OT - Football Head Injury Claims NAIA Football Player's Life
The debate continues on if the helmets and padding provided football players is enough to keep them safe. Due to an injury from a spring practice, a NAIA player in Oregon has lost his life playing the game he loved.
A football player from Missoula, Mont., has died of a head injury suffered during Eastern Oregon's spring football game, school officials said.
Dylan Steigers, 21, took a blow to the head late in Saturday's scrimmage, and died Sunday at a Boise hospital, spokesman Tim Seydel said.
"It's hard to describe the emotions we all feel about losing Dylan," said Eastern Oregon president Bob Davies. "I sat with Dylan's family during the scrimmage, had a chance to connect with them. Dylan is an exceptional young man who loved to play football, and he had a bright future ahead of him. This is a loss we will feel for a very long time."
Steigers walked off the field after the collision, but later vomited on the sidelines, a sign of a concussion.
The trainer called 911 and Steigers was taken to Grand Ronde Hospital and later flown to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, school officials said. Doctors said he suffered an acute subdural hematoma as a result of the head injury.
It's a difficult topic to speculate upon as each full contact sport will have its risk for injuries such as this but it's a tragedy all the same. Helmet technology has a long way to go but it's been shown in reports time and again that as players continue to grow 2x bigger (speculating) than they used to due to training, diet regiments, etc., these injuries may become more and more common.
One could hope innovations and rules will emerge from this tragedy.
Absolutley terrible news, my thoughts and prayers are with his family.
This is a sad panda all the way around.
Players know the risk every time they step on the field, just like we know the risk every time we get in our cars. That being said technology and rules need to take a step forward in both arenas.
This is terrible news.
I know it isn't completely plausible anymore, but take away the helmets/pads and enforcing form tackles like in rugby=this stuff ends. Pads and helmets just become weapons when players are hurling themselves at each other carelessly.
I tend to agree with this, actually. Old school, soft leather helmets might actually be best for practices, as it would (theoretically) help force players to tackle (a la football) instead of hit (a la hockey).
Football helmets should not have a hard outer shell. It's insane. Put padding on the outside and it becomes less of a weapon.
I think that is the next step football takes. Adding padding to the outside of the helmet will dramatically reduce the amount of impact one helmet can cause on another
stop going for highlight reel hits leading with their helmet and tackling the wrong way. As a coach, thats one thing I wish I could instill in every player, how to tackle without using your head.
Prayers go out to the family and team.
My thoughts and prayers go out to him and his loved ones.
for this kid and his family. I will pray for them.
And to all the other players out there... tackle with your shoulder. Please, for the love of god. Tackle. With. Your. Shoulder.