There’s no way to sugarcoat the fact that Donald Parham Jr. suffered a brain injury.
Here’s hoping he’s all right
Thursday night’s overtime thriller between the Chargers and Chiefs was exactly the sort of game that keeps millions of football fans tuning in every week. But it also featured a harsh reminder of why watching football can feel morally questionable.
Just 90 seconds into the game, Chargers tight end Donald Parham Jr. hit his head on the ground while attempting to catch a pass in the end zone. As he lay motionless on the turf with his arms locked in the fencing response, Fox’s cameras zoomed in on his face and showed that his eyes were closed.
Parham was immobilized and taken from the field on a stretcher. His arms shook as he was wheeled into the locker room.
It was a frightening situation and a reminder of how inherently dangerous football is. Parham's apparently being knocked out (and without being hit by a defender, no less) was scary enough, but it was his shaking as he left the field that was even harder to watch.
When Fox’s Erin Andrews relayed an update from the Chargers that Parham had been taken to a hospital for further evaluation, the broadcast showed a close-up, slow-mo replay of Parham’s arms shaking. And then Joe Buck brought up the weather as a potential explanation for why Parham was shivering.
“The last thing we would ever do is speculate about an injury, especially that type,” Buck said. “When you see his arms shaking and his hands shaking on his way out, that’s the part that’s most unnerving. I will just add this: It is very cold, at least by Los Angeles standards, down on the field. Hopefully that was the issue more than anything else.”
It goes without saying that that’s a really stupid thing for an announcer to say. Parham was obviously not shivering like he was stuck outside in a bathing suit during a blizzard because he was cold on a 50-degree night in Los Angeles.
Buck has been an NFL announcer since 1994. He’s seen countless players carted off the field with brain injuries. He knows better than to attempt to explain away a situation as serious as this one. It’s particularly shocking to hear an announcer as good as Buck make such an obviously unnecessary comment. There was no need for him to say anything about Parham other than that he wishes him the best and will keep the audience updated with the latest information.
But perhaps it’s only natural for Buck to publicly express his wishful thinking. After all, he makes his livelihood not only off football but off promoting football. Fans can feel squeamish about watching football when injuries like Parham’s occur. Buck is a key cog in the machine responsible for keeping the game alive by ensuring that people keep watching and keep signing their kids up to play. It can’t be easy to feel good about being in that position.
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