The Board needs to add to its agenda a discussion of Derek
Sheely, the Frostburg State University student who died two years ago yesterday
of head trauma sustained in football practice with the school’s team. On August 22, 2013, Sheely’s family
filed a complaint in which they allege that his death stemmed from misconduct
by Frostburg ‘s football coaches and an athletic trainer.
The Sheely family alleged last week that the football
coaches conducted dangerous helmet-to-helmet “Oklahoma-style” tackling drills
over three days that caused Sheely to sustain a bleeding gash on his forehead
and that the two football coaches an athletic trainers named in the suit ignore
concussion signs that he displayed before collapsing unconscious on the
field. Each of these staff
currently serves in these positions at Frostburg.
It is not clear that members of the Board of Regents are
aware of Sheely’s death, of the suit his family has filed, or of the broader
issues of concussions in college football and other sports. A review of the minutes of the
Board of Regents’ public meeting since August 2011 reflect no discussion of
Sheely’s death. The minutes also
reflect no discussion of concussions in intercollegiate football.
There is no discussion in the Board’s minutes of the
long-term risk that repetitive head blows in football may lead to chronic
traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) not only in retired NFL players but also in
college football players, for example, Owen Thomas, a University of
Pennsylvania football player who committed suicide in April 2010.
There is also no discussion in the Board’s minutes of the
short term risks that repetitive head blows in football can lead to altered
brain function, even in players who are not diagnosed to have sustained a
concussion, and that such altered brain function can take months to return to
baseline.
Further, on September 28, 2012, 13 months after Sheely’s
death, the Board of Regents adopted Policy V 2.10, University System of
Maryland Policy on Intercollegiate Athletics. The Policy requires a University president to report to the
Board of Regents information about a school’s intercollegiate athletics program
such as student participants’ academic performance and financial aspects of the
program.
The Board of Regents’ Policy, however, requires no reporting
on concussions or other injuries that students sustain from participating in
intercollegiate athletics.
The report filed by Frostburg State University for the 2010-2011 school
year contains no information about concussions or other injuries. (No report by Frostburg State University
is available at the Board of Regents website for the 2011-2012 school year, the
year in which Sheely died.)
By law, the Board of Regents is required to invite Governor
O’Malley, Treasurer Nancy Kopp, and Comptroller Peter Franchot to attend each
of its meetings. If you will
recall, in 2011 Pennsylvania’s Governor Tom Corbett exercised a similar role to
lead the Board of Trustees for Penn State University to address the child abuse
scandal related to Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky.
I respectfully urge Governor O’Malley, Treasurer Kopp, and
Comptroller Franchot to attend tomorrow’s Board of Regents meeting and play a
similar leadership role on the issue of the safety of students when they
participate in intercollegiate athletics within the University System of
Maryland.
At tomorrow’s meeting, the Board of Regents should discuss
whether football at Frostburg is being conducted safely and whether football at
other Maryland Schools is being conducted safely.
The Board should also adopt limits on full contact football
practicies similar to those adopted by the Ivy League, the PAC-12 Conference,
and the NFL. The NCAA has not
adopted such limits and appears to be committed to studying the issue. The Board of Regents’ deference
to the NCAA amounts to an abdication of its responsibility to keep Maryland
students safe when they participate in interscholastic sports.
Finally, the Board of Regents needs to evaluate whether it
is appropriate for football and other sports programs to be covered by the
limited immunity from tort liability that Maryland law provides to State
institutions and their personnel.
Under Maryland law, a state agency like the Board of Regents liable for
tort damages up to $200,000.
School personnel, that is, coaches, athletic directors,
university presidents, the Chancellor, Board of Regents members are only liable
for torts—like a student dying in a school-organized football practice—if their
conduct is malicious or grossly negligent. For negligence, these school personnel get a free pass.
The Board of Regents needs to ask whether the limited
immunity has created perverse financial incentives for the universities it
supervises. Football and other
sports programs represent significant revenue source and an opportunity to
market a school’s “brand.” If
liability for a tragedy like Derek Sheely’s death is capped at $200,000, does
this represent a small operating cost with no financial incentive for a
University to correct dangerous conditions?
One private sector discipline that gets lost by intercollegiate
athletics being conducted by state employees is the discipline of liability
insurance. If the University
System of Maryland had to obtain insurance on the private market for the
football program at Frostburg, would an insurer be willing to provide
coverage? If so, would the
premiums be affordable?
Would a private insurer condition coverage on the Board of
Regents banning dangerous football tackling drills, Oklahoma drills, that the
Sheely family allege caused their son’s death?
These serious issues may be beyond the Board of Regents
willingness to address. That is
why Governor O’Malley needs to step in.
He is being talked about as a Presidential contender for 2016.
If the Governor can’t protect Maryland students from what
some call the Football Industrial Complex, how can Americans expect him to
protect them from Al-Qaida and other national threats?
Tom Hearn is a parent
from Montgomery. Last year, after
his son sustained a concussion playing JV football, he advocated to the
Maryland State Board of Education that they take steps to address concussions
in high school sports.
A link to the letter Hearn sent to the Board of Regents is at this link
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