12.14.2007

Protective gear

The past few years I've played on a flag football team in a co-ed league through work. I'm athletic and aggressive enough to be a presence out there, but really, I don't know all that much about what I'm doing. I know what I need to know: if they throw the ball to me catch it, and if someone from the other team has the ball pull their flag.

Before each game we have a little ritual with the ref, having to show them our shoes (to make sure they aren't the type of cleats that I guess could poke somebodies eye out), our badge (to prove that we actually work there), and our mouth guards (to help us keep our pearly whites in tact).

Last weekend my team was in the championship game. As the ref came over to us to do our gear check he asked to see our mouth guards and proceeded to tell us that the weekend prior someone had concussed and lost five hours of his weekend because he just couldn't remember it, so it's VERY important we have our mouth guards.

I turned to the guy next to me and wondered if all mouth guards prevent concussions? I mean, I may not know exactly what holding is, but I think I know some basics about where concussions come from.

Note to self: My next mouth guard should maybe not be the $.99 special from Walgreen's. I need a magic concussion preventing mouth guard.

I couldn't help but wonder if maybe the ref was he-who-was-concussed, and that maybe he lost more than just five hours of his previous weekend?

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