Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 30, 1993 TAG: 9303300115
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Nicks, scratches, cuts and gashes will be more than standard hazards faced by college football players this fall.
A new NCAA rule says that if a wound is "oozing or bleeding" or if part of a player's uniform is "saturated" with blood, the player must leave the game to have the cut closed or the clothing cleaned or changed. Unless his team calls a timeout, the player must miss at least one play.
The rule, which targets HIV - the virus that causes AIDS - and hepatitis B, is similar to a rule observed in college basketball this year.
University of New Mexico assistant professor Chris McGrew, an orthopedic physician, said there have been no proven cases of HIV or hepatitis B being transmitted from athlete to athlete. He said the chance of it is "infinitesimal."
But . . .
"Blood should be dealt with in a hygienic manner," said McGrew, a member of the NCAA's Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, which created the rule. "We've just not done that in the past.
"It makes common sense for hygienic reasons, it's not costly to implement, and if it can be worked in with minor adjustments to the game, it seems reasonable to do."
Some coaches wonder about those "minor" adjustments.
"There's a lot of blood out there in football," Virginia coach George Welsh said. "If you have blood on your shirt and you have to change the shirt, you might have your best player out of there for 10 plays."
Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer, whose team began spring practice March 20, wonders what "saturated" means and how bad a cut has to be before it is considered "oozing or bleeding."
"You know, in every football game, someone's going to bleed," Beamer said. "What is safe? When's it not safe for that guy to be in a ball game?"
Game officials will be required to spot bleeding or bled-on players and send them to the sidelines, but they will not inspect players sent back on the field after treatment; the judgment of a team's medical personnel will stand.
Supervisors of officials from the Big East Conference, ACC and Western Athletic Conference don't see the rule greatly affecting the game - although the Big East's Dan Wooldridge, the ACC's Bradley Faircloth and the WAC's John Adams said they think more players will be wearing long-sleeved undershirts, gloves and knee-high socks to cover exposed parts.
The Hokies' team doctor, Duane Lagan, wonders what will happen in warm climates where uniforms are skimpier to fight the heat.
Games could be delayed by officials constantly sending off bleeding players. But Adams, who edits the NCAA's football rules, said players who get cut may take themselves out. That way, an official won't have to stop time.
"People will hardly notice it," Faircloth said of the rule.
"People" may not include coaches.
Beamer recently returned from Big East meetings, where the effect of the rule was a topic. He and Welsh agreed with the medical reasons for the rule, but they are concerned about losing key players at key points in a game.
If, for example, a team's quarterback got cut on a fourth-and-goal, Welsh suggested the rule be amended to let an official call time out - not charged to the player's team - so the team could treat the cut without the quarterback missing the play.
Welsh said he has no problem about the open-wound part; it's the blood-on-the-jersey part that worries him.
"We need to talk about it, in our meeting in May if not before," Welsh said, referring to his fellow ACC coaches. "I'd like to have some medical opinion on that."
McGrew has an answer.
"What's the difference between blood coming out of [a jersey] and blood coming out of a cut?" he said. "There's no difference."
McGrew said HIV gets more publicity, but hepatitis B, though not always fatal, is more readily transmitted and survives longer in dried blood. Blood-stained uniforms don't necessarily have to be changed, he said; sometimes, the blood can be taped over.
"There's going to have to be a small amount of judgment here," he said, referring to how much blood "saturates" a jersey. "We are going to start to look at blood a little more respectfully."
McGrew said his committee recommended the rule to the NCAA's Executive Committee, which readily endorsed it. Adams, who has been revising its wording in recent months, said, "We've never had a rule like that, where they've just said, `Do it.' "
McGrew labeled the coaches' concerns "reasonable."
"It will be interesting to see how it plays out realistically," he said.
Lagan said some equipment changes will follow the rule, such as having latex gloves and antiseptic on the sidelines so doctors and trainers can treat athletes. And, he said, jerseys with blood on them will be stored and washed separately from other laundry in bags that dissolve in the laundry.
Tech athletic director Dave Braine mused about one possible adaptation to the rule.
"I can see us wearing maroon and white at home, and white and maroon on the road, so we don't have half the problem, anyway," he said.
by CNB