Over the summer, I spoke with several USC players, Coach Lane Kiffin, Athletic Director Pat Haden and others about their approach to concussions and player safety.
The result is the feature story that can be found here.
As always when reporting stories like this, there were plenty of tasty leftovers.
One element I didn’t include came courtesy of Tim McDonald, former USC safety and father of current USC safety T.J. McDonald. We were discussing the risks inherent in the game. The elder McDonald acknowledged them — but put greater stock in the rewards.
“Having played the game, the things you learn, the life skills, much more outweigh the risk of injury,” McDonald said. “You can get hurt doing a lot of things. Football is one of those things. But the lessons, the skills, the ability to compete, being on time, all the intangible things football teaches you, to me outweighs the health risk.”
McDonald still worries about his boys, T.J. at ‘SC and Tevin McDonald at UCLA. Their father initially resisted letting them play his sport before eventually and inevitably relenting. Before I could even ask Kiffin if he would let his son, Knox, play football, the coach intercepted my question.
“No comment,” Kiffin said. “That’s a no-win situation.”
But Kiffin being Kiffin, he couldn’t resist adding: “I can tell you this, my first two kids won’t be playing football.”
Kiffin’s eldest two children are girls.
Haden has four adult children and six grandsons. Whether they play football isn’t his call. But I asked if he’d offer any advice.
“I think you have to let kids chase their own dreams,” Haden said. “They were really captivated by the Kings’ hockey; I was a goalie in the driveway. It’ll be interesting to see how those things come out.
“Football’s been great to me. I understand the benefits and the risks involved, but really every sport has some of those. We don’t live in a risk-free world. Every time we go through security at the airport we’re reminded of that.”
More from the USC blog:
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