Damar Hamlin football injury

The critical injury to Bills player Damar Hamlin tonite brought to mind the early days of college football when many critical injuries and deaths nearly got football banned in its infancy.

From its start around 1890, football was a fierce, brutal spectacle of pile driving runs using formations such as the flying wedge that racked up a dozen or so deaths and countless crippling injuries yearly. As the injuries and deaths mounted, schools dwaddled on cancelling football programs or demanding wholesale reforms. In 1905, eighteen deaths prompted President sTeddy Roosevelt to drag Ivy League school presidents to the White House for a session with the Bully Pulpit. It was 'implement safety reforms…or disband'.

Soon, the ball was reduced in size to facilitate the forward pass, flying wedge type running plays were banned and safer equipment was mandated. The game essentially adopted the form still present today.

A century on critical injuries or deaths are quite rare. The only NFL on field death occured 52 years ago. But as we saw tonite, critical injuries still happen.