When a college football player suffers an injury in a game or in practice he is sent to the affiliated team doctor. If he wants a second opinion, he is on his own.
In my conversation with GMs and NFL team doctors, they unanimously agree that when they get college players most of them are already damaged goods. Now no one from the NFL will come out and say this publicly because they don’t want to disturb the free feeder system.
I know for a fact that the
NFL is truly concerned about their liability in regards to past and current players’ concussion lawsuits, and are quietly frustrated that
college football doesn’t share the responsibility and the potential fiscal damages that are lurking on the horizon.
One NFC GM I spoke to recently told me that there is definitely a consistency of injury patterns you can tie to a school. One storied program for example has a high degree of torn labrums and shoulder issues that he thinks comes from their weight room program. More specifically, their strength coach’s obsession with power cleans/snatches. Another program seems to have an unusual high number of knee and hamstring issues.
The problem is that there really are no checks and balances, or a union in place to protect college athletes. They simply have to do as they are told with no questions asked. If they dare question the system or the regimen they are then labeled as renegade or even selfish.
