American football in crisis over student deaths and serious injuries

The Michigan Wolverines were trailing the Minnesota Golden Gophers 30- 7 in the final quarter of an American college football last Saturday when the Michigan quarterback Shane Morris took a horrendous and illegal hit to the head in a tackle from an opponent.

As Morris threw the ball, Minnesota’s player Theiren Cockran launched himself head-first at the quarterback, striking him below the chin, and ricocheting his head and body backwards.

In front of a crowd of almost 103,000 attending the game in Michigan, Morris lay face down on the ground briefly and, after getting up, had to hold on to a fellow player to steady himself.

Shockingly, a visibly distressed and wobbly Morris was kept on the field to participate in a follow-up play and had to throw the ball. The footage is unsettling to watch.

Even the sports commentators on television, where helmet-to-helmet collisions are regularly replayed in graphic slow motion, were stunned. “I can tell you that number seven [Morris] is still in this game is appalling,” said ESPN’s Ed Cunningham.

Fans have reacted with fury, calling for University of Michigan coach Brady Hoke, who was already in their crosshairs for a string of bad results, to be fired for keeping the player on after an obvious case of concussion.

Hoke said it was his decision to leave Morris on the field after the collision and defended his management, saying he didn’t see Morris stumble after getting up from the tackle.

“I don’t know if he might have had concussion or not – I don’t know that,” he said. “Shane’s a pretty competitive, tough kid. Shane wanted to be the quarterback. If he didn’t want to be, he would have come to the sideline or stayed down.”

Maybe if Morris knew where the sideline was after such a forceful impact, then he might have done so. The coach’s failure to substitute a shaken player immediately made the incident all the more shocking.

Michigan’s athletic director Dave Brandon later took ultimate responsibility for the health and safety of the players and fans have called for his head too.

Michigan students gathered for a large protest on the university campus on Tuesday, objecting to the management’s handling of the concussion and marching on the president’s house.

The groundswell reflects the changing attitude to concussion in American football: a short time ago complaints might have been about players not being tough enough. Those days are gone: player welfare is now paramount.

Not a month goes by in the US media, and in particular sports media, without some reference to growing concerns about rates of concussion in professional and indeed amateur sport, notably in football but also in ice hockey.

Just this week Tom Cutinella, a 16-year-old high school player in New York, died after sustaining a head injury during a game on Wednesday night. His death came just days after two 17-year-old players collapsed and died after a warm-up and a game in North Carolina and Alabama.

There were eight direct fatalities in high school football in 2013 and a further nine fatalities in indirectly related incidents, according to a report by the National Centre for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research at the University of North Carolina. Five direct fatalities involved a tackle; six died from brain injuries and two from cervical fractures.

The National Football League, which makes $10 billion (€8 billion) a year in revenues, had hoped a settlement of $765 million agreed to end lawsuits taken by more than 4,500 retired players and their families last year would have ended accusations that the league had concealed the dangers of repeated concussions.

A federal judge later said the settlement may not be enough to cover 20,000 retired players.

New lawsuits have also emerged both in federal and state courts such as a case taken by former Kansas City Chiefs players in Missouri.

The NFL has changed its rules to make the game safer and introduced new medical protocols to response to concussions, but this may not be enough. Court documents disclosed earlier this month show, according to actuaries hired by the NFL, nearly a third of retired professional footballers are expected to develop long -term cognitive problems which are likely to be diagnosed at "notably younger ages" than the general population.

These findings emerged in documents submitted to the federal judge weighing up whether last year’s settlement will be sufficient.

The latest on-field incidents suggest the league and the sport may need to do much more than just pay out money, and attempt to stop further devastating long-term injuries being inflicted.