Mississippi Today
A splendid football weekend was halted by reminder of the sport’s inherent danger
A splendid football weekend was halted by reminder of the sport’s inherent danger
We had enjoyed a stupendously entertaining holiday weekend of football. On Saturday, the NCAA semifinal games were both down-to-the wire classics with TCU upsetting Michigan and Georgia surviving Ohio State on Saturday. Then, Monday, Mississippi State won one for The Pirate, before Tulane shocked the football world, overcoming a 15-point fourth quarter deficit to stun Southern Cal and its Heisman Trophy quarterback.
All were perfect examples of why so many of us love the sport of football so much – such passion, so much drama, so many heroics. But that was enough football for me until the social media alerts prompted a check-in to the NFL Monday night game, which had been suspended because of a dreadful injury. As this is written, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin remains in critical condition from a freakish injury suffered just seven minutes into the game. Hamlin’s heart stopped beating after he tackled Cincinnati receiver Tee Higgins.
Higgins’ helmet hit Hamlin in his chest. Hamlin went to the ground, rose to his feet and then just keeled over to the ground unconscious and stopped breathing. CPR was administered on the field as players on both teams cried and comforted one another. It was shocking scene, a sober reminder that this sport many of us love so much is so inherently dangerous.
And here’s the deal: In all that football we watched over the weekend, there were scores of collisions that appeared far, far more hazardous than the one that severely injured Hamlin. His was clearly a freakish injury.
For many of us in Mississippi, it was a reminder of a scene 23 years ago at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium when Chucky Mullins slammed into Vanderbilt receiver Brad Gaines and fell to the earth never to rise on his feet again. The collision shattered four vertebrae and paralyzed Mullins from the neck down instantly. Approximately 19 months later, Mullins was stricken with a pulmonary embolism and died on May 6, 1991.
What happened to Mullins changed the way at least this one sports writer has viewed the sport. Always before, my reaction to such a collision was, “Wow! What a great hit!” Ever since, my reaction to the same sort of hit has been: “Please, get up.”
In more recent years, as we have learned more and more about the long-term effects of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), every collision and every resulting concussion rekindle the fear for the safety of those who compete. Indeed, five years ago, I did a series of stories about Mississippi football players who, years after retirement from football, suffered the dreadful effects of CTE. The families of Bobby Crespino, Doug Cunningham, and Willie Daniel donated their brains to CTE Center at Boston University. There are four stages of CTE. Crespino, Cunningham and Daniel all were in the fourth and most dire stage.
I have spoken with many, many former college and professional players, still living, who live in fear that will face similar issues. Wesley Walls, the former Ole Miss and NFL star, may have put it best. “I worry, man, I worry,” Walls told me. “It’s the biggest worry of my life because I see what it has done to other guys, guys I played with and against. I was taken off the field three times for concussions. I probably had at least four more.”
Leaders at every level of football have changed the rules to try and make the sport more safe. Targeting (a helmet-to-helmet hit) has been outlawed. Blindside blocks are now penalized. Equipment, helmets especially, have been upgraded. But there’s just no getting around the fact that these are huge, fast men running into one another. Rule changes and equipment improvements will never eliminate the inherent danger of serious injury. That’s just fact.
And this is nothing new. In the early 1900s President Theodore Roosevelt led the crusade for radical rule changes in hopes of saving the sport. Those rule changes lessened the danger and reduced deaths.
But the danger remains. And it will remain.
In the end it is up to each individual to decide whether or not to participate or, for that matter,whether even to watch.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Mississippi Today
On this day in 1997
Dec. 22, 1997
The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers.
In the court’s 4–2 decision, Justice Mike Mills praised efforts “to squeeze justice out of the harm caused by a furtive explosion which erupted from dark bushes on a June night in Jackson, Mississippi.”
He wrote that Beckwith’s constitutional right to a speedy trial had not been denied. His “complicity with the Sovereignty Commission’s involvement in the prior trials contributed to the delay.”
The decision did more than ensure that Beckwith would stay behind bars. The conviction helped clear the way for other prosecutions of unpunished killings from the Civil Rights Era.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Medicaid expansion tracker approaches $1 billion loss for Mississippi
About the time people ring in the new year next week, the digital tracker on Mississippi Today’s homepage tabulating the amount of money the state is losing by not expanding Medicaid will hit $1 billion.
The state has lost $1 billion not since the start of the quickly departing 2024 but since the beginning of the state’s fiscal year on July 1.
Some who oppose Medicaid expansion say the digital tracker is flawed.
During an October news conference, when state Auditor Shad White unveiled details of his $2 million study seeking ways to cut state government spending, he said he did not look at Medicaid expansion as a method to save money or grow state revenue.
“I think that (Mississippi Today) calculator is wrong,” White said. “… I don’t think that takes into account how many people are going to be moved off the federal health care exchange where their health care is paid for fully by the federal government and moved onto Medicaid.”
White is not the only Mississippi politician who has expressed concern that if Medicaid expansion were enacted, thousands of people would lose their insurance on the exchange and be forced to enroll in Medicaid for health care coverage.
Mississippi Today’s projections used for the tracker are based on studies conducted by the Institutions of Higher Learning University Research Center. Granted, there are a lot of variables in the study that are inexact. It is impossible to say, for example, how many people will get sick and need health care, thus increasing the cost of Medicaid expansion. But is reasonable that the projections of the University Research Center are in the ballpark of being accurate and close to other studies conducted by health care experts.
White and others are correct that Mississippi Today’s calculator does not take into account money flowing into the state for people covered on the health care exchange. But that money does not go to the state; it goes to insurance companies that, granted, use that money to reimburse Mississippians for providing health care. But at least a portion of the money goes to out-of-state insurance companies as profits.
Both Medicaid expansion and the health care exchange are part of the Affordable Care Act. Under Medicaid expansion people earning up to $20,120 annually can sign up for Medicaid and the federal government will pay the bulk of the cost. Mississippi is one of 10 states that have not opted into Medicaid expansion.
People making more than $14,580 annually can garner private insurance through the health insurance exchanges, and people below certain income levels can receive help from the federal government in paying for that coverage.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, legislation championed and signed into law by President Joe Biden significantly increased the federal subsidies provided to people receiving insurance on the exchange. Those increased subsidies led to many Mississippians — desperate for health care — turning to the exchange for help.
White, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, Gov. Tate Reeves and others have expressed concern that those people would lose their private health insurance and be forced to sign up for Medicaid if lawmakers vote to expand Medicaid.
They are correct.
But they do not mention that the enhanced benefits authored by the Biden administration are scheduled to expire in December 2025 unless they are reenacted by Congress. The incoming Donald Trump administration has given no indication it will continue the enhanced subsidies.
As a matter of fact, the Trump administration, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is looking for ways to cut federal spending.
Some have speculated that Medicaid expansion also could be on Musk’s chopping block.
That is possible. But remember congressional action is required to continue the enhanced subsidies. On the flip side, congressional action would most likely be required to end or cut Medicaid expansion.
Would the multiple U.S. senators and House members in the red states that have expanded Medicaid vote to end a program that is providing health care to thousands of their constituents?
If Congress does not continue Biden’s enhanced subsidies, the rates for Mississippians on the exchange will increase on average about $500 per year, according to a study by KFF, a national health advocacy nonprofit. If that occurs, it is likely that many of the 280,000 Mississippians on the exchange will drop their coverage.
The result will be that Mississippi’s rate of uninsured — already one of the highest in the nation – will rise further, putting additional pressure on hospitals and other providers who will be treating patients who have no ability to pay.
In the meantime, the Mississippi Today counter that tracks the amount of money Mississippi is losing by not expanding Medicaid keeps ticking up.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1911
Dec. 21, 1911
Josh Gibson, the Negro League’s “Home Run King,” was born in Buena Vista, Georgia.
When the family’s farm suffered, they moved to Pittsburgh, and Gibson tried baseball at age 16. He eventually played for a semi-pro team in Pittsburgh and became known for his towering home runs.
He was watching the Homestead Grays play on July 25, 1930, when the catcher injured his hand. Team members called for Gibson, sitting in the stands, to join them. He was such a talented catcher that base runners were more reluctant to steal. He hit the baseball so hard and so far (580 feet once at Yankee Stadium) that he became the second-highest paid player in the Negro Leagues behind Satchel Paige, with both of them entering the National Baseball Hame of Fame.
The Hall estimated that Gibson hit nearly 800 homers in his 17-year career and had a lifetime batting average of .359. Gibson was portrayed in the 1996 TV movie, “Soul of the Game,” by Mykelti Williamson. Blair Underwood played Jackie Robinson, Delroy Lindo portrayed Satchel Paige, and Harvey Williams played “Cat” Mays, the father of the legendary Willie Mays.
Gibson has now been honored with a statue outside the Washington Nationals’ ballpark.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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