Football practices push players too far

Sometimes, in the depths of competition, the desire to win can drastically alter the priorities of a coach or a player.

While this may be acceptable in some cases, when priorities such as education, health and even life are overlooked in order to win a game, the result can be horrifying and devastating.

This past August, a Kentucky high school football player collapsed at one of his team’s practices and later died at a local hospital. Not long after the incident, the coach of the team was indicted on charges of negligent manslaughter.

The coach was later acquitted of the charges, but the trial brought to light a very important and pressing trend that has begun to emerge in American football. More and more players are dying from dehydration, heat exhaustion and other related illnesses.

Football is often thought of as the sport for the strongest and toughest men, and that mindset is tested, sometimes dangerously, in practice. Football coaches often subject their players to some of the most rigorous athletic training possible in order to get them into shape.

The danger in this is that high school, college and professional football teams all begin their rigorous practices, sometimes twice a day, in the heat of the summer. This creates a situation where dehydration is an extremely likely threat.

Having been part of a few football practices myself, I have noticed that more than any other sport, football coaches try to push their players to their physical limit.

Often coaches will not stop pushing a player until they vomit. This is often considered a sign that the player has reached the limit of their physical training.

This is something that has to stop. Human life and the health of the players should be the number one priority of these coaches. Unfortunately, some coaches do not know when enough is enough, and that is when disaster occurs.

While there is a fine line when it comes to training a player to become a superior athlete and pushing him to the brink of injury, coaches are not in the position to make that decision.

It is the doctors and medical trainers that need to be the ones deciding how much exercise is too much.

This is especially important at the high school and college levels. At professional practicesthere are often dozens of staff members, including medical staff, that look after the players well being.

However, at the college, and especially high school levels, there are often no more than one or two coaches, who are usually not trained in emergency medicine, running the practices.

These deaths need to stop. And the best way to ensure the safety of the players is to have a coaching staff that knows when their players have reached their physical limits.