A Wild Weekend's Worries and Wonders

I'm pretty sure that everyone who reads my blog also was notified about Jacob's injury this past weekend. So, in addition to retelling the story of what happened using as few words as I can manage, I'll add a fresh and interesting part to the story that vaguely has anything to do with Jacob but is related enough for me to get away with adding it. So, whether you've heard the news or not you must keep reading. You simply must.

Jacob was climbing on the outside of a spiral tube slide. It was totally tubular (spoken like Keanu Reeves in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure). Without anything to really grip, he fell off once reaching the top and landed flat on his back on the ground 10 feet below. He showed no signs of external injury, but was in a lot of pain. To make a long story short, he cracked his spleen. He spent the night in the ICU, was moved to a normal room on Sunday and was released Monday afternoon. Bed rest for 2 weeks and no sports, bike riding, trampoline jumping, wrestling around, etc. for 6 months. But, the good news is that he is not bleeding internally and as long as he gives his body ample time to heal with these restrictions he should be back to his normal self by the end of the given time frame.

The semi-related content that I previously promised to keep your interest is as follows. Jacob, having just finished his Mighty Mites Football season last week, has begun to enjoy watching football on television much to the delight of Jodi and me who don't enjoy even the thought of watching the sport if we aren't directly related to a member on the team. In both the Trauma room of the ER and the ICU room he was moved to he managed to find a game on the television hanging on the wall. It was college football, LSU and South Carolina to be more specific. In the game, a strange thing happened. One of the referees tackled the South Carolina Quarterback. They showed it a couple times and it looked like an intentional shoulder tackle, but then the possibility arose in my mind that he could have been just trying to get out of the way and simultaneously protecting himself by tucking his arm like he did. I had too much going on, with Jacob in the ICU, to give it much thought so I just settled for the latter explanation.

Today, however, I saw it again on YouTube. Now I'm in a position to watch it over and over again and to see all the details of the collision. And, I'm left with my former suspicions as the only explanation to it. The video is attached below. Watch it and see what you think for yourself. Initially, I thought that when the QB changed his direction the referee was merely reacting to the QB's new intended course and protecting himself. But, if you watch very closely, the referee's feet prepare to push off in the direction of the QB BEFORE the QB actually changes direction. AND, the referee was not running, jogging, or doing anything else that would build any momentum keeping him from quickly changing course. He was side-stepping very small steps just like a defensive back who is trying to read the movements of the offensive runner. He could easily have jumped back to his left and created a wide gap between himself and the QB, but rather chose to step straight back to push off going the opposite way: forward. Forward was the wrong direction to go any way you look at it. As a former soccer referee, I can tell you that he should have squared his shoulders with the obvious path the ball was traveling in order to keep an eye on the play. By moving his right shoulder forward he would've lost track of the play regardless of whether he collided with the QB or not.

The South Carolina Head Coach Steve Spurrier said in a statement after the game that it was not a tackle and was simply the ref attempting to avoid the QB, but I disagree. The ref was cleared of any wrong doing, by everyone, but should he be? You be the judge.

Posted in: family,observation