Letter: Tragic death should change football
Junior Tom Cutinella, 16, a guard and linebacker on the Shoreham-Wading River High School's football team, died Wednesday night, Oct. 1, 2014, after collapsing during a game in Elwood earlier in the day, authorities said. Cutinella was pronounced dead at Huntington Hospital after sustaining a head injury in a varsity game against John Glenn High School, part of the Elwood school district, police and school officials said. (Credit: Newsday staff) Credit: Twitter, James Escher
The tragic death of the Shoreham-Wading River High School football player, from a suspected brain injury, should lead us to pay attention to the facts about repetitive head impacts, or sub-concussive hits ["In mourning, together," News, Oct. 3]. The cumulative effects are unavoidable.
Those who continue to get thrills from and glorify the big hits should play by themselves and not encourage youth to play tackle football.
On Sept. 27, we saw University of Michigan quarterback Shane Morris suffer a brutal hit and concussion. Worse yet, those coaching him exercised a football mentality, taking his wobbly word that he was OK and letting him continue. The university's athletic director later admitted this was a mistake.
Hopefully, the insurance industry will raise premiums so much that youth, college and professional football will be forced to make the game safe.
Newsday quoted a Shoreham school board member who said, "I think that, obviously, we're expecting to get a full report, find out exactly what happened and do an audit of our equipment and, if there is some way to ensure safer play, then, obviously we're going to have to make some adjustments."
The only adjustment that could be made is to switch to flag football. Even a helmet made of kryptonite would not prevent a human brain from crashing against the inside of the skull after a hit.
Michael Brozinsky, Central Islip
