Letters to the Editor
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Kickoffs might be the most dangerous play in sports...
...And yet, there's the NCAA telling unpaid scholar-athletes (ahem) that the game needs to be spiced up a bit, so they move kickoffs back to the 30 in an effort to roust more excitement from 3rd string human missle-launchers, or whomever else they send in to mash up the wedges.
I am mighty surprised King missed this connection. I've seen some wonderful players in high school and college end their careers on damn kickoffs, even in silly post-season senior bowls and the like. Knees and legs are the usual victims, but I'd wager that more head injuries occur here than any other situation on the field.
From hazy experiences playing but mostly through observing, it seems that some of the reason that such catastrophic injuries are relatively rare during the remainder of the game are that, for the most part:
(1) you rarely see full-speed collisions between players at max speed on any given play
(2) most collisions both participants see coming (unless you're playing Michigan, in which case it's a flailing arm you see coming, but I digress),
(3) in any given play, there's only a handful of players that are really in on the outcome of the play and will have an outcome on the tackle, whereas, again, on a kickoff it's 11 coming straight at you or your 'wall' at full speed, and odds are *someone* is going to get through and deck somebody
(4) the way special teams are structured the only available incentive for most members of the kicking teams is to blast a highlight reel block or tackle, regardless of where the returner actually is. If you're at a game, pay attention to the entire field and watch the cheap shots all over the place, especially on longer returns -- you won't see it on TV since all attention is on the carrier, but it's there.
I don't know of a prescription to make it safer. I do know it's one reason among millions more to pay these, um, students. Mr. Everett is one lucky (in an unlucky way) SOB to have been wearing an NFL uniform when the injury happened.