Faulty Equipment Can Have Deadly Results

There are two battered football helmets sitting in Otho Davis’ home, grim reminders of what can happen when a high school athlete plays this often violent game without the proper care or equipment.

The helmets came from two prep players who died after suffering head injuries. Davis, head trainer for the Philadelphia Eagles and executive director of the National Athletic Trainers Assn., read about the cases and called the coaches, asking for the equipment.

“The webbing was rotted right through to the rivets,” he said. “They were old, beat-up helmets. They obviously had been used too many times. A certified trainer would never allow kids in that equipment. I strongly believe they contributed to the deaths.”

In more sophisticated programs, a trainer or equipment manager would have discarded the helmets. In many prep and high school programs, however, there is no trainer or equipment manager. Those functions fall to the coach and medical care is limited to a first-aid kit.

“Administrators say they don’t have the funds to hire trainers,” Davis said. “But they can always find money for a new blocking sled or new decals for the helmets or a new projector. Those things they can afford.”

Davis told another story about a youngster whose death was heat-related. “This was a situation where the boy was overweight and shouldn’t have been on the field to begin with. It was a case of poor screening, poor judgment, poor care and a boy is dead.

“You can’t take the human body, put it in a heavy, long-sleeved jersey in early August heat and expect it to perform when it is not in condition. That’s not a time to get into condition.”

NATA estimates that 800,000 high school student-athletes will sustain time-loss injuries during the school year and 100,000 of those will be serious. It says 37 athletes will die or be permanently paralyzed. The numbers disturb Davis.

“Most of the injuries are really re-injuries, cases where an individual was not taken care of properly in the first place,” he said. “Too often there is pressure placed on an athlete to return to his or her sport too soon. The pressure comes from coaches and from peers. If one individual controls the well-being of a team, that individual should be a certified athletic trainer, responsible only to the team physician.”

Not all coaches will look the other way when an athlete is injured. Davis recalls an incident when Dick Vermeil was coaching the Eagles and Philadelphia was playing a game at Tampa Bay.

“Wilbert Montgomery hurt his knee in the first half, strained it really,” Davis said. “We were working on him in the training room at halftime. The team was going back on the field and Dick came in.

“Wil was getting dressed and Vermeil asked him how he was. He said, ‘I’m fine, ready to go,’ but Dick told him he would not play.

“Wil said, ‘C’mon, coach, I’m fine,’ but Dick wouldn’t take a chance.” So, Montgomery sat, insuring he would run another day.

Davis wishes high schools would follow Vermeil’s lead and not take chances, either.