Posted 12-20-2007 at 07:38 PM by Dgill
Early this morning when I was laying in bed I always flip on Sportscenter to check up on the news and see how my Av's did. (I hate you Schnieder). While watching through the program Dan O'Toole (Who I think he and Jay Onrait are gods) began talking about concussions in sports and putting your health first. After watching the video clip, I was in shock.
The video clipped was a brief interview with the victim's mother of a highschool football player down in the State's. This guy was the captain of his football team and was just getting ready for college. While everyone else is off to college, he is now re-learning his alphabet and how to walk because he never took the proper care of a concussion.
He was on the punt return team, rushing up the field when he got hit hard by an opponent. Hee wasn't knocked out, but he knew then he had a concussion After a couple days, he was getting headaches and feeling dizziness, so he called his mother to take him to the hospital. His cat-scan showed no signs of brain damage so they considered him fine. The thing was he was never fine, and he knew it. Instead of sitting out a couple games before playoffs, like any team leader, he wanted to be there for his team. One practice he told his coach three times he was fine to play, and then during the practice he collapsed. A second cat scan showed the pressure he put on himself to keep going even when he knew he wasn't himself has caused some significant brain damage.
Cody Lehe was a senoir at his highschool with a stack of letters at home left unread for his college life that will never take place. He is now learning how to walk and the early fundamentals of life all over again.
As great and heroic as it is to be there for your team, you must learn how to put yourself first. Had Cody took the precautions his body was warning him about, he would still be the same boy he was over a couple years ago today.
I bring this up for I was just doing some surfing on NHL.com and I came across that Simon Gagne was injured. As I read on it stated he was out with a concussion. He played two more games with it, but when he realized the severity of it he has sat out 18 games since then, dating back to Nov.5th. A healthy Gagne in the future is better then a Gagne who is struggling day to day and could cause some exstensive damage to himself. Not only that, he's making sure he would be around for the final stretch of the regular season.
Brendan Morrison's Iron Man streak has officially came to an end. But it should have ended from Day 1 back at training camp. Do you really think an injured Morrison did that much better for his team? Personally, I think had he rested his wrist properly he could have avoided the surgery, and missed no more then 2-4 weeks. He now wont return until February. Because of him pushing himself, the team will suffer for five months instead of less then one.
Athletes in general today, especially young ones are just pushing there health to the extreme. How often did a 17 year old boy die from a heart attack from hockey? Or a sprinter? Or even a football player? To me, it's becomming more frequent at an alarming rate. There has to be a program stressed to all athletes on how to push your body and how not to. I know from experience, I pushed myself to hard after a back injury and I was injured for almost an entire summer.
[URL="http://broadband.tsn.ca/tsn/?id=348&vid=25029"]Cody Lehe Clip Off of TSN[/URL]
I stress everyone to watch this clip and share it with there sons, daughters, friends, parents, anyone to aware them the danger of ignoring symptoms.
It took me a month to find something to rant about, expect more for the futre folks.
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Dgill
