For Khenon, a common sore neck that diminished his aggressive play at times turned out to be a nightmare. Due to continuous head first tackles that he mastered throughout the duration of his playing days, his neck had suffered sever damage. As the pain increased when the season progressed he finally got an MRI on his neck that displayed his herniated disk and fracture to the his cervical spine. He was ordered to have immediate neck surgery and warned never to play football again. As a matter of fact, Khenon was told that one more high impact hit would have left him paralyzed. Having to forgo his senior season was crushing news to Khenon his family, and all those people in the community that cared for him. Everyone knew his love for football . I was one of those people because at the time Khenon was my teammate and today his is still a dear friend.
Neck injuries to football players happen more often than people in the football arena realize. Fans have no idea about how the physical exciting play that they love to see leaves long lasting damage to a persons physical and mental well being. Many football players have been paralyzed due to traumatic injuries to the neck, such as the one Khenon suffered. According to an article on Medscape.com called, "Cervical Spine Injuries in Sports," over half of the sport related catastrophic injuries are related to the cervical spine. The article makes known that 10-15% of all football players are estimated to obtain a cervical spine injury, which are most prevalent amongst lineman and defensive players. These types of injuries can take place at all levels of football from high school to college. According to the article, secondary to high-velocity types of football collisions are what usually cause these types of injuries due to the acceleration and deceleration of the head onto the neck. This type of whiplash acceleration usually causes an extension force onto the neck while deceleration occurs in flexion forces. One of the easiest ways to suffer a cervical spine injury is to spear other players while performing a tackle. The article points out that spearing is a significant cause of cervical spine injuries and quadridpledia. Spearing is when a player dives head first into another player and uses the crown of their head to deliver a blow onto another player. These impact hit puts major force onto the neck and forces it to bare mostly all of the weight from impact. For a player as fast and strong as Khenon was, these impacts occured at high velocities. Khenon was great at spear tackling and we often marveled at the types of heavy hits he would put on a ball carrier. The problem with the way he tackled is that he was damaging his body because it was unfundementally sound, but it was something he had been doing for years. For Khenon, these types of plays were highlights. According to Medscape, the types of force that is produced by spearing hits is axial compression with the vertebrae in positions of slight flexion. This 30 degree flexion puts strain on the neck and forces the axial load to be transmitted to bones and disks due to the straigtening of the neck. Lordosis is the neck's safety mechanism that allows the neck to move and give and for force to be met by muscle and soft tissue. During spearing hits, lordosis is eliminated and it puts the neck in great risks of the impact strength being greater than the yield stregnth, which would lead to fractures, dislocations, and spinal cord injuries.
A 1985 article published by the American Journal of Sports Medicine called "Head and Neck Injuries in College Football an Eight Year Analysis" shows the frequency of neck injuries in college football. This study was performed on the University of Iowa's football team over a period of 8 years. As highlighted in the article head and neck injuries have been a major problem in American Football and 19 instances of death of paraplegia in 1904 had encouraged president Theordore Roosevelt to end brutality involved in football or cancel the game all together. His threats resulting in the formation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which still today puts high emphasis on the safety and public concern for athletes in football. Even with NCAA's help it does not preven these injuries from occuring. The study shows that out of 342 football players there were a total of 175 head and neck injuries that 100 of the players sustained overall. Over the eight year period of 55% of the injuries recorded were soft tissue of skeletal nature without neurotrauma. Most of these injuries were sprains due to hyperextension which accounted for 5.5 means days out of competition. Neuroligic neck injuries accounted for the other 45% of the cases which resulted in 7 mean days out of competition. Fortunately for players at Iowa these were mild cases, because neck injuries can be much more severe. Khenon is fortunate to not have sustained any neurological injury that would have left life long damages.
A Wealth and Fitness article called "Neck Injuries Most Common with Football" proves that neck injuries are more prevalent in football than in any other sport. A new study done in 2005 reports that football sends more athletes to the emergency room for neck injuries than any other competitive sport.
Here are the estimated numbers of neck injuries per sport from 1990-1999:
- Football: 114,706 neck injuries
- Soccer: 19,341 neck injuries
- Ice hockey: 5,038 neck injuries
Specific Neck Injury Statistics
Football led in all neck injuries, from minor cuts and scrapes to more severe injuries including neck fractures and dislocations, says the study.Most of the injuries were not severe. Here are the details for each sport:
- Football: 104,483 neck contusions, sprains, or strains; 1,588 neck fractures or dislocations; and 621 neck lacerations.
- Soccer: 17,927 neck contusions, sprains, or strains; 214 neck fractures or dislocations; and 0 neck lacerations.
- Ice hockey: 4,964 neck contusions, sprains, or strains; 105 neck fractures or dislocations; and 199 neck lacerations.
Above is a link to a high impact collision football hit that left a Buffalo Bills player paralyzed from the waist down.
Fortunately, for the sport of football catastrophic neck injuries that leave players dead or paralyzed rare, but they do happen. Just last season Rutger defensive tackle Eric LeGrand was paralyzed from the neck down for engaging in spear type of hit. Eric LeGrand will never walk again, but Khenon Hall is walking and living a festive life with lots of zeal. I've always admired his contentent for never being able to play again. I'm sure him having a family and successful job has helped him re-direct much of his hard work and passions. Some may say that it is stregnth that kept him motivated. Khenon will tell you, "it is simply a blessing from God."