It’s the biggest fear for every parent whose child plays tackle football.
It happens every year in several communities across the country, among high school students. This week, Medrick Burnett Jr. died. from Alabama A&M from a head injury he suffered on the field last month.
Burnett, a redshirt freshman from Lakewood, California, suffered the injury on Oct. 26 in a game against Alabama State.
Via the Associated Press, Burnett died Wednesday night. He was 20.
And football life goes on, as it always seems to do. Few will decide to stop playing when they hear about Burnett’s passing. Most will reconcile it by saying, as Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa did last month, “There’s just risk in everything and I’m willing to play the odds.”
The NFL hasn’t had a death since 1971, when Lions receiver Chuck Hughes died of a pre-existing heart condition. In July 2009, then-Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer predicted that a player would inevitably die during an NFL game.
“The truth is… someone’s dying here in the NFL,Palmer said at the time. “It’s going to happen.”
It almost happened in early 2023, when a routine hit was triggered commotio cordis for the security of accounts Damar Hamlin.
If/when this happens, what happens to the NFL? Considering that the death of Medrick Burnett Jr. is received more as an afterthought and less as the big story it should be, those who play football at all levels will likely be inclined to shrug their shoulders, regard the situation as a fluke and regard the situation as a fluke . keep going.
That doesn’t mean anyone should stop. Everyone has the right to engage in a wide range of risky behavior. Many take much bigger risks than footballers, for much less money. (Some pay good money for the rush of staring at serious injury or death.)
The point is that when it happens, there seems to be little or no self-examination or reassessment. As Joe Burrow said after Tua’s severe concussion against the Bengals in late September 2022: “Part of what we signed up for. You’re going to have a head injury. You’re going to tear your ACL. You’re going to break your arm. That’s the game we play , that’s the life we live and we get paid handsomely for it, I think, when we participate in every game. we know what we are getting into.”
More than a decade ago, when the risks of brain injuries became apparent, many assumed football would wither and die. Some in the media actually seemed to be advocating for this to happen, tying themselves in knots to tie any retirement to concussion concerns.
And here we are. At the end of 2024, the game will be stronger than ever. The people who play it accept the risks. Even if accepting those risks means pretending not to notice when the risks materialize for someone else, in the worst way possible.
