ProFootballDoc: McKenzie Milton injury should renew earnest call for student-athlete medical coverage

Nov. 24--Central Florida quarterback McKenzie Milton suffered a horrific looking injury on Saturday.

By video, he dislocated his knee. By definition, that means he tore multiple ligaments.

The emergency worry is interruption of blood flow to the limb. And with reports of a purple leg, white toes and repeated assessments of the pulse in his foot on the field, the medical staff is to be congratulated for acting quickly to save his leg.

Thankfully, the family announced surgery was successful.

But this young man's journey has just begun.

Now is not the time to dissect all that he will go through. Suffice it to say that his situation is similar to the Bears' Zach Miller, who has undergone a dozen more surgeries after the initial one last year.

This is also not the time to discuss his recovery or potential NFL future or the tremendous against-the-odds path to return to football if he desires.

However, now is a good time to reopen the conversation on what Kain Colter, the QB of Northwestern tried to do three years ago. This injury brings to mind how right Colter was back then.

With all the discussion of paying college players, Cain's main focus was medical coverage and medical protection.

I certainly expect and hope a player of this stature will get taken care of by his university. The reality is Milton will need a lot of medical care beyond his tenure in college.

But what about other players at other institutions, like a third-string special teams players or those in non-revenue sports. To me, before we discuss pay for these collegiate athletes we should insure all of their medical and "work comp" type issues are covered.

I do not know UCF's policies, but the fact is most schools make athletes rely on their parents' or their own health insurance coverage before accepting responsibility.

It should certainly be addressed what happens if a college sports injury prevents a student-athlete from being gainfully employed in the future for any period of time.

In over two decades at the NFL combines, where the top 330 or so football players are invited, I saw plenty of situations where the care provided in college was less than optimal. And these were the stars.

We can't change what happened to Milton. All we can do is send thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery. But we can call for change to provide all medical services and related support for any college athlete who needs it, even after their time as a student is done.

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