OUInsider - Owen Field

You cleared up Kameel Jackson's situation for me. I was hoping that Stoops' reference to his present academic session was summer school and not the coming semester.

If they keep their nose clean and finish at OU, then this is a positive for OU concerning helping young athletes in becoming men of character. Along the way I trust they will have their best football days ahead of them as well.

I have watched my father (Canyoneer) struggle through a serious neck injury over the last few years. When they evaluated him prior to surgery they found a lot of damage from the fall, but also signs that were probably from his football playing days. And both are issues for him everyday. Mr. Habern is being a smart guy here. There is no need to live a life in pain, and with chronic neurological deficits. Heck, my dad cannot even write anymore, he uses one of those Dragon speaks software packages to do it for him, and he is unable to hold anything much (he had to get someone to create this extension for his fly-rod to use it, looks kinda funny, like a claw, but it works).

Not worth it. Never worth it. Ben is a smart kid, and there is life after football. A lot of life, hopefully. I expect there will be major breakthroughs in surgery on the neck and back, but the quality of life is the issue here. It is great to see Nila, Ben and Austin address these issues. And thank God we have the medical knowledge now to do that.

alan

And cause he falls down when nobody is around.

I had neck surgery this year for a bulging disc in my neck and also have back problems. I can't imagine playing football with that kind of injury / pain. Ben did the right thing and I wish him the best. There are much more important things in life than OU football. (okay, not many, but some... LOL)