A critical period for Eric LeGrand
by On the Banks on Oct 19, 2010 7:01 AM EDT
in Rutgers football
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PrintCoach Schiano is doing his best at the moment to quell internet and media speculation about Eric LeGrand's current medical status, pleading for privacy and patience. Everyone's natural impulse is that Greg's hope that Eric will eventually walk again proves correct. There's a definite danger to staying glued to your monitors on this. According to established medical knowledge, the first few days after any spinal cord injury constitute a critical period of volatile uncertainty, with few if any clear guidelines about what expectations or inferences are warranted. Rutgers fans are certainly in the mood for wishful thinking, and that is an environment ripe for raising false hopes.
And yet any struggle for restraint is inevitably a losing effort. I for one, while trying not to jump to any conclusions, still could not help pouring over every detail coming out yesterday regardless of a source's track record or past accuracy. Grounded information, like the quotes from the Hackensack University Medical Center press conference from the article linked above, proved quite useful in explaining many of the relevant factors that are likely to affect spinal cord injury patient outcomes. Rutgers University is fortunate to have a leading expert on the school faculty in Dr. Wise Young, and his insights from Steve Miller's article in the Targum are a must read.
The broader Rutgers athletics community has done an admirable job in responding to LeGrand's horrific accident. Equally welcome has been the overwhelming reaction from the broader sports universe and across the country and globe. Pittsburgh is doing their part as their football program prepares to host the Scarlet Knights this weekend. RU football has never had a great relationship with radio host Mike Francesa on WFAN (the station has a lot of alumni working behind the scenes however.) However, Francesa yesterday acted with the utmost class and dignity, and deserves to be commended on that account.
These actions and gestures are much appreciated. One can only hope that all of the compassion and well wishes will directly translate to strength for Eric and his family as they start to embark on his long path to recovery. Tangible support will be needed too, once the requisite NCAA red tape is handled.
If any good, any lasting positive change at all can come from this supreme misfortune (coupled with Sunday's spike in NFL brutality), it must come in the form of a commitment and duty for supporting effective high quality medical research. The scientific community toiled through decades of advances to even make it possible that a patient facing paralysis could contemplate living some semblance of a normal life. It will only be through continuing those efforts that this dream will ever come to pass.
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Your comments on Mr. Francessa are quite comical. While he brings our coach on his show at 4PM yesterday, is there ANY small morsel of thought that what this did was boost his ratings? Cold you ask? Well, the proof of this fraud has in the past and will in the future, resurface. He has zero respect for the program and has called Rutgers Football, “a mirage”. That is fact. Please remember, Eric and his family are part of the “mirage”. Until that media outlet starts to treat college football and this program with some respect for the fact that the staff treats their players with respect and send them off to th next level, his sincerity is just a facade for his employer. Also remember, with poison in his tone, Mr. Benigno, on a “Daily News Live” show, called this program, “a fraud” – that includes you, me and the LeGrand family. Shame on you, Mr. Benigno!
Fraud
Your comments on Mr. Francessa are quite comical. While he brings our coach on his show at 4PM yesterday, is there ANY small morsel of thought that what this did was boost his ratings? Cold you ask? Well, the proof of this fraud has in the past and will in the future, resurface. He has zero respect for the program and has called Rutgers Football, "a mirage". That is fact. Please remember, Eric and his family are part of the "mirage". Until that media outlet starts to treat college football and this program with some respect for the fact that the staff treats their players with respect and send them off to th next level, his sincerity is just a facade for his employer. Also remember, with poison in his tone, Mr. Benigno, on a "Daily News Live" show, called this program, "a fraud" – that includes you, me and the LeGrand family. Shame on you, Mr. Benigno!
Frauds
Your comments on Mr. Francessa are quite comical. While he brings our coach on his show at 4PM yesterday, is there ANY small morsel of thought that what this did was boost his ratings? Cold you ask? Well, the proof of this fraud has in the past and will in the future, resurface. He has zero respect for the program and has called Rutgers Football, "a mirage". That is fact. Please remember, Eric and his family are part of the "mirage". Until that media outlet starts to treat college football and this program with some respect for the fact that the staff treats their players with respect and send them off to th next level, his sincerity is just a facade for his employer. Also remember, with poison in his tone, Mr. Benigno, on a "Daily News Live" show, called this program, "a fraud" – that includes you, me and the LeGrand family. Shame on you, Mr. Benigno!
withhold judgement
Francessa has been an absolute jerk of the highest order as he has demeaned and attacked the RU football program as a joke. He is one of the people who desperately needs to view Schiano’s comments in the first press conference after the LeGrand injury. Coach Schiano stated that this isn’t pro football, that these are his kids because parents entrust them to him to finish the job of building boys into men.
Despite his reprehensible past behavior, give Francessa a chance to prove that he finally understands that these aren’t highly paid professionals, but that they ARE KIDS and their efforts don’t deserve to be ridiculed on the air as he has done in the past.
WFAN
Without a doubt Francessa has been a Rutgers Program basher in the past, but let’s not lump this into that category. Francessa may still harbor hard feelings towards Rutgers, but he showed class in his interview with Coach Schiano yesterday, and allowed him to spread the word about Eric’s condition. This situation is larger than the Rutgers program, and focuses on the health and well-being of an individual. I’m sure that Francessa does not feel that Eric and his family are a “mirage” or a “fraud”. Remember, there are more important things in the world than college athletics (it’s a shame that it takes a tragedy of this proportion to remember that….).
While I disagree with Francessa’s everyday feelings about the RU program, he’s entitled to his opinion.
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