More Songs about Medicals, Buildings and Food
He got a second opinion, decided to continue to play football and transferred to Stanford where ultimately he had an episode related to his condition and had to retire from football. Fortunately, the story ends well; he recovered and eventually got his degree from Stanford in Economics.
The story does bring up some interesting points for consideration:
- Stanford has/had a very good medical staff, so opinions on whether a kid can stll safely play can diffier even among highly qualified health professionals;
- There are players (college and NFL) who have successfully played with this condition; the same likely also applies to joint arthritis/damage, concussions etc; it's a matter of how much risk the team/player is willing to accept;
- Any protocol for determining fitness to continue playing would by nature be subjective, and medical ethics aside, could potentially be abused by programs;
- 18-21 year old kids aren't renowned for their ability to assess the long term implications of their decisions and actions.
So, my non double blind experiment observations on this are as follows: If the team medical staff makes a recommendation that the player not suit up again, there's likely a 5 sigma probability the football staff will follow suit; the legal , image and liability implications are way too high. If it's the football staff making the recommendation without official endorsement from the medical staff, there is muddy water.
Wrong thread.
I clicked on this topic expecting to see a Modest Mouse video
Discussion about health issues is limited by legal disclosure requirements. There are good reasons for this imposed silence (not just HIPAA bureaucracy), but unfortunately these same laws also eliminate nuance in the discourse amongst fans, boosters, and other interested parties that play a fundamental role in college athletics. These are important (literally life-or-death) issues, but in the end, it is in an athlete's best interest that we (bloggers) never have all of the information about his/her health.
Point being: we should keep talking about the issue of medical hardships, concussion protocols, etc., but we need to remember that we will always be operating in the abstract, since each individual case hangs on crucial, but unavoidable gaps in our knowledge.
And regarding your diary title, David Byrn would surely appreciate your effort to discuss the unknowable.
I am friends with Zuttah, he also recently graduated from HBS
I definitely agree with our MDs . He should not have played college sports. He likely kept this from the staff when he was recruited. It is surprising he did not have trouble at the HS level but more surprisisng that Stanford of all colleges let him play. Definately good luck to him, especially for graduating fro, Stanford. What is HBS ?
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