Defensive players understand risk of injuries to head, spine
BOCA RATON — Florida Atlantic linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair felt sick as he watched Pittsburgh Steelers star Ryan Shazier leave the field on a stretcher earlier this month.
Facing the Cincinnati Bengals on Dec. 4, Shazier — a 2011 graduate of Plantation High School — sustained a back injury that required emergency spinal stabilization surgery and has been ruled out for the season with his career now in doubt.
A longtime fan of Shazier’s, Al-Shaair is aware that he could have been in a similar situation had an attempted tackle gone differently.
“There’s a few times this year where I might have ducked my head when I shouldn’t have,” admitted Al-Shaair, the leading tackler this season for the Owls (10-3 overall, 9-0 Conference USA) with 133. “We talk about it when we have our meetings (with coaches) ... you see something like that, it’s a wake-up call.”
Houston Texans quarterback Tom Savage and Buffalo Bills quarterback Nathan Peterman left games Sunday with concussions; replays also showed Savage’s body shaking on the field. He later re-entered the Texans’ 26-16 loss to San Francisco, a decision that some say shows the NFL’s concussion protocol does not work.
Currently finishing his junior year, Al-Shaair’s high school years in Tampa came as the public was learning more about concussions, CTE and their potential long-term effect on football players.
While FAU coaches discuss safe tackling with players, Al-Shaair acknowledged there are times when he acts in the heat of the moment during a play. Al-Shaair missed the Owls’ last loss, 34-31 at Buffalo on Sept. 23, with an elbow injury.
“You don’t think about (fear of injury), you just go in and try to make a tackle,” Al-Shaair said.
Defensive end Ernest Bagner described Shazier’s injury as “tragic.”
“It’s not really scary, it seems more like a fluke accident than something that’s regular,” Bagner said. “You get taught to not lead with our head down.”
Bagner, who played two years on the junior-college level at Riverside City College in California, said coaches at both levels do roughly the same amount of teaching about head safety and proper tackling.
Even as coaches and officials stress safety, players at all levels have tried to avoid changing their form if it means opposing players breaking free from tackles. Defensive end Tim Bonner has become a favorite among his teammates for what he calls the “Doom Boom,” a technique on kickoff coverage where the redshirt sophomore sprints down the field and tries to level anyone in his path.
Despite the risk that could come with such a technique, Bonner — who missed time in fall camp with a concussion — says he’ll continue to level big hits. “I ain’t gonna go head-first or neck-first,” said Bonner, who recorded his first sack with the Owls in the C-USA Championship win over North Texas on Dec. 2. “I just throw my body at them. It’s scary, but when the game time comes, I don’t think about it.”
FAU will play Akron on Tuesday in the Boca Raton Bowl at FAU Stadium.