Through two weekends of football, your humble correspondent witnessed:

• Five games

• Three players taken off the field in an ambulance;

• One game I was scheduled to cover postponed by rain, like numerous others around the state, and one more moved to another field;

• Zero killer mosquitoes, at least that I know of, although there was one in Bethel big enough to wear a hockey mask.

Standing on the sidelines, I’ve heard two people — one a spectator, one a member of the chain gang — remark that’s it’s time to wrap the players in bubble wrap.

In the comfort of my own home, I saw three NFL games delayed by lightning and read about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers scrapping plans to wear their throwback creamsicle uniforms because of a league rule requiring players to wear the same helmet all year.

This is football in the 21st century — safety first and the people who grumble about it.

It doesn’t matter whether we’ve gotten to this point because these days players are more likely to get hurt, their parents are more likely to sue, their coaches are less likely to tell them to rub dirt on it, or because all schools are involved in this grand conspiracy to turn our kids into wimps. The culture of football is changing — out of necessity.

The players who took ambulance rides at the games I covered all had upper body injuries (including, in at least two cases, head and/or neck pain or dizziness) and were treated and released from a nearby hospital.

You would have to ask them, their families and the doctors who treated them whether all of the precautions were necessary. I didn’t hear any fans complaining about having to sit through delays that lasted roughly a half-hour. I know some coaches who thought it was excessive. I assume there were some athletic directors and trainers who slept a little better that night believing everything was done in the player’s, and the school district’s, best interests.

The games were postponed for safety, practical and financial reasons. We all loved playing on muddy fields when we were kids, but when athletic directors look at a muddy field, they see torn knee ligaments and dollar signs. A muddy and rutty field isn’t as safe as a nice dry, even surface. They also aren’t easy or cheap to repair, and it isn’t just the varsity football team that has to use the field. Plus, playing in the rain hurts the revenues for cash-strapped athletic departments and booster clubs. So why not wait 24 hours?

In a year or two, postponing games for rain is going to seem minor compared to turning out the lights and playing games under the afternoon sun because of flies. It’s already happening in southern Maine due to the threat of mosquitoes carrying Eastern equine encephalitis. It’s only a matter of time before schools in central Maine will have to make similar adjustments to their schedules.

For the most part, the only complaint anyone has about these precautions is that they are inconveniences for some. When risk and consequences outweigh inconvenience, precaution wins out.

On the field, the game really hasn’t changed that much, in spite of what the self-aggrandizing old-timers say about back in their day, when men were men and mosquitoes knew their place.

But one must admit the slope is starting to get really slippery. No matter how many precautions are taken, football players are still getting hurt, which means someone thinks there should be more precautions taken.

Don’t worry about high school football becoming flag football, though. Worry about how many more kids or parents will start to decide soccer isn’t so bad the next time they see ambulance lights flashing on the football field.

Copy the Story Link