Football Injuries

Last week you ran the stories by Bill Dwyre and Bill Plaschke on football causing head and neck injuries. Both were riveting expressions of football's most feared dangers. Granted, some schools have better medical care and facilities than others, but even the best will fall short where the most serious head and neck injuries are fatal or crippling. Then how do we reduce the occurrence of these frightful injuries? It is my opinion that the most obvious cause of head and neck injuries is the plastic helmet and facemask.

USC receiver George Farmer suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee and will sit out the 2013 season, a person close to the situation said Wednesday. Farmer, a junior, was injured Tuesday while catching a pass in a non-contact practice drill. He will undergo surgery in a few weeks. It is the latest setback for Farmer, who was slowed by injuries his first two seasons but was enjoying a productive spring and making a push to become a regular part of the receiver rotation.

As the high school football season nears, a team of sports-medicine researchers has added new emphasis to an injury-prevention campaign that predictably begins about this time each year. In a new review on injury research published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine, experts from the Hughston Orthopedic Clinic in Columbus, Ga., conclude that two combined factors may pose the greatest risk of knee injury in young football players.

Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger, the winning quarterback in last February's Super Bowl, absorbed a violent blow to the head two weeks ago, suffered a concussion and sat out last weekend's game. Arizona's Kurt Warner, his Super Bowl counterpart, also was sidelined last weekend by a concussion he suffered a week before. And Cleveland's Jamal Lewis, the last player to rush for 2,000 yards in a season, is dealing with a similar head injury that has ended his year -- and perhaps his career.

As an orthopedic surgeon and doctor to the Los Angeles Raiders, Dr. Robert Rosenfeld knows something about football injuries. Including his own. Sustained on the sidelines. "I was hit and broke a rib a couple of weeks ago," he said recently. "It was my fault. If you're on the sidelines it's up to you to get out of the way, but I was talking to somebody. . . . "And in Miami a few years ago, there was a play on the 20-yard line.

Bob Golic dragged himself off the field and collapsed in the back of his parents' car. This was nearly two decades ago, in Cleveland. Golic, now a defensive lineman for the Raiders, was just beginning his football career at St. Joseph's High School there. As the car pulled out, Golic, who had taken a beating in the game, was moaning and groaning. His mother, Kate, leaned over from the front seat, concern on her face, and asked if she could give her son something for his pain.

The rate of pro football injuries hasn't changed much in the past 20 years despite theories of greater risks on artificial turf, according to a study by a National Football League team doctor published today in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. The study by New York Jets team physician Dr. James Nicholas and colleagues drew protest from the NFL Players Assn.

The November issue of The Physician and Sports Medicine contains a lengthy commentary by Harold B. Falls, a professor of biomedical sciences at Southwest Missouri State in Springfield, Mo., on the dangers of high school football injuries, specifically for girls who play. Among his conclusions: --"During a 47-year period (1931-78), 544 deaths were directly attributed to high school football (an average of 11.5 per year).

The 2-12 Dallas Cowboys have never before lost a dozen games in a season. But they didn't just suddenly fall apart. They finished 7-8 last season and 7-9 in 1986. And Sid Gillman has come up with an explanation. Gillman, one of several former National Football League coaches in the Hall of Fame, attributes the Cowboys' decline to Coach Tom Landry's decision to stop calling signals. "They were a champion when Tom was sending in every play," Gillman said this week.

It was last winter when NCAA football officials gathered to discuss making games faster-paced and more exciting. As one official put it, they wanted to "chip off the dead time." Someone suggested doing away with kickoffs, having teams start each possession from the 20-yard line. Instead, the NCAA rules committee took the opposite approach. With the season beginning this week, college football will be under scrutiny for a rule change that pushes kickoffs back five yards to the 30-yard line.

Greeneville, Tenn., of the Appalachian League is a far cry from being strapped to a stretcher and carried off a high school field in La Verne, as fans and friends in a hushed stadium murmur silent prayers that you aren't paralyzed. That's the trip that 18-year-old Jiovanni Mier has made. His is a story of the ultimate happy ending, after the ultimate close call. Mier is now the starting shortstop for Greeneville, the Houston Astros' rookie-level team.

Sam Paneno doesn't do self-pity. "Why me?" never crossed his lips. Or his mind. "I was always taught to look at life from different perspectives," the former UC Davis running back says, "and that you have a choice on how you react to things." Ten years ago, the national spotlight found Paneno in the darkest of times, revealing an athlete of uncommon character, unflagging spirit and remarkable perspective. He had just lost a leg.

My brother and his wife got some good news a couple weeks ago -- their son Jared was injured playing football. No, they weren't overjoyed when the ambulance pulled up and he was hauled off on a stretcher, but the story had a happy ending. His high school football career is over. High-fives all around! I was equally buoyed at the news, and it's not because I have a sadistic streak. To my way of thinking, it's just the opposite.

It was last winter when NCAA football officials gathered to discuss making games faster-paced and more exciting. As one official put it, they wanted to "chip off the dead time." Someone suggested doing away with kickoffs, having teams start each possession from the 20-yard line. Instead, the NCAA rules committee took the opposite approach. With the season beginning this week, college football will be under scrutiny for a rule change that pushes kickoffs back five yards to the 30-yard line.

By this point in the football season, Bobby DeMars has dislocated his fingers and thumbs more times than he can recall. The USC defensive lineman winces a little whenever he is introduced to someone. "They think I'm some big tough guy so they try to shake my hand really hard," he said. "It hurts." And by this point in the season, fullback Charlie Landrigan isn't all that eager to look in the mirror after a game. "You get all these cuts ... you're bleeding all over," he said. "You look like hell."

Last week you ran the stories by Bill Dwyre and Bill Plaschke on football causing head and neck injuries. Both were riveting expressions of football's most feared dangers. Granted, some schools have better medical care and facilities than others, but even the best will fall short where the most serious head and neck injuries are fatal or crippling. Then how do we reduce the occurrence of these frightful injuries? It is my opinion that the most obvious cause of head and neck injuries is the plastic helmet and facemask.

Dogged by costly injuries to law enforcement officers, poor attendance and a variety of other problems, the annual Cop'er Bowl football game is in danger of being canceled. Sheriff's deputies who have been injured playing football have won what could amount to an estimated $1.5 million in compensation benefits, according to county records.

I wonder who the University of California basketball players will pick to succeed Lou Campanelli as coach. . . . With UCLA, USC and Cal State Long Beach fading, Pepperdine could be the only local team to reach the NCAA basketball tournament. . . . UCLA Coach Jim Harrick told the McDonnell-Douglas show on KMPC that he has caused many of his problems by making statements he later regretted. . . .

Depth chart, indeed. UCLA, how low can you go? The starting quarterback for the biggest game of the season was the fourth stringer in October, third only three weeks ago, and is a redshirt freshman in the opening lineup for the first time.

UCLA was in its familiar state of quarterback uncertainty Monday, avoiding the debate of old but getting at least a discussion. OK, so it's more like a medical consultation. The issue of Cory Paus' questionable health, in the wake of his being sidelined in the first half Saturday against Fresno State, had the Bruins considering a start for Drew Bennett.