According to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell sent a letter to 44 governors urging them to pass a law that protects young athletes from playing soon after they’ve suffered a concussion.
Washington state has already passed the Lystedt’s Law, which helps keep young athletes from returning to the field too soon after they’ve suffered a concussion. The law was named after Zackery Lystedt, a Washington young who suffered a brain injury in 2006 after returning to a middle school football game following a concussion.
The Lystedt law contains three essential elements:
_Athletes, parents and coaches must be educated about the dangers of concussions each year.
_If a young athlete is suspected of having a concussion, he/she must be removed from a game or practice and not be permitted to return to play.
_A licensed health care professional must clear the young athlete to return to play in the subsequent days or weeks.
I’ve made it a habit not to talk politics on this blog or in my everyday life for that matter. But this is a law that needs to be passed nationwide.
Young athletes are often so desperate to please their parent or coach that they’ll risk injury to prove themselves. They’ll tell someone that they’re fine enough to play and then the next thing you know, they could suffer a serious injury.
But if a coach or a parent has a checklist to go through before the athlete can get back onto the field, then it takes the guess work out of whether or not he or she is ready to start playing again. It’s a good law and it’s nice to see someone like Goodell strive to get it passed in all states.
Gatorade put on a cool event in Detroit last weekend when they reunited members from the Trenton and Detroit Catholic Central schools in order to finish a 1999 game that ended in a 4-4 tie. Hockey legends Gordie Howe, Scotty Bowman and Brendan Shanahan all participated in the REPLAY.
This time around, Trenton knocked off their counterparts, 4-2.
For the honorary coaches it was a game of former player versus coach with Shanahan squaring-off against Bowman. Despite winning three championships while in Detroit, the two put those memories aside to focus on their teams.
“We have a lot of fond memories of our time together in Detroit, and we are two very competitive people so it was great to coach against each other,” said Brendan Shanahan. “When Gatorade contacted me about REPLAY, I was already excited because of what the program does for these guys. Then I found out Scotty Bowman would be on the other bench and I knew it was something I couldn’t pass up. I’m going to end my coaching career one and zero.”
Gatorade REPLAY re-stages classic games between some of the nation’s biggest high school sports rivalries. After a successful REPLAY Season One featuring the 1993 Easton Area and Phillipsburg high school football teams, a call for Season Two entries was made causing Trenton’s Kurt LaTarte to nominate his team’s rivalry with CC.
“That year Trenton and CC were at the top of the rankings, and despite winning the state championship that year CC was 25-1-1 with their only loss and only tie all season to us,” said LaTarte. “I knew this was an awesome opportunity to get the teams together and close this chapter. Seeing how this came together it was definitely worth every ounce of sweat.”
Read more about the event and check out photos here.
Seventeen-year-old Notre Dame football recruit Matt James died on Friday evening at the Days Inn Motel in Panama City Beach after falling off a balcony. Witnesses claim he was drunk and belligerent before the fall.
From ESPN.com:
James was part of a group of about 40 St. Xavier students and a half-dozen parents on the trip.
“Witnesses and friends indicate he had become drunk and belligerent,” Humphreys said. “He had leaned over the balcony rail, was shaking his finger at the people in the next room over. He fell over.”
Humphreys said the railing at the hotel met the standards for proper height. He said police would be interested in pursuing charges if they learn who provided the underage teen with alcohol.
When I first read that parents were also on the trip, I wondered how James got drunk in the first place. But let’s be honest – teenagers will always find ways to sneak alcohol past parents. It’s a sad incident and one that could have been avoided, but it was an accident. I just hope a parent wasn’t the one that supplied the alcohol, because there’s no excuse for that kind of irresponsibility.
Grand Haven basketball player Nate VanArendonk dunks and shatters the backboard in an MHSAA Boys Basketball Regional Final game against Rockford at Grandville High School on March 17, 2010. I shot this video, and have the authorization and approval of FOX 17 WXMI, who aired it. (Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to include sound on here.)
I like how VanArendonk jumps around after the play, while everyone else in the gym is probably thinking — this is going to take forever to clean up. They ended up finishing the game at another school and Grand Haven won the game.
VanArendonk signed with Central Michigan, which will surely make CMU alum Anthony Stalter proud.
In the California Division 1AA Southern Section championship, Mater Dei led by three with seconds to play when Etiwanda’s Evan Jenkins attempted a three-point shot. Mater Dei’s Eli Stalzer clearly raked him across the arm.
Jenkins would have had to hit three free throws to tie the game, but still, what a shame. The refs really blew that one.
Becker, 24, had explained to psychiatrists that after months of torment, he shot Thomas at least six times in the makeshift high school weight room, then kicked his body before walking away.
Jurors deliberated more than 24 hours over five days before convicting Becker of first-degree murder, rejecting his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. The guilty verdict carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
Defense psychiatrist Phillip Resnick, of Cleveland, said Becker believed Satan had possessed Thomas and that he was doing the community a favor — and freeing Parkersburg’s children — by killing the coach.
Resnick and others who interviewed Becker about his mental status said Becker suffered from such intense delusions that he incorrectly believed Thomas and the members of Becker’s old football team were sexually assaulting him, and that Thomas was trying to make Becker into a “sex slave.”
Maryland-based psychiatrist Michael Spodak, testifying for the prosecution, agreed Becker suffered from severe mental problems, including paranoid schizophrenia, but said he still understood right and wrong.
Spodak said Becker took rational measures to avoid detection on the morning of the shooting: He hid his gun while he was driving, told passersby that he was searching for Thomas in order to volunteer for the city’s tornado relief efforts, and made it a point to avoid shooting the teenagers in the weight room.
Although I have my own take on this subject, I’ll leave psychological evaluations to the professionals. Draw your own conclusions as to whether or not you think this conviction was right.
I will note, however, that Todd Thomas, the son of Ed Thomas, said it best after the trial when he stated that there are no winners here. One man lost his life, while the other will watch the rest of his go by from a prison cell. It’s a sad, unfortunate situation.
Here’s a good finish to a New Jersey boys basketball game. I’m trying to figure out how this has 44 K hits on YouTube. Maybe it’s the 15 white boys running around to a rap song at the end, I don’t know…
Quoting the YouTube description:
River Dell vs. Tenalfy [sic] Varsity boys basketball
- BLEACHER REPORT dissects why Wes Welker isn’t the answer to Tom Brady’s early season troubles.
- SPORTSbyBROOKS details the fight between two high schools in Mississippi, where one player got hit in the head with a helmet.
- REAL CLEAR SPORTS writes that Chicago’s “Glitz Blitz” fails to win the Olympic games.
- THE DRAFT ZOO breaks down Week 5 in college football, with keys to victory and what to watch for.
- YARDBARKER provides info about Rio de Janeiro and their winning bid for the 2016 Olympic Games.
- Although I feel bad for this kid because he’s quickly becoming an internet sensation for all the wrong reasons, UNCOACHED has video of the dumbest high school football play of the year:
