Blue White Illustrated

year, helped score all the points for the White team's 22-14 win, passing for one touchdown and two extra points and running for two touchdowns, one on a dazzling 65-yard run off a pass forma- tion, before 2,000 sun-drenched fans. What truly makes a real Blue-White Game – and all college football spring games – now an endangered species is the revelation in recent years about the dangers of concussions and the ramifi- cations that medically proven affliction has had on football in general as a sport. The $1 billion class action suit originally filed in 2011 against the NFL and now involving more than 5,000 former play- ers is still in the appeal process despite a federal judge's ruling last year in favor of the players. Some 200 other players opt- ed out of the proposed settlement and could still sue the NFL on their own. So could active players who were not part of the landmark agreement. Even before the settlement decision, both the NFL and college football and some high schools adopted new rules for concussion protocols. The NCAA intro- duced extensive mandated requirements on concussions in the summer of 2014 under the title "Diagnosis and Manage- ment of Sport-Related Concussion Guidelines." Then last year, the peril of sports-re- lated concussions gained increased at- tention with the release of the critically acclaimed movie "Concussion" about the tragic life of Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Famer Mike Webster, starring Will Smith and David Morse. The widespread reaction to the film included parents saying they would forbid their sons from ever playing football, causing some in the media to wonder if this would mean the eventual end of football as we know it. That might seem impossible and pre- posterous to the football empire and its millions of fans. But this writer, who was raised in the coal fields and steel mills of western Pennsylvania, called Detroit a second home and once wanted to spend his life working on newspapers, never believed he would see the virtual end of the nation's once-prosperous steel, coal and newspaper industries and a radical alteration and downsizing of U.S. auto manufacturing. It might seem farfetched to think that blocking and tackling could someday be eliminated, or at least drastically re- duced in football. However, in early March, the eight head football coaches of the Ivy League voted to end tackling in practices during the season, and their proposal is now before the league's pres- idents and athletic directors for ap- proval. As the saying goes, it may be a slippery slope. Penn State's traditional real Blue- White Game is an endangered species, but at one time so were grizzly bears, bald eagles and whooping cranes. To paraphrase what Paterno and his Michi- gan contemporary Bo Schembechler used to say, "Things either get better or worse, but they never stay the same." ■ A new Penn State football book by Lou Prato with a forward by Adam Taliaferro The Remarkable Journey of the 2012 Nittany Lions Price: $14.95 plus shipping Published by Triumph Books (soft cover) Autographed copies available via louprato@comcast.net or through Lou Prato & Associates at 814-954-5171 Autographed copies of Lou's book We Are Penn State: The Remarkable Journey of the 2012 Nittany Lions are still available via louprato@comcast.net or through Lou Prato & Associates at 814-954-5171. Price: $19.95 plus tax where applicable and shipping HALI NAMED TO HALL Tamba Hali, a Nittany Lion All-American and 10-year NFL veteran, has been selected to the Reese's Senior Bowl Hall of Fame. Hali is the third Nittany Lion to earn a spot in the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame, joining Franco Harris, who was inducted in 1992, and Larry Johnson, a 2010 inductee. Hali recently signed a three-year contract extension with the Kansas City Chiefs, the team that drafted him in 2006. A six-time Pro Bowl selec- tion and two-time All-Pro honoree, he has started 155 of Kansas City's 160 games during his career, missing only four games due to injury. The native of Gbanga, Liberia, has 553 career tackles, 86 sacks and 32 forced fumbles in his NFL career. In 2015, he had 48 stops with 6.5 sacks and two forced fumbles. While with the Nittany Lions, Hali was a consensus All-American in 2005. Hali was selected to the Senior Bowl in 2006 and was named Defen- sive MVP. N O T E B O O K

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