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Gloucester's Ingram reacts to horrific injury to Bills' Everett

Wednesday, September, 12 By Matt Langone
Sports editor

High school football coaches all over the country were faced with a dilemma at their Monday football practice this week. The big question was: How do you approach discussing Sunday's sobering reminder that football is indeed a physically brutal and potentially life-threatening sport with your own team?

By Sunday night, most people remotely familiar with the NFL had seen the footage of Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett dropping face-first to the ground after making a tackle on the Denver Broncos Domenik Hixon. It was clear right then and there on impact, that things went terribly wrong for Everett, and by Monday afternoon we knew just how bad things could be.

The second-year tight end from Miami suffered an injury that was referred to by doctor Andrew Cappuccino as a "catastrophic and life threatening spinal-cord injury." Everett was unlikely to walk again, and needless to say, it quickly became a very relevant story in the football world.

"A few of the kids made a comment about it at practice," said Gloucester football coach Paul Ingram, during Tuesday's practice. "I had mixed feelings about whether or not I wanted to address it. But we do address it at the beginning of the season whenever we talk about tackling."

Ingram uses a Boston-based example of how to help prevent spinal-cord injuries.

"I always use the Travis Roy (former Boston University hockey player) incident as an example and discuss why he broke his neck," Ingram said. "He hit the top of his head against the boards, and we try to avoid things like that.We refer to tackling as 'Bite the Ball,' which means your face is up and you're not leading with your head.

"We do a lot of that, and we do a lot of close-contact tackling, where we stress head in front."

While teaching the correct and safe way to tackle is a must, it's nearly impossible to make a fundamentally-sound tackle on every down. Often times in the heat of the moment, it comes down to tackling a ball-carrier any way you can.

Two years ago, Ingram witnessed a scare that occurred just a few yards away from him. One of his players at Gloucester, David Elwell, broke his neck during a game. Fortunately, Elwell's injury wasn't too serious and he made a fine recovery after spending the rest of the season in a neck brace.

Ingram points to a glitch in officiating as a contributor to severe injuries such as Everett's.

"I blame officiating a lot of the time because they allow spearing," Ingram said. "I haven't heard or seen spearing called in a game in about three or four years. You can't tell me that it doesn't occur, and unless they put their foot down, it will keep happening."

Ingram is one of the lucky ones, who has not yet seen the sad and unfortunate footage of Everett's severe collision. However, he still sums up the situation much like anyone else would.

"It's just an awful thing to happen," Ingram said. However, good news may be on the way for Everett and his family. Yesterday, ESPN reported that Dr. Cappuccino told a Buffalo TV station that Everett had voluntary movement in his arms and legs and he remains optimistic now that Everett will walk again.