| 10 October 2009
Tonight is the night we get to see the # who cares Florida Gators vs. the # who cares LSU Tigers. If you haven't gotten the drift from past articles then you can tell I'm not a fan of college football rankings. It doesn't matter what the rankings are when the Gators travel into Death Valley because we have two undefeated teams prepared for a tough SEC matchup. The biggest question in this game is if Jesus is going to be starting at quarterback for the Gators. I like pronouncing Jesus in the Spanish form so it's more like hey-soose. I know I'm supposed to throw in the accent mark but whatever, back to the topic. Now we all saw Tim Tebow get blindsided like Dante Stallworth was behind the wheel and he was down for the count with a very serious concussion. Fortunately for Florida, they had a bye last week before this big game. My question is if Tebow is really healthy enough to play and are the coaches looking out for his best interest? I just don't know. It just seems to me that a concussion that severe would need more time and risking someone's future and/or life because of a big game is a serious deal. There's always doctors and medical staff around to help analyze and make decisions, but with a concussion it seems like the final decision comes down from the player. I really just want to know if coaches more about winning than they do about their players?
No coach wants to see their players get injured; of course they would never want to be in a predicament where they would have to make tough decision that could affect a players' life. No coach wants to lose either. The problem is the line may be blurred between winning a big game and throwing your injured player in the game. I just hope coaches really look at the whole picture instead of just the game in front of them. There are discipline problems on almost every program and the coach has to decide if he should suspend players or even kick them off the team. We've just seen that Oregon has decided to give LeGarrette Blount the opportunity to have a chance to be reinstated. I have absolutely no problem with their decision as long as he stays on the right path since the full season suspension did seem a little harsh. It seems that the Oregon case was rare in the fact that the suspension was so severe and that they have kept to their promise the most part. I don't know if every other program would've done the same thing. Most coaches care about winning to much then to harm their team by suspending a star player.
So do coaches care? Do they care about the players who have discipline problems and want to help rehabilitate the players so they don't act the same way again or do they just want the players in the game when they need them? Do they care about a players injury enough to protect them from harming themselves even worse or will they put them on the field if they think it will better their chance of winning? I think it depends on each coach and we really don't know. I just hope that Urban Meyer cares so we don't have to see Tebow reinjure himself even worse tonight.
