The days of gridiron glory

As I write this column I’m watching college football Saturday afternoon in our living room, sitting on the couch. After I finish writing I will resume the reclining position I had chosen earlier in the afternoon.

It’s been more than 60 years since I played my last game of organized football. But the thrills and disappointments of those games stay fresh in my mind yet.

There were the pass interceptions from my linebacker and defensive back positions. They were the highlights for me.

Then there were the missed tackles. They hold an equally special spot in my data storage. 

My senior year, we finished with seven wins, one loss and one tie. (Back then, Iowa high school football permitted ties.) I played a key role in the loss, to Midwest Conference rival Harlan 7-0.

It was a home game for us. We had tied Ida Grove 7-7 earlier in the season. To have a shot at the conference title we needed to win out. 

The Harlan game was on our home field. The key play came rather late, with Harlan driving to about our 25-yard line. Their standout running back, a Larson (seemed as if Harlan always had a gridiron gunner named Larson), ran a simple dive play over the Cyclones’ right tackle.

And over me. 

I played left side linebacker, so I was head up against Larson’s dive play. As I recall, I was worn out, and rather than summoning more will power, I just stuck out my arm to slow him down. That didn’t do the job, and Larson rumbled into the end zone for the only score of the game. 

The play cost us a chance at the conference championship. I remember it very well, and I replay it every year about this time.

This has been a good football autumn for me. 

The Greene County Rams racked up an impressive 8-2 record, and the Iowa Hawkeyes are heading to a warm, sunny bowl game after their enviable 9-3 regular season. 

Our kids have split loyalties, but I’ve shared their excitement, and Kathy’s, as Iowa State climbed near the top of the Big 12 Conference. And Kathy, a Minnesota native, has turned me into a Vikings NFL fan as well.

When Dad was alive, he and I watched many Hawkeye TV games together. He too played football at Jefferson High School, better than I. We maintained a tradition of sharing a shot of scotch after the first Iowa touchdown in each game. Some Hawk years were pretty lean, and in a few games we were forced eventually to celebrate the initial first down instead, since touchdowns in those years were rare.

Football apparently fills the same need for millions of Americans that the gladiator spectacles did for Romans 2,000 years ago: thousands of fans, huge arenas, individual heroes, and violence down on the field. Civilization has advanced over the millennia, so death is no longer sought or expected in the arena. 

But today’s spectacle of very large men slamming full tilt into each other, over a period of decades for some of them, has the side effect, probably not unexpected, of major damage to body parts, some of it showing up later in life.

Most noteworthy in the last few years is the brain condition with the scary name of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. 

It’s caused by repeated blows to the head, such as those sustained by longtime football players. Symptoms begin with behavioral and mood problems and problems with thinking. They usually appear eight to 10 years after the repeated injuries. The condition sometimes worsens into dementia.

There is no specific treatment for CTE. Research indicates it appears in about 30 percent of those who sustain multiple head injuries — like pro football players. Definite diagnosis can take place only with an autopsy.

By 2010, some 250 professional athletes, mostly retired football players, had signed up to donate their brains after death for CTE research. 

Big-time football, recognizing the danger of the sport, has taken steps to improve helmet safety, and to alter some rules to reduce head trauma. Those actions are admirable and worthwhile. But they can’t eliminate the repeated blows to the head that occur as part of the game’s natural flow.

It’s unknown how many repeated blows to the head can result in CTE.

That is a sobering fact. 

It’s probably unlikely that a few years of high school football by themselves will cause CTE. There’s no research to the contrary. 

But it’s ironic that those few who succeed greatly at football in their early years, and subsequently go on to make a career of the game, are those most likely to succumb to the ravages of CTE later in life.

I don’t foresee a forced ban on football in the near future. Like other potentially dangerous things, it’s too popular for that, and it’s embedded in American culture. And too many people make too much money from it.

But facts don’t lie. And the fact is that under present conditions, a certain number of football professionals playing today will contract CTE later in their lives.

Research may find an antidote. But so far the answer is hidden. 

And I’m still hooked on watching football.