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Head injuries make the news

By Dan Ralph

They wear helmets to safeguard their heads and pads to protect various parts of their bodies. But in football, that's still not nearly enough to prevent serious injuries from happening.

That point was again driven home in Orchard Park, N.Y., where Kevin Everett, a backup tight end with the Buffalo Bills, sustained a horrific spinal-cord injury while trying to make a tackle in the club's season-opening 15-14 home loss to the Denver Broncos.

Everett appeared to drop his head while tackling Denver's Domenik Hixon during the second-half kickoff. Everett fell face-first to the ground after his helmet hit Hixon high on the left shoulder and side of the helmet.

Everett, 25, lay motionless on the field after being injured. He was placed on a backboard with his head and body immobilized and was taken away in an ambulance.

He remains in the intensive care unit of a Buffalo hospital and continues to make some progress, like being able to move his toes. Initially, Andrew Cappuccino, the surgeon who operated on Everett, told reporters that it was very unlikely Everett would ever walk again. But while Everett definitely isn't ouf of the woods yet _ there's still the threat of developing blood clots _ at least his ability to voluntarily moves his toes has given optimism that one day Everett might be able to walk.

However, his injury does drive home the fact that football is a contact sport and regardless of how careful players are, they can't predict if _ or when _ they might be injured seriously.

A common refrain during a football practice, be it in the NFL or minor level with kids, is coaching routinely telling players, "Eyes to the sky," when they move in to make a tackle. Not only does the tackler actually see who he's tackling, but more importantly his head is in a good position to less the threat of injury.

Even in the NFL, that's a constant reminder the league makes to its players. In every locker-room around the league, there's a sign in clear view of the players that reads, "See what you hit."

Yet even that's not enough to prevent major injury as television replays seem to show Everett had a clear view of what he was hitting when he initiated contact with Hixon on the opening kickoff of the second half. The fact of the matter is football is a contact sport played by players who are rarely sitting still. High-speed collisions are inevitable.

But when they happen in the NFL, where players are bigger, stronger and faster, well, the sad truth is sometimes very bad injuries are going to happen.

Unfortuntely, Everett isn't the first NFL player to be seriously injured playing the game.

New England Patriots receiver Darryl Stingley suffered a broken neck after being hit by Jack Tatum of the Oakland Raiders in an exhibition game in 1978. The injury left Stingley a quadriplegic. He died in April at the age of 55.

Defensive lineman Dennis Byrd of the New York Jets suffered a serious spinal injury in '91. He was partially paralyzed initially, but Byrd did recover from his injuries however never played football again.

Mike Utley of the Detroit Lions remains paralyzed from the waist down after being injures in the '91 season. Six years later, Reggie Brown, another former Lion, suffered a spinal injury in '97 that nearly killed him. Fortunately, he recovered from his injuries.

The point is, the threat of injury is a very real one. Players never talk about it in public, for fear that somehow that increases the likelihood of it happening to them. Players accept that risk every time they step on to the field, but feel it will always happen to someone else and not them.

Every year, the NFL spends a lot of time tweaking its rules and doing whatever it can to enhance player safety, and with good reason. It's the players who make the game, it's the players fans come out to watch.

But no amount of state-of-the-art equipment or constant tweaking of the rules and bylaws will ever eliminate the threat of serious injury. The fans know that, the coaches know that, and even though they rarely speak about it, the players know that, too.

It's sad, but unfortunately, true.