Letters to the Editor
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Everett might recover
Just after this was posted to Salon, a new article from the AP wire suggests that Everett is much improved. Apparently an experimental treatment was used to put him in a hypothermic state to reduce swelling in his spinal cord until they could do surgery to relieve the pressure. This technique has been thought to be promising for a few years, but it hasn't been used much yet since the appropriate equipment is rarely found at an accident scene or whatever. Fortunately for Everett, in anticipation of something like this Buffalo (who's owner is associated with the University of Miami team that developed the treatment) had the equipment and appropriately trained medical staff on hand and was able to start the treatment right away. Nobody was sure if it would work, but it looks like Everett is currently able to move his arms and legs, which makes his prognosis substantially better than it was last night. He's still not out of the woods, but it's looking up.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070912/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_bills_everett_hurt
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I'll just add this here
Instead of clogging the man's email: Despite my serious disagreement about King's blowing off the weight of this deed, I agree forfeiture is too much - especially when I learn (from King himself, above) that this only happened once, 86 years ago or so. We (da Jets) will take their first draft pick next year in compensation, tho. Detroit can have the 2009 one.
As for putting a guy in row 12 - sure, you can. But they wanted unobstructed clarity and the ability to relate the data quickly. Or maybe they wanted just to get in Mangini's head. Still deserves punishment - you don't get to intimidate by breaking the rules.
As for stealing being a fine art - this ain't baseball. The incorporation of "cheating" in baseball (quote marks cause if it's not disallowed, it ain't cheating) is rather unique to it among sports. It's not the rule. In most sports there's do's and there's don'ts. Think you can aim a laser microphone at the opposing team's timeout in hoops?
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Give Ralph Wilson credit; Pats court retribution
Bills owner has contributed heavily to the research behind this new technique at UMiami and then had the foresight to actually have it available on-field in case something horrific like this happened.
Good thing Everett's not a Pat, Belichik would blame him for poor tacking technique and not picking up the stolen signal from Denver's return team, then cut him loose on Thursday.
You know what, good for the NFL for cracking down on this BS that the Pats are doing. If everyone else WAS doing it, then why would the Pats be singled out? I agree a forfeit is too much, but it has to have teeth, otherwise there is no deterrent.
What I don't understand is the logistical advantage this occurs in real time. If they are stealing defensive signals that are being communicated by hand gestues from the MLB then how are they getting communicated back to Brady in time for him to react. We are talking 3-5 seconds max. Is this enough time to call an audible and redo the whole play? Maybe the solution is to stop this e-comm between sideline and helmet. Why is this even necessary? Whatever happened to just running the play in from the sideline?
Most of all, this is just bad football karma and if there truly are football dogs, retribution will come and the Bill Simmons of the world will be left gnashing their teeth as it comes crashing down.
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An easy way of preventing neck injuries
Something I have wondered about for years may have been a factor in Everett's injury: the face mask. It was introduced in the 1950s in order to reduce the various facial injuries players were suffering - lost teeth, broken jaws, broken noses, and eye injuries. It also can put a player's head in vulnerable positions when tackling, blocking, being tackled, being blocked, and getting in pileups. The face mask acts as a lever against the head of the player. There is only one way to avoid both the facial injuries and neck injuries that make the game so risky: abolish football.
It's not likely to happen any time soon, but when our civilization has had enough of violence of all kinds: wars, domestic abuse, barroom brawls, vigilantism, bullying, police brutality, supermax prisons, travel in motor vehicles, and sports like football, hockey, boxing, and stock car racing - injuries like this will be a thing of the past. The side business dog-fighting is not far from the brutality of other sports. It is merely a step further in the Roman Coliseumization of spectator sports in the "USA." When we lose interest in football we will know we have changed as a people.
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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.