This is really scary stuff.
The NFL has, like other contact sports, begun doing all it can to improve player safety on the field but incidents like this show just what a fine line athletes sometimes walk.
Ricardo Lockette was the victim of a horrific hit during a kick return in the Seattle Seahawks game against Dallas last season, and lay prone on the field for some time before being taken from the field on a stretcher.
https://twitter.com/TheCauldron/status/660952890710884356?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Lockette missed the rest of Seattle's season following surgery on his neck, but has now described just how serious his injuries were.
"I didn't realize how serious it was until it was over,"
said Lockette, who recently visited a local fire station to thank staff for the work they did following his injury.
"The doctor told me pretty much my skull, all the muscles, all the ligaments that connect my vertebrae. If I would have stood up then, the weight of my head, left right, front back, I would have died.
"If one of my teammates had come over and pulled my arm just barely, I might have died.
"If the returner at the time would have broken a couple tackles and they would have fell on me on the field I would have died on the field. But what saved my life was the trainers."
Sorry, but that's terrifying. We're definitely glad Lockette is OK.
