Jerome Harrison Brain Tumor: Twist of Fate, a Wake-Up Call for NFL

Jerome Harrison's story will not soon be forgotten. If you're not familiar with it, you can read this Los Angeles Times article. It's one of many out there detailing Harrison's situation.

A brain tumor, even one that's detected early, is a serious matter. For now, this detection seems to have not only saved Harrison's career, but also his life.

What's more, we don't know how things would have worked out if this trade didn't happen. The fact is, Harrison was only with the doctor and getting a physical because of the trade.

This raises an interesting question. Should NFL players be taking physicals and/or having their heads examined more?

To be clear, this tumor wasn't caused by being an NFL player. Still, NFL players take a lot of hits. Even in a league that places an emphasis on eliminating hits to the head, hard shots to the head are absolutely unavoidable.

So, why is it that players only get this kind of medical treatment if they're seriously hurt, changing teams or signing a new contract?

It seems to me that it leaves a lot of openings for serious problems to be missed, as was very nearly the case with Harrison.

With all of the money that these teams spend on medical personnel, shouldn't tests like this happen more often?

Frankly, I wouldn't even be opposed to something being done on a weekly basis, but a monthly test seems quite reasonable.

While there is, of course, still reason to be cautious, it appears as though Harrison's voided trade was an incredibly fortunate twist in his life.

The fact of the matter is, in the NFL, serious injuries could occur at any time, even if they're not immediately detectable. Just because this injury wasn't football-related, it doesn't mean that the next injury to the next guy won't be.

This seemingly great twist of fate needs to be a wake-up call for the NFL. Frequent physicals wouldn't take the danger away from the game, but it would minimize the incredible element of chance that Harrison was on the right end of.