Posted on 04/12/2010 12:34:46 AM PDT by Palter
Twenty-one college football players have collapsed and died as a result of training over the past decade. At least eight were carriers of the sickle-cell trait, a genetic disorder that can unpredictably turn deadly during rigorous exercise.
A blood test to screen for the trait costs about $5, and many university team doctors and athletic trainers support compulsory testing, arguing that it could save lives.
Yet a proposal to make such testing mandatory for all N.C.A.A. Division I athletes is not a sure bet to pass when it comes up for a vote by member conferences as early as Monday in Indianapolis.
The measure is questioned by the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, which argues that athletes should know their own status but raises concerns that those with the trait could be denied the chance to compete. Leading sickle-cell researchers have also resisted calls for mandatory testing, saying that changing training practices for everyone would minimize the risks to athletes with the trait.
“There’s not any data that shows that screening can save lives,” said Dr. William Roberts, who co-edited a set of recommendations by six medical organizations on preseason physicals. “A lot of the kids who have died, they’ve known they have sickle-cell trait and they still run them to death. It should just be a change in the training program to protect everyone and not just the kids with sickle.”
A vote on the issue in January failed to gain a necessary two-thirds majority, with some of the most influential football conferences — including the Pacific-10 and the Big East — opposing it.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
How about personal responsibility for athletes to have their own screening for this?
‘Cuz sickle cell is a black thang and they aren’t required to be responsible for anything in this society. They get a pass, or hadn’t you heard?
The first kid that gets passed over because they have the gene will sue for discrimination because he’s black. Then football practice, like education in general, will be “dumbed down” to accommodate the blacks’ sickle cell issue.
Might as well say a nickel.
Does that mean that mammograms are biased too? How about prostate tests? Ludicrous. Compete with SC and lose your life, is that what they want? SC is an ultra serious disease, let the player get hypoxic during a game or in training, serious consequences. Additionally, this would be good to screen for so they understand the disease and the risks of passing the full blown disease to their children.
The Doctors’ answer is to just not train anybody as hard as they have been ? Rather than reassuring those that DO NOT carry this disease, they want trainers to take it easy on everybody. Clearly these people have no concept of what a competitive spirit is like. This is the athletic equivalent of dumbing down a pre-med curriculum so it fails to weed out those who can’t hack it.
SC is curable but its not politically correct to say. Stop all testing, stop all treatment. A person with one SC cell is fine. If that person marries another person with SC and has offspring, the offspring is at substantial risk because of offspring’s parents. Just let offspring die and the disease is eradicated in a couple of generations - end of story.
Yes, let’s adjust competitive sports training programs to accommodate its weakest participants.
This is akin to implementing 10 mph limits on all roads to ensure the least capable drivers don’t have accidents.
If they shouldn’t be driving, they shouldn’t be driving. Not everyone is destined to be a pro athlete.
A guy might know he has something that can stop him but competitiveness will keep him from revealing the weakness to himself or to others. Psychology is part of sports. Psych yourself up for an event and try to psych the other guy out. Athletes say to themselves I do not have any weakness. Athletes want more than anything to prove they can keep up and surpass opponents. The only reason we watch is because the competition. The competition should be between the best possible opponents. Some guys have to be athletes because athletics is their whole life. They will compete even if they die from the competition.
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