Kicking off the NFL Season

I don’t about you all, but I love football.

I don’t just like football – I LOVE football. I don’t know if it’s the mental chess-match that goes on, the preparation, or just the amazing speed, grace and power of the athletes, but I think football is truly an amazing sport to watch.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past week, you probably caught a game or two this past weekend. What’s intriguing is that it seems this week was especially bad with regards to injuries; just off the top of my head I remember hearing of ACL tears, separated shoulders, patellar tendon tears, rotator cuff tears, sprained ankles, etc. You name it, and it probably happened to someone on some team.

One injury that I’ve followed with a lot of interest was that of Bills Tight End Kevin Everett. On a routine play in the second half, Everett suffered a head-on collision with another player, and was actually seen twitching on the field. After 15 minutes of laying on the field, he was taken off by stretcher to the hospital.

As if that doesn’t sound bad enough, it gets worse: He was immediately rushed into surgery. If someone is that bad off, you know it’s bad. The surgeons came out on Monday and discussed his potential to walk again as “grave” and “dismal.” In fact, they still weren’t convinced he was even going to live!

What’s even more amazing is what happened next. On Tuesday, even after these terrible reports, they doctors went back on their word and now think he’ll be able to walk again! The most interesting information is how they achieved this. It appears as though the Bills Orthopedic Surgeon, Dr. Andrew Cappuccino, immediately infused Everett with an ice-cold saline solution, putting him in a hypothermic state. In essence, they were putting his nervous system on ice, just like we would ice down an achy joint or muscle to reduce swelling and inflammation! I don’t know about you, but I find this to be fascinating stuff.

For more info on this story and procedure, check out the following link.

Quite simply, I love the game of football. But it’s moments like this one that remind us that the brutal strength and power of these players can be taken away in an instant. While he probably will never play football again, I’m sure football is the last thing on Kevin Everett’s mind right now. At age 25, he’s got his entire life ahead of him.

And for now, it appears as though he’ll be able to walk through it.

Stay strong
MR