Injury reminds us that players put their safety on the line,

Last week we were reminded that high school football players risk their health — and sometimes their lives — in the pursuit of gridiron glory.

Jasiel Favors, a junior varsity running back at Stony Point High School, broke his neck in a game Wednesday. On Monday, he remained paralyzed from the waist down.

Tyrell Cameron, a 16-yearold from Winnsboro, La., who played for Franklin Parish High, broke his neck in a game Friday night while returning a punt. He died later that night.

Jasiel Favors’ mother, Debra, said Monday she was unaware of Cameron’s death. She has been planted inside a Round Rock hospital while watching over her son. On Monday, she said Jasiel, 16, can move his shoulders and head and has some feeling in his arms.

“His attitude hasn’t changed since he’s been here,” Debra said. “He’s had just one bad day. It was overwhelming for him when a bunch of friends came to visit. They were trying to read his lips because they couldn’t understand what he was saying, and that frustrated him.”

On Sunday, Jasiel underwent a tracheotomy, a surgical procedure to open a direct airway through an incision in his neck.

This will be a temporary change until he’s strong enough to breathe on his own, his mother said.

Dozens of Stony Point football players and all the Tigers’ coaches have visited Seton Medical Center Williamson, Debra said. High school Principal Anthony Watson has stopped by the hospital every day to see Jasiel.

Among Jasiel’s visitors was a 14-year-old boy from Pflugerville who was paralyzed last year in a diving accident. Patrick Messer, sitting in a wheelchair, and his father, Patrick Sr., told Jasiel there is life after paralysis.

“They walked me through all the steps I’m going to need to take with my own son,” Debra Favors said.

Debra said Jasiel is expected to remain at Seton Medical Center Williamson for at least two more weeks. She will travel to Houston on Thursday to visit TIRR Memorial Hermann, a rehabilitation hospital. That’s where Patrick Messer underwent rehabilitation after suffering his spinal cord injury last summer.

In 2014, five high school football players died as a result of spinal injuries, according to the National Center for Sports Catastrophic Injury Research at the University of North Carolina.

The two football players from John Jay High School who struck umpire Robert Watts on Friday night during a loss at Marble Falls have been suspended from school as well as from the team, according to San Antonio Northside school district officials. Marble Falls police also have begun an investigation into the incident.

One must assume, too, that Jay football coach Gary Gutierrez will be grilled about his role in the incident.

After sophomore linebacker Victor Rojas and senior safety Michael Moreno blindsided Watts, game officials incorrectly tossed Rojas and another player, safety Trenton Hobdy. That meant Moreno, who speared Watts with his helmet while he was on the ground, stayed on the field.

On the ensuing play, Moreno drew a 15-yard personal foul for roughing the quarterback as he took a knee to run out the clock.

Shouldn’t Gutierrez have benched Moreno for his part in attacking Watts?

Answers will be forthcoming.