Buck’s helmet frequent flier

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/09/2011 (5421 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Buck PIERCE returned to the playing field at Canad Inns Stadium on Thursday and promptly pronounced himself sore, but fit to play.

That’s welcome news as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers — currently riding a two-game losing streak after back-to-back spankings by the Saskatchewan Roughriders — prepare to face the two-time defending Grey Cup champion Alouettes in Montreal this Sunday.

“In my mind, I’m playing,” Pierce told reporters after practice. “I’m still sore. It’s only been a few days. But I feel better than I felt yesterday. I tried to do everything I could today and throw every ball I’ll throw in the game and continue to push my limits. And I feel good. So if we continue to stay on this course, I should look forward to this weekend.”

Pierce took almost all the first-team reps on Thursday and appeared sharp with his throws and effortless with his running. “On the field, he moved well and he threw the ball well,” Bombers head coach Paul LaPolice said. “He looked good.”

Pierce injured his ribs in a 45-23 loss to Saskatchewan last Sunday and did not practise Wednesday.

There was perhaps no one in Winnipeg more relieved to see Pierce back on the field, dancing in the pocket and nimbly firing 40-yard strikes down field, than Bombers equipment manager Brad Fotty.

It is Fotty’s job to provide Pierce with the armour necessary to keep him safe during a CFL game and that armour failed — in the most spectacular way possible — when Pierce was belted by Riders safety Craig Butler.

Pierce’s helmet was launched 10 feet in the air and crashed to the ground several yards downfield when Butler sacked him near the end of the opening quarter — a sack that was perhaps the hardest hit in the CFL this season, rivalled only by an equally thunderous hit Pierce took in Hamilton in Week 1 during which he also lost his helmet.

Devastating hits like that are exactly why players wear helmets and precisely why it’s such a concern that Pierce — who has a history of concussions — lost his helmet both times this season when he needed it most.

Watching in horror from the sideline on Sunday was Fotty. “When he got hit, my reaction was: ‘Oh my God, he’s not going to get up.’ Thank God Buck got up. Thank God,” said Fotty.

“But that helmet never should have come off. We checked it. Everything was still working. The helmet was just sitting on the field, with the chin strap still done up. All the pockets inside still had air in them, nothing was leaking. The snaps were still working. I even showed it to one of the docs, we couldn’t find anything wrong with it.”

Pierce’s helmet actually came off three times on Sunday.

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Fotty says that’s more than all the Bombers players combined have lost their helmets during the previous four games.

“It’s not user error, I can tell you that,” Pierce said Thursday. “I don’t know why this keeps happening.”

On the Butler hit, there remains no easy explanation — only a very relieved equipment manager. “Maybe he was just hit that hard that no helmet would’ve stayed on,” said Fotty. “It’s hard to say what’s causing this. It’s baffling…

“It is scary. It’s absolutely scary.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca