“He is expected to be able to live a normal and healthy life.”
Those are good words now, but it was a scary situation last Saturday when Ball State wideout Dante Love hit the dirt, briefly went unconscious and lost feeling in his legs. Love was strapped to a spineboard and transported to the hospital.
Would he be able to walk? Could be play? Would he ever be the same? Through the five hours of surgery, those are the questions many considered.
Now we know that, yes, Love will be able to walk, and at this point they think he will be able to live a normal life. But Love will never again don the Cardinal uniform of Northeastern’s opening week opponent, Ball State University.
Senior cornerback Cord Parks thinks highly of Love.
“No doubt about it, one of the best wide receivers I have covered in college and I have covered some guys that are in the NFL now,” Parks said. “This an athlete’s worst nightmare, to hear about a fellow athlete being hurt that seriously. That’s one thing I pray for before the game is to keep all the players healthy on the field, but especially to hear he won’t be able to play anymore – I mean, it was rough to hear.”
Love hauled in nine receptions for 171 yards against the Huskies as the favorite target of quarterback Nate Davis. Northeastern head football coach Rocky Hager said he’s sure Love was NFL caliber, comparing him to two former Colonial Athletic Association receivers now in the NFL.
“Not a question, just a matter of which round, one or two,” Hager said. “I think he was better than [New Orleans Saints Receiver Marques] Colston. I think he was better than [Arizona Cardinals Back Tim] Hightower.”
Dante Love was not the only player who suffered similar scary injuries during the past weekend. South Florida’s Brouce Mompremier and Washington State’s Gary Rogers also suffered serious spinal injuries.
Also injured was Baltimore Ravens safety Dawan Landry, with a spinal chord concussion. Mompremier and Landry will be able to take to the field again but, for Rogers and Love, their playing careers are finished. Never again will they be able to suit up and play the sport they love.
It seems that these kind of injuries are becoming more common, and that each one is more and more disturbing with every one. This is not supposed to happen. It’s just sports; no one is supposed to get hurt to the point that we are worrying about them even walking or living a normal life. Obviously there is the occasional broken bone and concussion, but these are different. This is not something that is readily fixable – the technology is just not there.
“Sometimes it’s a matter of being able to get your head out of the way,” Hager said. “Ever since they added face masks the numbers of neck injuries have risen completely out of this world. Back in the old days, they didn’t have face masks. And you can do your research, there weren’t hardly any neck injuries.
“Now folks are starting to lead with their heads, coaches are telling guys to try and duck under things to try and battle for extra [yards],” he said.
“Short version of the deal is, our athletes sometimes seem themselves as being infallible when in fact we still have bodies that can’t hold up.”
The ultimate question is, what can be done? Is it just rule changes? Can the equipment possibly keep up? Do younger players need to be taught a new way to tackle?
I think part of it has to be the equipment. With the amount that players strap on, they must feel near invincible. From playing hockey growing up, I know that with all those pads on you feel near invincible, where that is far from the truth. Having a helmet and cage makes you feel protected when in the end, it’s just not always enough.
Am I advocating for the removal of pads? Of course not. The problem is that if you look at some of these hits, they look like nothing.
I watched the video of Love getting hit. Nothing looks out of the ordinary until he loses the ball and just drops. It is a play we have seen done a million times before.
It goes to show the difference between a first down and being able to walk can be a fraction of a inch. I don’t know if there is an answer to this growing problem.
Love was an NFL prospect. One of the best receivers in the NCAA. And now he is lucky to even be able to walk again. It’s a sad story. And a story you don’t wish upon anyone, teammate or foe.
It’s the kind of injury that happens all too often and hopefully we can try to learn something from this tragic situation. Be it keeping your head up, having a revolutionary new helmet or gaining an advance in medical technology; one can only hope something good can come from this tragedy.
But for now, the best we can do is simply hope that it never happens again, knowing full well that it certainly seems like it will, and that’s the worst part of the Love tragedy. Someone else this weekend, or maybe next year, will be faced with the same situation.
– Keith Lavon can be reached
