Athletic trainers

By Ed Piper

Over the last several months, I have come to know and talk a little with an "AT spotter"--I didn't even know what that was until I came upon it during a Google search on the computer the other day--who retired recently after working for SDSU and the Chargers, both in San Diego and after their move to Los Angeles.

An AT spotter sits high in the stands during football games, away from the action, and observes the game to look for any signs that a player may have incurred a concussion or other injury.

The NFL, bless their hearts, began to employ AT spotters (the initials standing for athletic trainer) back in the teens (2011) after head injuries piled up and a player (quarterback Colt McCoy of the Cleveland Browns) was reinserted despite having a concussion--something the sideline trainers didn't notice because they were busy tending to other athletes' injuries.

One thing I wanted to ask my new associate was about the sincerity of the NFL (and college football powers, as well) in ensuring that players are taken care of when they sustain a head injury. So I asked him.

"The NFL is very serious about all of this," he said. We were referring, of course, to the increasing number of diagnosed cases of concussions, other head injuries, and the big bugaboo--CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The last is the black "tar" that is found to take over parts of the brain after repeated hits.

Junior Seau probably had CTE badly, as he went through mood swings and depression after his retirement as a Hall of Fame linebacker for USC and the Chargers. He obviously wanted his brain to be preserved and used, maybe, to help other players, through research into whatever was ailing him.

What I read after Seau's suicide several years ago was that in his family's culture, in Polynesian ways, it isn't considered acceptable to have a deceased person's body cut up in an autopsy--unless, as in Junior's case, it could lead to benefitting others through the results of the autopsy.

That's why we think he shot himself in the chest after years of "down" times, struggles, trying to surf and relax and use other means to overcome his mood problems--to preserve his brain, rather than dying by blowing his brains out.

Back to my A.T. spotter friend, he filled this official role for years. He had to maintain his Athletic Trainer certification to serve in the capacity the NFL employed him. He, obviously, is a big football fan, having overheard him talk to others who know him better.