NFL injuries - the story from an ex-ballboy

quote:

---

One of Kester's responsibilities was to carry small amounts of smelling salts in his pockets on NFL sidelines waiting for players dazed from a hit. When a player would call him over -- many times after vomiting from a hard hit he had just taken -- Kester would quickly pull out the salts for the player to inhale.

The salts snapped the player back to an alert state, and he went on playing the game.

Kester argues that TV cameras were instructed not to show the smelling salts on broadcasts. But those aren't the only signs of damage Kester saw as a ball boy. He routinely found bloody and soiled jockstraps that he ascribes to a brief nervous system failure caused by a hard hit.

Kester also describes having to unwrap a wad of gum because a player lacked the fine motor skills to handle the tiny foil himself.

---