"Semi-pro" football player dies during game

• thavoice

  Belly35;1170200 wrote:Semi-pro is following a dream that will most likely never happen.
  At sometime in everyone athletic career you have to face the facts that it is over and be relegated to recreational sport.
  
  Semi-pro is some additional money but not worth the potential injury and pain. Better to go to Canada try out fail and come home knowing that your career is done.

  Are you sure they got paid? I know in the local semi pro team they never were paid.....except for pizza and beer afterwards at the local pub.
• Laley23

  

  vball10set;1170223 wrote:^^^thanks, and it had to be rough for you to watch it....my thoughts and prayers go out to the Coleman family.

  Yeah, it was tough. Especially for the 3 of us in the trailer. We kinda knew after the replays and seeing all 3 camera angles in slow-motion that it was really, really bad right away. When they started CPR I had to walk outside cause I thought I was about to throw-up. Prayers indeed. I got knotted up inside again when I learned he had 5 daughters.
• Laley23

  

  And for the record, to give an idea of how dangerous these leagues are, we were 2 hours into our broadcast with 5 minutes left in the first half. This was due to an injury after almost every 3rd play. 1 guy had already been taken to the hospital and the QB was getting drilled each time he threw.
  
  Jay County had pop warner type helmets, some without inside padding like in NCAA and NFL, and they all had different colored helmets because they had to buy their own (basically, at that point, you assume they bought the cheapest). One guy was in sweatpants, so no leg padding. We were told that they practiced once a week for about an hour and then games on the weekend. Their bodies ARE NOT conditioned for football.
  
  We joked that if the refs didnt go running clock, someone was gonna die out there. The joke turned sad 20 minutes later...It was almost inevitable. Just bad football, and no safety really.
• oberhaus

  

  From talking to a couple guys there and seeing the interviews, all say it was a clean hit. I guess maybe leading with the helmet couldve been called.
  
  I'm not going to pretend that I know/knew Dave. He was a grade younger at PH then I was. Even at a school that small there are some people you don't really know. I just find it hard to believe that he was playing football.
  
  They can't do much training/lifting as a team. Dave lived in Napoleon. Thats nearly a 2 hour drive to where the team is out of. I can't see working a full time job and being able to get the right amount of practice/training needed.
• thavoice

  Laley23;1170242 wrote:And for the record, to give an idea of how dangerous these leagues are, we were 2 hours into our broadcast with 5 minutes left in the first half. This was due to an injury after almost every 3rd play. 1 guy had already been taken to the hospital and the QB was getting drilled each time he threw.
  
  Jay County had pop warner type helmets, some without inside padding like in NCAA and NFL, and they all had different colored helmets because they had to buy their own (basically, at that point, you assume they bought the cheapest). One guy was in sweatpants, so no leg padding. We were told that they practiced once a week for about an hour and then games on the weekend. Their bodies ARE NOT conditioned for football.
  
  We joked that if the refs didnt go running clock, someone was gonna die out there. The joke turned sad 20 minutes later...It was almost inevitable. Just bad football, and no safety really.

  Do they get paid in that league?
• thavoice

  oberhaus;1170245 wrote:From talking to a couple guys there and seeing the interviews, all say it was a clean hit. I guess maybe leading with the helmet couldve been called.
  
  I'm not going to pretend that I know/knew Dave. He was a grade younger at PH then I was. Even at a school that small there are some people you don't really know. I just find it hard to believe that he was playing football.
  
  They can't do much training/lifting as a team. Dave lived in Napoleon. Thats nearly a 2 hour drive to where the team is out of. I can't see working a full time job and being able to get the right amount of practice/training needed.

  There were a number of guys locally who hadnt played FB since JH who played on the semi pro team. They were some very big guys and decided to play. We had always said that it was a disaster waiting to happen.
  As far as it being fun. Few guys I know who played had fun at the games..but were sore as hell for 3 days after each game and swore it would be their least each week
• dlazz

  Mooney44Cards;1170136 wrote:the NFL can't like hearing about this

  
  I doubt they care.
  
  Semi-pro does not equal NFL.
  
  Too many variables to account for
• Belly35

  

  thavoice;1170236 wrote:Are you sure they got paid? I know in the local semi pro team they never were paid.....except for pizza and beer afterwards at the local pub.

  I don't about this league
  I do know back in 1968-69 players got paid...
• bigkahuna

  I want to know where some of you are getting your information about these guys getting paid.
  
  I have quite a few friends on the Lima Warriors and know some people that play on the few teams up here in Toledo. There are a few teams that get paid, but the majority of them don't. They also have to buy all of their equipment and usually transport themselves to the away games.
  
  I've been asked a couple times to play buy my buddies and never saw the necessity to play.
  
  This week, 2 of my friends were on a published bounty list on facebook by some of the players from a team in Detroit. Unlike pro football (even Arena League), these games don't always have an ambulance/medical on site, and fights happen a lot. In all honesty, it's not very safe at all for the players or the fans (I don't know how many "ghetto ass" fights I've seen over the years)
  
  The crazy thing is that I was watching this game on BCSN and by the looks of the times, just missed the incident.
• Mooney44Cards

  

  dlazz;1170270 wrote:I doubt they care.
  
  Semi-pro does not equal NFL.
  
  Too many variables to account for

  All I'm saying is that it's bad timing. Any bad PR for the sport of football is bad for the NFL. Maybe it's negligible, but I certainly do think the NFL may think "we don't really need this in ye news right now" because many will use it as another example of why football is so dangerous, even though I agree with you that there is little correlation between this incident and the NFL.
• hasbeen

  

  Mooney44Cards;1170289 wrote:All I'm saying is that it's bad timing. Any bad PR for the sport of football is bad for the NFL. Maybe it's negligible, but I certainly do think the NFL may think "we don't really need this in ye news right now" because many will use it as another example of why football is so dangerous, even though I agree with you that there is little correlation between this incident and the NFL.

  
  I think dlazz's point is that the NFL won't take a hit from this. I don't think too many people will boycott the league.
• WebFire

  bigkahuna;1170283 wrote:I want to know where some of you are getting your information about these guys getting paid.
  
  I have quite a few friends on the Lima Warriors and know some people that play on the few teams up here in Toledo. There are a few teams that get paid, but the majority of them don't. They also have to buy all of their equipment and usually transport themselves to the away games.
  
  I've been asked a couple times to play buy my buddies and never saw the necessity to play.
  
  This week, 2 of my friends were on a published bounty list on facebook by some of the players from a team in Detroit. Unlike pro football (even Arena League), these games don't always have an ambulance/medical on site, and fights happen a lot. In all honesty, it's not very safe at all for the players or the fans (I don't know how many "ghetto ass" fights I've seen over the years)
  
  The crazy thing is that I was watching this game on BCSN and by the looks of the times, just missed the incident.

  Any semi-pro team I've ever known about didn't get paid, and had to buy their own equipment. It was basically a rec team for guys who couldn't let go of HS or college.
• thavoice

  WebFire;1170355 wrote:Any semi-pro team I've ever known about didn't get paid, and had to buy their own equipment. It was basically a rec team for guys who couldn't let go of HS or college.

  same concept around here as well. No diff than softball leagues or a little more organized open gym basketball leagues for adults.
• justincredible

  

  Why do they call it semi-pro then? I'm guessing for ego based reasons?
• Pick6

  

  The NFL has nothing to worry about if these guys are out there in sweatpants and pop warner gear. It's clear that the non use of proper equipment is going to cause many problems, and was probably in some way related to this incident.
  
  No freak accident is going to stop me from letting me kids play football.
• justincredible

  

  Pick6;1170386 wrote:The NFL has nothing to worry about if these guys are out there in sweatpants and pop warner gear. It's clear that the non use of proper equipment is going to cause many problems, and was probably in some way related to this incident.
  
  No freak accident is going to stop me from letting me kids play football.

  This freak accident isn't the reason I probably won't let my kids play football. The studies on the long term effects of concussions is scary stuff. I'd rather not subject my kid to that if I don't have to.
• Sonofanump

  "Semi Pro" does not get paid. The lower level indoor leagues earn if anything $50 to $200 a game. I think the Arena earns near $400 a game.
• thavoice

  Yeah....local baffoon played in one of those third rate indoor leagues and didnt get paid much. 50 maybe an It hink 100 if they won. He was on Judge Judy a few months after that for not paying back some floozy for money he borrowed or whatever. She grilled him pretty good about how much he made playing and he was saying he didnt remember.
• Sonofanump

  thavoice;1170454 wrote:Yeah....local baffoon played in one of those third rate indoor leagues and didnt get paid much. 50 maybe an It hink 100 if they won. He was on Judge Judy a few months after that for not paying back some floozy for money he borrowed or whatever. She grilled him pretty good about how much he made playing and he was saying he didnt remember.

  The second rate leagues get some players that one would recognize from college ball.
• jmog

  This is exactly why I laughed at all the guys from my old HS that kept asking me to play in the alumni game last year.
  
  I kept saying 'I make my living with my brain, I can't risk a severe concussion and not being able to support my family for 1 more game'.
  
  No one understood why I was one of the few from our HS team that refused to play.
• WebFire

  jmog;1170577 wrote:This is exactly why I laughed at all the guys from my old HS that kept asking me to play in the alumni game last year.
  
  I kept saying 'I make my living with my brain, I can't risk a severe concussion and not being able to support my family for 1 more game'.
  
  No one understood why I was one of the few from our HS team that refused to play.

  I know a guy that played in theirs and he destroyed his knee. :rolleyes:
• justincredible

  

  WebFire;1170649 wrote:I know a guy that played in theirs and he destroyed his knee. :rolleyes:

  I don't think our school even has them. I didn't play past the first few weeks of 10th grade so I wouldn't play regardless, but I've never heard of one existing. Are alumni games common? We have alumni basketball, which is a pretty big event. At least it always was in the past.
• OSH

  

  justincredible;1170661 wrote:I don't think our school even has them. I didn't play past the first few weeks of 10th grade so I wouldn't play regardless, but I've never heard of one existing. Are alumni games common? We have alumni basketball, which is a pretty big event. At least it always was in the past.

  Yeah, they have become VERY common. For some reason, people think it's a good idea. A company tries to do them. Alumni Football USA...link here.
  
  I know of several schools that have done it. I questioned it and got bashed up and down for it. STUPID.
  
  Alumni basketball and soccer games are fairly common. I don't encounter too many other sports that do many alumni games -- volleyball, softball, and baseball are the only other ones I'd guess would be alright.
• WebFire

  justincredible;1170661 wrote:I don't think our school even has them. I didn't play past the first few weeks of 10th grade so I wouldn't play regardless, but I've never heard of one existing. Are alumni games common? We have alumni basketball, which is a pretty big event. At least it always was in the past.

  Our school started doing them when our new coach came in a few years ago. Every year people say I should play. Uh, no thanks.
• WebFire

  WebFire;1170803 wrote:Our school started doing them when our new coach came in a few years ago. Every year people say I should play. Uh, no thanks.

  Though, now that I think of it, they play 7-on-7 style. Not tackle. They do wear helmets. I guess that isn't so bad.