COULD THE LEAGUE BE LIABLE FOR EVERETT'S INJURY?
By Scott Daniels, Esq., NFL Draft Bible
This past Sunday, football fans rejoiced with the start of the NFL regular season. We saw Peyton Manning dazzle us with three touchdown passes against the Saints. We saw Tom Brady do the same against the Jets. While Eagle fans cringed at the sight of two botched punt returns that cost them the game, Cowboy fans watched in awe as their golden boy Tony Romo put on a show against the Giants.
Rookies were born into the league and veterans reunited for another exciting football season. For one player however, his Sunday took a turn for the worst.
Kevin Everett, a second year reserve Tight End for the Bills, was severely injured after an attempted tackle during a kickoff to start the second half against the Broncos. In what has been categorized as a "catastrophic" and "life-threatening" spinal cord injury, Everett's incident stunned the football world and sent a serious reality check to every player in the league.
This isn't the first time something like this has happened and unfortunately, it probably won't be the last.
Professional football is a dangerous game. Each play has the potential for a bone-crushing hit by an athletic specimen whose goal is to inflict pain on his opponent. Injuries are inevitable, but can the league do more to prevent an injury like the one suffered by Everett this past weekend? Is the NFL doing enough to protect it's players from spinal injuries? Finally, could the league be found liable for Everett's injury?
The NFL has seen it's fair share of serious spinal injuries in the past. In 1991, Dennis Byrd of the Jets was left partially paralyzed after colliding with his teammate. He was physically unable to play football again. That same year, Mike Utley, a guard for the Lions, fractured his spine during a game and was also left paralyzed.
Most notably is Daryl Stingley, former wide receiver for the Patriots. In a pre-season game in 1978, Stingley was violently hit by Jack Tatum of the Raiders while trying to make a catch. Stingley shattered his fourth and fifth vertebrae and became a quadriplegic. Stingley was only 55 when he passed earlier this year. His quadriplegia was said to have contributed to his death.
The NFL has long recognized that leading a tackle with your head up will effectively decrease your chances of injury. In every team locker room, a cautionary sign is posted instructing players to keep their heads up when making a tackle - similar to the sign you see in restaurants instructing patrons and employees on how to conduct the Heimlich maneuver. Is this the best the league can do?
In the legal system, you are negligent and liable to another if you fail to exercise the standard of care that a reasonably prudent person would have exercised in a similar situation. The elements that make up negligence include: 1.) a duty; 2.) breach of that duty; 3.) causation; 4.) damages.
Could the league be found negligent in a court of law?
The NFL certainly has a duty to protect it's players. In a league that is inherently violent in nature, the NFL has a responsibility to implement anything that can safeguard it's players against unwarranted injury. The NFL does not satisfy their duty by hanging a sign in a locker room. In an effort to curtail spinal injuries in the future, the NFL should be trying to come up new ways to prevent these incidents.
On whether or not the league breached their duty, one could argue that their inaction on creating preventative measures for these types of injuries is a breach of the league's duty to protect it's players. While it may be a weak argument, the NFL should be studying, analyzing and testing whatever it can to decrease spinal injuries. If the NFL has not studied these injuries to the fullest extent, they are doing a disservice to their players.
The issue of causation is always the toughest to prove. In this situation, it would be incredibly difficult to show that the league's breach of it's duty to protect it's players actually caused Everett's injury. Here, inaction by the league is a very weak causational link and there are other variables that very well may have led to Everett's injury.
The damages that Everett has - and will have in the future - are endless. Although reports now say he will probably regain the ability to walk, Everett will most likely never see the football field again. His livelihood stripped from him in one instance. Everett was one of the select few that was privileged to have the talent and ability required for the NFL. Now, Everett faces a struggle to regain something that most of us take for granted; walking.
Playing the blame game in a situation like this is useless. In the courtroom, blame is translated into liability. While the league would probably not be found liable for Everett's injuries in a court of law, they certainly owe it to Everett to do everything they can to prevent these injuries in the future.
It's just a shame that it takes an incident like Everett's to open up the eyes of the league.
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6 comments:
The league should be responsible for finding new ways to improve the safety of it's players, but for the most part it all comes down to the player deciding whether or not he wants to protect himself. There are already preventative measures out there to decrease the risk of spinal cord injury through products such as the neck roll guard. Ultimately it is up to the player to decide if he wants to wear the equipment or not. All the NFL could do is mandate that every player having to wear one of these. I am sure that the NFLPA would have something to say about that, of course, and the new rule would be abolished.
The NFL could also instate a compensation package for any player who is unfortunate enough to receive such a detrimental injury. But then again, there;s always a risk involved in any sport, and the players know that. Though these injuries at the NFL level are few and far between, we see them all the time from HS to college. If the risk of injury wasn't part of the NFL would people watch it?
The NFL should have a weight limit for the big dudes. Like Boxing, they have three levels, light weight, middle weight, and heavy weight. Not saying the NFL should have 3 or so levels, just that they should think out side of the box for a minute and say "hey, these high school dudes, college football players, who have a dream at making the pro level are beefing up their size due to competition."
For example. A blocker would beef up it weight as much as possible to compete its opponets (defense tackles) on the feild. Same goes for the defense tackles who want to crush a 250 pound Fullback or push out the blocker out of the way to make room for a sack at the QB.
Bottom line is that once you have more and more 300+ dudes, these younger dudes, just a few years before gettin into the pro level are going to be bigger and bigger than ever and thats scary.
Just like I said about Boxing, I think the NFL should have a weight limitation on some of the positions. and before game time, they are on scale before the inspector whether they can or not get dressed for the game.
Thats my opinion. But it may seem unlikely they will ever approach that idea, because, this is FOOTBALL, a sport that has been going on since the Roman Times. Men battling Men, the most fitness wins. Same goes for these football players. These blockers protecting their QB w/out one sack is a win for them vs their opponent.
Didnt mean to finish my last post...
Also the player has a responsibility too. They are the ones who are aware of how dangerous this sport is. So they are at their own fault if they get injured.
The NFL always are on the subject of creating newer and safer pads, helmets, etc etc and they do mandate them, making it a rule that all players must wear. If a player gets hurt and didn't wear the mandated equipments, then its the players fault. The NFL can easily win that case if it went to to court.
If the player wore the mandated equipments and becomes immobile or could never play sports again, then the NFL shoul dhave a special pension or pay-out program to health heal them for life. All the money spectators spend on NFL goods, some of the tax money should go into these prpgrams to help these severe injured players.
But again, its a dangerous sport, its up the player who wants to play, he signed the contract.
Players are certainly responsible for how they conduct themselves on the field. If they choose not to wear specific equipment that could decrease their chances of an injury, then yes, they are at fault.
As far as what the league can do to prevent these types of injuries, what about more education for the players as to how to effectively tackle. I think that a simple poster in the locker room is not enough. Mandatory seminars on the dangers of keeping your head down should be in order. Publications by the league is also a possibility.
Bottom line, players need to be aware of these dangers. It shouldn't take an incident like Everett's to alert NFL players that permanent damage - and possibly death - is a reality.
I am sure that players are taught how to effectively and safely tackle by their coaches throughout their football lives. Otherwise this type of injury would be a more common occurrence. This is one in a million incident that all the training in the world could not have prevented. When the game is on the line a player will do anything to prevent the other team from scoring, just having that drive, or being in the wrong position at the wrong time will lead to this type of injury. It is football and there is always a risk, just as in hockey and even horse racing. Freak accidents happen, all the training in the world cannot prevent them.
How about an article on those cheating little bitches the Patriots?
stay tuned my friend.........those who taint the game will be exploited....
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