Players Lying on the Field

Ryan the Magic Fan · September 26, 2009

Today to me is a very sobering day in sports. Two games. Two times a player laid motionless on the field. First in North Carolina during the ECU vs. UCF game, 5th year Senior Linebacker Jason Richards goes low for a tackle and ends up in a neck brace headed for the hospital. Then in Kentucky, the already sick Tim Tebow takes two head shots in a split second and is also off to the hospital.

Sorry to be so dramatic but I got two things I have to get off my chest. First is how much it hurts me as an athlete to see any player, my own team or opposing player, hurt at all. It's a very harsh reminder of the perils of sports and how fragile we really are as human beings. Richards, one of UCF's biggest toughest guys, and Tebow, one of the toughest, strongest, and nicest players to ever play the game. And in one instant they are just laying on the ground.

It leaves me wanting to question anything and everything. Why was Tebow even in the game when he was sick as it is? Why wasn't the Kentucky player called for a helmet to helmet? Why did Richards try to tackle a guy that low. Even though there all plenty of valid answers for those questions, it does not make watching any of it easier. Maybe I'm taking it to hard, but as a fellow athlete who has put on the pads, it makes me physically ill when I see things like this happen.

As for the second thing. To every low class sleazeball out there who cheers any injury on any player... You are the lowest piece of filth to ever exist in the human race. To not only cheer, but to take delight in the pain of another innocent human being, or to wish for more; simply because of team allegiance, or how much hype the media gives a person, shows that not only are you a classless fan, but a horrible person who to me is even less than human. And I'm talking about all fans. I remember some UF fans were showing some pretty low class when a UK player was hurt a while back. It is just as bad.

I will out myself here. I prolly said a few times during the ECF that I wish LeBron would get hurt. If I ever do that again I hope someone punches me right in the face and knocks my *** out cold. I credit the fans at both ECU and UK for not going to such a level. It was dead quiet in both those stadiums while those players were down. And they cheered as they left the field. I have much more respect for both of those teams and fanbases now.

It reminded me of two things in my life. The first a story my dad told me. He is a die hard Redskin fan and was at the game when Joe Theisman got his leg broken by LT. Right after that happened LT was practically screaming for the 'Skins medical team to get on the field. After Thiesman was carted off the most sobering image of the night was LT sitting on the bench with his head in his hands. The second was two very similar incidents. One when Chris Jenkins said he felt ill for a hit he gave Chris Simms that many felt later lead to him nearly dying in the hospital from a ruptured spleen. The other when Cadillac Williams hurt his knee on the sideline and Panther's WR Steve Smith was leaping up and down for the Bucs medical staff.

Moments like those and the response by fans at ECU and UK make me glad that hopefully not all real sportsmanship has left athletics today. Either way it makes me so mad I nearly feel sick at how low some people will go. If you really need to understand what I'm talking about just go look at the comments in the Tebow article on ESPN right now. I'm not going to even dignify it with a link.

Maybe I'm over reacting. I probably am. Maybe I don't type this if it isn't two of my teams players. I probably don't. Either way. Too all my fellow athlete's out there, play hard and stay safe. To all those who have been hurt, especially today too Tebow and Richards, I wish you a speedy recovery. Sorry for the rant fellow board members.

Ryan the Magic Fan · September 26, 2009