# Devastating injury in Tulsa-Tulane game today **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [September 8, 2012, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devastating-injury-in-tulsa-tulane-game-today/634135 "2012-09-08T22:28:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devastating-injury-in-tulsa-tulane-game-today/634135/1 "2012-09-08T22:28:53Z")
Tulane senior safety Devon Walker broke his neck and got a collapsed lung on the field today. [He stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated and was given a tracheotomy while still on the field.](http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2012/09/tulane-player-given-cpr/1#.UEvEE4l5mc0) Occasionally I feel guilty about my love of football, because I know that these men are being put at risk of permanent damage every time they suit up. I’ve seen a man break his back mere yards in front of me (Adam Taliaferro–I cried like a baby when he walked onto the field years later, and I’m not even a Penn State fan). And yet, here I am watching Michigan playing Air Force. I hope the money the NFL recently donated to medical research can also do something to help design safer equipment, so nothing like this will happen again. College kids shouldn’t have to nearly die just so I can have a few hours of fun on fall weekends. I hope that Devon Walker’s injury is not as catastrophic as it seems, and that he can recover some semblance of life as he knew it before. But mainly, I just hope he lives. And that’s terribly sad. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devastating-injury-in-tulsa-tulane-game-today/634135/2 "2012-09-08T23:09:04Z")
Hopefully there is no permanent, that is irreversible damage to the young man. I like football but my son will never play it or rugby. Any game with that many opportunities for a head or neck injury has no place in my home. ---
**Author:** ![Non\_Lawyer\_Paid\_Spokesentity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Non\_Lawyer\_Paid\_Spokesentity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Non_Lawyer_Paid_Spokesentity)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devastating-injury-in-tulsa-tulane-game-today/634135/3 "2012-09-08T23:52:46Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > Hopefully there is no permanent, that is irreversible damage to the young man. Well, you certainly know little if anything about football. Walk is a senior, so taking it as a given that he’s played four years of college football and 4 years of high school football, plus let’s say 2 years of pee wee football and given the admittedly not entire scientific estimates about this sort of thing prior to today’s incident, conservatively he’s suffered at least 400 concussions, so to wish that there isn’t any permanent damage to the young man is laughable. Of course the dude’s been irrevocably damaged, but that train left the station years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devastating-injury-in-tulsa-tulane-game-today/634135/4 "2012-09-08T23:59:44Z")
> [@Non\_Lawyer\_Paid\_Spokesentity](#): > > … conservatively he’s suffered at least 400 concussions… You mind explaining how you came up with this, um,\* figure?\* ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2012, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devastating-injury-in-tulsa-tulane-game-today/634135/5 "2012-09-09T00:00:46Z")
I’m really glad I had a daughter and not a son. One of my good friends at work has a son who is the starting quarterback for his high school team. He also plays safety. He’s a natural and gifted athlete, and has never been injured, but I don’t think I could stand watching my own child play. I really struggle with guilt over watching other people’s children. Sometimes I feel like they’re not much better than gladiators. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2012, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devastating-injury-in-tulsa-tulane-game-today/634135/6 "2012-09-09T00:28:56Z")
> [@Non\_Lawyer\_Paid\_Spokesentity](#): > > Well, you certainly know little if anything about football. > > Walk is a senior, so taking it as a given that he’s played four years of college football and 4 years of high school football, plus let’s say 2 years of pee wee football and given the admittedly not entire scientific estimates about this sort of thing prior to today’s incident, conservatively he’s suffered at least 400 concussions, so to wish that there isn’t any permanent damage to the young man is laughable. > > Of course the dude’s been irrevocably damaged, but that train left the station years ago. Where did you get your statistics from? Any cite? And I meant irreversible neck/spine injuries. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2012, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devastating-injury-in-tulsa-tulane-game-today/634135/7 "2012-09-09T00:45:09Z")
> [@Non\_Lawyer\_Paid\_Spokesentity](#): > > Well, you certainly know little if anything about football. And you’re being a jerk with zero provocation to do so. 2012 strikes again. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2012, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devastating-injury-in-tulsa-tulane-game-today/634135/8 "2012-09-09T02:11:26Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > And you’re being a jerk with zero provocation to do so. 2012 strikes again. Don’t call others names in this forum. You know where the Pit is. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devastating-injury-in-tulsa-tulane-game-today/634135/9 "2012-09-12T12:02:51Z")
From [this article](http://www.nola.com/tulane/index.ssf/2012/09/former_player_marc_buoniconti.html): > [@](#): > > Marc Buoniconti knows firsthand the pain a spinal cord injury can cause. In 1985, as a linebacker for The Citadel, he suffered a cervical spine injury like Tulane’s Devon Walker did last weekend against Tulsa. > > Buoniconti said he saw Walker’s injury and believes he can recover. > > “I saw the play. His arms and legs did not go limp,” said Buoniconti, who was paralyzed from the shoulders down and spent the seven months after his injury on a respirator. “So I feel that if he has an incomplete injury that his chance of recovery can dramatically increase.” There’s more to the article. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devastating-injury-in-tulsa-tulane-game-today/634135/10 "2012-09-12T12:40:47Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > Don’t call others names in this forum. You know where the Pit is. Lo siento, Senor Moderator. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devastating-injury-in-tulsa-tulane-game-today/634135/11 "2012-09-17T13:01:05Z")
[No update so far on Devon Walker’s injury.](http://www.nola.com/tulane/index.ssf/2012/09/tulane_football_returns_to_pra.html) I hope he comes through okay, and can walk. I haven’t heard or read - what’s his prognosis? Or is it too early to tell still?