed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative disease that can cause memory loss and depression and is associated with repeated blows to the head. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control found last summer that the number of concussions high school students have experienced has likely been under-reported, with some choosing to hide their symptoms from coaches, parents or teammates.
Dr. Jonas Marry, the medical chairman of IMPACTED and a chiropractor, told the O-R, “There are physical and psychological changes that take place as a result of concussions. There’s a ton of research that shows it. It’s not opinion-based. The brain needs time to heal. It’s important to get it checked out and not be in a rush to get back to play.”
The Southern humorist Lewis Grizzard once observed that “the game of life is a lot like football.” But football is not worth a diminished life after the days of gridiron glory are over. If other young players avoid serious injury because of what Berton endured, his trials will not have been in vain.