CFLers deserve lasting care for injuries

Teams trying to dodge responsibility to employees, Brian Ramsay writes

Nothing about the play spelled trouble, but he was caught between two players and then tackled awkwardly. And that was all it took to halt the season, and possibly career, of Toronto Argonauts quarterback Ricky Ray.

The severity of the injury isn’t completely known, but neck injuries can have dire consequences for a player and often require lengthy and complex rehabilitation.

In the aftermath of Ray’s injury, players, both old and new, paid tribute to his skill — four Grey Cup championships — and resilience in the Canadian Football League. But most of all, he’s praised for ability to focus on marching his team down the field to score.

While tributes like those are important, Ray’s injury and circumstance shine a bright light on something that needs to get more attention: The plight of injured players in the CFL. Too often, those players aren’t getting the rehabilitation and care they deserve when injured.

Don’t get me wrong. Everything that needed to be done for Ray when he was injured was done and done well. The game was halted. Great care was taken to stabilize him while he was carried from the field to immediate medical attention.

But it’s what happens in the weeks and months that follow that is so critical.

In Ray’s case, and many others, their care has strict limits. Team-provided care is limited to a year from the date of injury if the player retires or is released.

After that year, things change.

Team-funded care and rehabilitation ends. However, if an injury is severe, more surgeries and rehabilitation will be required, care that someone else will have to provide.

For Canadian players, many turn to the public health-care system. American players are on the hook for very expensive medical treatment.

In either case, their circumstance raises serious questions about responsibility.

After all, these injuries are workplace injuries and in every other workplace, the employer is held responsible for workplace injuries and our workers’ compensation systems ensure that care and rehabilitation is provided.

Professional football players should be no exception. They’re paid to do a job, but in the CFL, their employers are trying to dodge their full responsibilities.

That’s why the Canadian Football League Players’ Association is calling for change and pressing the league to take better care of injured players. Abandoning those players to find the care they need after a year is an unacceptable practice that must end.

Whether you’re a star player or a rookie, injuries can happen on the job.

What’s missing is an acceptance by team management that, as employers, they owe it to their employees — the players — to provide the proper care and rehabilitation when those workplace injuries happen.

Brian Ramsay, a former offensive linesman with the Toronto Argonauts, Hamilton TigerCats and Edmonton Eskimos, is executive director of the Canadian Football League Players’ Association.