ROCHESTER - Spinal cord injuries are risks all football players know about before they step foot onto the field. Now with the injury to Buffalo Bill Kevin Everett, they are on the minds of parents, athletes and fans.
    
It's classroom day for Rush-Henrietta football, a time for players and coaches to watch film on their last game. Quarterback Nate Delome was in Buffalo Sunday and remembers watching that play that injured Kevin Everett.

“Everyone is really, they don't know what to do," Delome said. "They just make sure and see if he gets up and the teams all huddling up praying hoping he's all right."

Spinal cord injuries in football often happen when players tackle, leading with their head. Proper technique is the best prevention.

"Is your head up? Are you chest to chest? Stuff like that." RH football coach Joe Montesano said. "So we do focus on it and if we see things we correct it right then and there."

In 2003, Wilson Magnet High School football player Anthony Salmon broke his neck in a game against McQuaid Jesuit. Salmon was on defense and was hurt when he tried to make a tackle.

"For somebody who takes care of spinal cord injuries, it's a scary thought," said Dr. Glenn Rechtine. Dr. Rechtine is an expert on spinal cord injuries. He says 70 percent of them are caused by tackling headfirst.

"Your initial question was about what can you do about it? You can teach people how to tackle properly. Make sure they know how to do it and do it properly," he said.

Football is a violent sport and injuries are part of the game. At Rush-Henrietta, they try not to make the thought of injuries play mind games.

"When you're playing you can't really worry about that, you just got to play and hope it doesn't happen," Nate Delome said.

"You just pray that nothing happens like that to any of your players or anybody you're playing against," said coach Montesano.

Dr. Rechtine says the sport with the most number of spinal injuries is gymnastics. He says since the NFL outlawed spearing in the 1970's, in other words a tackler leading with his head, spinal injuries decreased five fold, from 20 injuries out of a million to four out of a million.