Giving Aid

REID: I have never understood why when a player gets injured during a game, it takes forever for anyone to come out to attend to the injured player. I'm watching Vanderbilt-Stanford, and a Stanford player runs into a Vanderbilt player, elbows him in the face which forces him to fall over backwards, hitting his head on the hardwood floor. He doesn't move. Team mates stand over him looking at him but not knowing what to do. Finally after at least 30 sec, a trainer comes out to attend to the stunned player. The coach finally comes out about 30 sec later.

I've seen this NUMEROUS times this and last week in all the games I've watched. And, even all games I've ever seen. One game I was watching at Tech recently, a player was floored in the backcourt and lay motionless while the action continued on the other end of the court. I'm sitting there thinking what can be more important than the well being of a motionless player laying on the floor unattended. I told E at the time, that one of the refs should have stopped the game.

Just don't understand.

ME: Perhaps it's because these days players are so dramatic and just lay on the floor after a fall for an extended time (to soak up attention?) before dragging themselves to their feet. Perhaps trainers and coaches have been fooled so many times that they wait to see if the player is actually hurt before leaving the sidelines. Plus they can't step on the court until play is stopped by an official without drawing a technical foul.

Think about it: if refs stopped play every time a player fell down and the game continued on the other end of the court then more players would fall down and fake injuries. It happened so much at the end of football games by players wanting to stop the clock that the rule was changed to charge the team a time out. Now any downed player forcing clock stoppage must come out of the game for one play.

I've seen Mark Richt go out on the field several times to check on a fallen player. The pictures of Todd Gurley laying on the field with a torn ACL all show Richt at his side.

I bet coaches discuss injuries in league meetings and are told what to do. Failure to follow the rules could result in penalties against the school.

Little league is fun because when a kid gets hit the mother runs out on the field before the play is over. Once Will slid into third and seemed hurt and Ceil ran across from the first base side to check on him.  Another time I arrived late and was told Will had hit an opposing player in the head with a pitch. Seeing that player still on the field looking fine, I laughed.

Another ho hum evening. Left work at 6 pm and stopped by the library, Kroger, and the bank. Anna and Matthew went to the coffee shop to study. Ceil ran errands. Watched HGTV's Fixer Upper. People buy a house for $260,000 then add another $200,000 in renovations.