Bob CollinsThe National Football League today announced it will start suspending players who give particularly violent hits to other players.
What is the NFL worried about? One need only look at last weekend in college football.
A Luther College football player — Chris Norton — is hospitalized at Mayo Clinic after suffering a fractured neck and a compressed spinal cord during a football game on Saturday. His father said the family was told there was only a 3-percent chance he’d regain use of his limbs. Here’s his Caring Bridge site.
That’s not the only tragedy of the weekend. A Rutgers player is paralyzed from the neck down after a hit during a kickoff return.
| Rutgers defensive tackle Eric LeGrand carted off on backboard with neck injury |
The biggest barrier to eliminating some of the hitting that leads to kids becoming quadriplegics may be this: Fans love it.
