Budish Injured in Moped Accident
by WCHBlog on Nov 4, 2010 12:18 PM PDT
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PrintMinnesota sophomore forward Zach Budish suffered a knee injury while riding a moped that could potentially end his season. I've often seen University of Minnesota football players riding around campus on mopeds, and always just assumed it was some sort of loophole in the Americans with Disabilities Act, but apparently the hockey players have them too.
Budish will have a decision to make on how to handle his injury. He could either try to rehab his knee injury, likely a torn ACL, and return to the lineup by around Christmastime, or opt for surgery, which would end his decision. Budish will decide by the end of the week. Minnesota head coach Don Lucia has advised Budish to get the surgery, which seems to be the right long-term solution. Missing the second half of a season would be difficult, but Budish, as a second round NHL draft pick, seems to have a bright future ahead of him in hockey, and there's not a lot of sense in risking that on an injured knee. If he missed the rest of the season, Budish could be given a redshirt to stay at Minnesota for a fifth season, though again, taking into account his future pro potential, a fifth year would likely be a moot point.
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I see players from all kinds of sports riding around on mopeds at Wisconsin, and (like the rest of the student body) almost none of them wear helmets. These are football and hockey players worth millions of dollars to the university, and who have helmets, pads and medical staff on hand while they play, yet they cruise down the street at 30 mph with no protection whatsoever.
When we ask coaches about this they always say they same thing: They tell them helmets are a good idea, but they don’t have any kind of mandate for them. Granted, this was a lower-body injury and whether or not he had a helmet on Budish would have hurt his leg in this accident. But if these coaches are so concerned about blindside blows to the head on the ice, why aren’t they a little more concerned about players cracking their skulls open on the pavement on the way back from practice?
Too True
My roommate in college bought his moped from a UW football player and drove it all the time. I took it for a spin once – the brakes on that thing were atrocious. He’d come to a stop using his feet! I had enough mishaps walking and biking to class in the snow. I can’t imagine doing that on a thin-wheeled moped with terrible brakes.
