...and the show must go on?

Gotta make that money baby!

 

Watching CPR should not be a spectator sport

 

No, but whether the game stops or continues, that part's already been done in front of the fans.

 

And then it's time for fans to respectfully leave, not stand up and cheer the next play. Though, I'm uncertain what the standard time is for mourning in this situation, I believe it's more than a half hour. I'm also not quite certain why the players, coaches and referees would want to continue.

 

Which goes back to how it looks. If someone's obviously having CPR done on him at the 50-yard line, then end it there. If it's a nasty looking hit and they cart him off the field before it's necessary to impliment life-saving procedures, then it seems more acceptable to move forward (at least from the standpoint of the fans, who won't be as traumatized).

 

Yes, but this was a little different. If I remember correctly, the player wasn't on the field when he collapsed - he was on the sidelines.

The worst for me was the CART race in Milwaukee in '98 where a crash sent one of Adrian Fernandez's tires over the retaining fence. The tire was travelling at a high rate of speed and hit and killed three spectators.
Despite all this, they still finished the race.

 

Money, money, money, money, Money!

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't that Arena League guy die later? If it's just a bad injury, they'll cart the guy off and keep playing. They might not know at the time that the injury will turn out to be fatal.

 

From the ESPN report:

He went into cardiac arrest, Daytona Beach police said. Paramedics and doctors at the arena tried to revive him on the field for 10 minutes before taking him to a hospital.

I take it to mean that they were doing CPR on the field since he was in cardiac arrest (meaning his heart had stopped)

 

Thank you. As I said, correct me if I'm wrong, as I was speaking off the top of my head. I'm wrong and stand corrected.


EDIT: Wait, I just realized you're talking about the Daytona guy who died this week in your post. I was referring to the LA guy a couple years ago.

 

I've got a bigger picture question here -- is indoor football safe?

This marks the second fatality in two years in an indoor football league. There's been, what, one in the history of the NFL?

Players understand the risks of the game and that any play may be their last. They realize that if things go horribly wrong that they may not even get up, but no one should ever, ever have to think that the next play might cause their death.

Games have been played on artificial turf for years, but stadium turf has at least some padding under it -- arena ball is essentially played on concrete. Am I wrong here, or is it wrong for such a violent sport to be played on such conditions?

 

From the story, not sure why this type of hit would be unique to indoor football, seems like it could happen just as easily in an outdoor game. But along those lines, it does seem like neck injuries would happen commonly in arena football. Just saw a commercial for the arena league (might have even been the video game) showing some of the biggest hits in the leauge. Lots of times it seemed guys were falling towards the boards head-first... just looked like some bad injuries waiting to happen.