In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to outlaw football after 19 college football players were killed or paralyzed.

Saturday reminded people why Roosevelt may have had a point.

Iowa senior fullback Aaron Mickens laid on the field for over 15 minutes in the first quarter after a helmet-to-helmet collision with Illinois senior safety Morris Virgil.

Luckily, Mickens is fine. All he has is a mild concussion and a sore back.

A major injury looms over every play. It could happen to anyone. At anytime. It is something every player knows can happen but doesn’t want to think about. But they must.

“I was two or three feet away from that guy,” said Illinois redshirt freshman linebacker J Leman. “It was a matter of how he got hit. It could happen to anybody. It’s scary.”

It’s even scarier when you look at the numbers.

Since 1984, 4.5 players per year on average have died from football-related injuries, according to the 2004 survey of football injury research by the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research. Since 1931, 993 have died from football-related injuries.

The report also states that in the last 20 years, an average of 7.9 cervical cord injuries occur a year.

A hushed silence fell over Memorial Stadium when Mickens laid on the Illinois sidelines after the hit.

Illini crowded around Mickens at first. As more and more doctors and medical staff surrounded Mickens, the Illini players slowly moved away from him – giving a 15-yard cushion.

It reminded me of people at a hospital. They didn’t want to be there, but felt obligated to see Mickens.

“That could have been me on that play,” said freshman safety Justin Harrison. “That is something you have to think about every time you see somebody get hurt. It is always a reminder when you see somebody get hurt, even if it’s something minor.”

How do players strap on their helmets after seeing Mickens laying helpless on the sideline?

“I really didn’t think about it afterwards,” Leman said. “I didn’t really think about it until now, but if I dwell on that I won’t be able to do my assignments.”

Push the thoughts out of the way and maybe they will disappear.

That way you can stay sane and play every Saturday.

Because if you think about it, this is a major contradiction.

Players willingly tear each other apart for a win, knowing death could be following the running back coming at you.

That is why the subject of catastrophic injuries is taboo.

Players don’t even talk to each other about it – even though it may be therapeutic.

Answering questions on the subject is too much. It touches the rawest of emotions.

Just mentioning wheelchairs makes it too much of a reality.

“I think if you talk about it, you’re going to be jinxed. So we just leave it as it is,” said senior cornerback Kelvin Hayden.

If you think about injuries, you’ll become tentative. You may be scared to make a hit. That can get a player injured too.

This is a horrible cycle. And there is no escape from it.

See why players don’t talk about it?

When players do talk, the results can be as scary as seeing Mickens in an ambulance.

The National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research said those who have been paralyzed playing football would do it again – knowing they would end up paralyzed for doing so.

The thrill of playing is too much to pass up.

Welcome to the dark side of football.

Bobby La Gesse is a senior in communications. He can be reached at [email protected].