Why It’s Okay For Texas QB David Ash to Hang Up His Horns

How do you tell someone that loves what they’re doing that they need to stop for the sake of their health? How do you tell a 22 year old that’s been a quarterback at the University of Texas that his playing days are over? That he can’t go out in front of over 100,000 people and do the thing a starting quarterback for Texas does. Its not that easy of a job is it?

Most sports doctors agree that the running back position in football is the most punishing position on the field. Its said that running backs, on average, get into the equivalent of 10-15 car wrecks every game. Basically when you play running back, you know you’re going to get hit because everyone converges upon you. Its par for the course. Quarterback however, can be a study all its own, especially blind side hits. We’re back at that car wreck analogy. For every game when a quarterback gets sacked and blindsided, and Texas Longhorns QB Ash has been blind side sacked several times over the course of his career, it must be the equivalent of going through an intersection and getting pummeled by an F-150 on your right side, without you knowing it.

This past Saturday night Texas played North Texas and Ash took a shot to the middle of his helmet in the early stages of the game trying to recover a fumble. Nothing occurred for the rest of the game, Texas wins 38-7. It wasn’t until the game had concluded that Ash started complaining about dizziness and a headache. Medical staff looked after him and Coach Charlie Strong, in his first year in Austin, did the right thing in benching Ash for the upcoming BYU game this Saturday but acknowledged the QB’s history of concussions in this statement, “You have to be concerned, any time you have that number of concussions. We will never jeopardize a young man’s health for the sake of this football team. That will always be the case,” Strong said.

Watching Ash play, as tough as he is, I’m reminded of the old flamboyant QB Jim McMahon of the Chicago Bears. He was tough and full of grit on the field, first at BYU and then with the Bears in the 80’s, and wild off of it. I remember watching a celebrity golf tourney and he was playing barefoot with a headband on that read ‘I Love Pete,’ which was in reference to his love/hate relationship with NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle at the time. McMahon never slid as QB. He always sought out the 1st down marker, head down against a linebacker, and reaped the rewards. McMahon always popped up, fresh set of downs accomplished, and kept the drive alive. These days Jim McMahon is fighting onset dementia. He spoke of one time driving somewhere and not knowing how to get back home. Of people he’s known for years and forgetting their names.

Football can be a cruel sport to play. You can’t just ring up your buddies and meet them in the park with your pads. If you don’t make it to the NFL, and most won’t, then at age 22, the sport you’ve been playing since you were 5 or 6, that’s it. No more.

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If you pull your back playing golf you can easily sit out a few weeks and pick up the clubs again and play well into your 90’s. If you played baseball you can easily play in a softball league for ages. But not football. In football if you pull your hamstring, you know. You’re done for the day and possibly next week, depending on your rehab. Head injuries however, even with what we know medically about the severity of head trauma, doesn’t take the normal route of rehab. You do tests, you get medically cleared if you have a history of concussions. David Ash got a medical redshirt last year after going down to concussions. How much more of this can he take?

There’s no question David Ash is tough. Anytime you start 22 games at Texas you have some moxie about you, but that’s not the case anymore. If he kept getting turf toe, it would be different. The greatest thing that David Ash could do is to take it upon himself to know when to walk away from the game he loves so much. Not what the media is saying or his inner circle. His bottom line is that he has to live with the headaches and the dizziness after all is said and done. The best case scenario is that Ash completes his degree from the University of Texas after taking himself out of the game and is able to bring his family back to Austin someday, maybe on Homecoming Weekend, with a clean bill of health, as a professional of a different sorts. The worst case scenario? I think we know what that is we just won’t say it here. One concussion is one too many for anybody. 4 to 5 blindside car accidents in 2 years? It might be time for the Tyrone Swoopes Era to begin at Texas, for the sake of David Ash’s long term health.