Wartezimmer » suspended for two games for botching how the play was

Dale Earnhardt Jr., your work is done.Long ago, you escaped the enormous shadow of your father.Lately, youve ensured an important legacy all your own by raising a caution flag on head injuries in NASCAR.Now, its time to seriously consider walking away.For good.Earnhardt is already sitting out the rest of 2016 to deal with the lingering effects of yet another concussion, but he made it clear that he hopes to be back behind the wheel next February for the season-opening Daytona 500.My heart is there to continue, he said Sunday at Darlington Raceway. And if my doctor says that Im physically able to continue, then thats an easier decision for me to make. Its not something that I think about. Were trying to focus on just getting well and getting normal.Theres no doubt that NASCAR will be rooting for his recovery, given the sports dwindling television ratings and ever-increasing number of empty seats at the tracks.Earnhardt remains the sports most popular driver, and to have him walk away would be a huge blow given the reluctance of the fan base to embrace a new generation of stars.But Junior cant worry about any of that.Hes got bigger issues to consider.Earnhardt should give a hard look at all those former giants of the NFL whose brains were addled by one brutal hit after another, who died far too young or lived out their years in the cruel isolation of dementia.No one knows for sure what another hard crash would do to Earnhardts brain.He might be fine. He might not be.There are different levels of concussion. There are individual differences. The age the concussion occurs plays a part, said Dr. Katherine Dec, a professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine who specializes in sports-related concussions.Wed all love to have an easy answer, she added. Thats what everyone wants to know, something that makes the decision kind of black and white. But the brain is a miraculous thing. There are still a lot of things we dont know.We know that Earnhardt, at the very least, had two concussions about six weeks apart in 2012, which was the wakeup call that everyone in NASCAR needed to address an issue that had long been swept under the rug. Junior sat out two races that year and sought out concussion experts to get the lowdown on potential problems down the road.He became the most vocal advocate for brain safety, prompting NASCAR to mandate that all national series drivers undergo preseason neurocognitive baseline testing as part of a comprehensive concussion program. He also joined a growing list of athletes by saying he would donate his brain to science after his death, so it can be studied for signs of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.That will go down as Earnhardts most lasting impact on the sport, far more important than his two Daytona 500 victories or those other 24 career wins, or even the impressive feat of making a name for himself in a sport still dominated by the towering presence of his late father, a seven-time Cup champion.Junior certainly sent the right message again when he stepped out of the car after another hard crash at Michigan this summer. He actually managed to compete in the next three races before the concussion symptoms cropped up again. He had missed six races before announcing Friday he was done for the year, meaning hell miss the final 18 events of 2016.Dr. Raj K. Narayan, the head of neurosurgery at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York, and LIJ Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York, said its impossible for those on the outside to know exactly what Earnhardt is going through.But there are some common-sense aspects that should be taken into account when dealing with any head injury.The science has not gotten to the point yet where we can accurately qualify the amount of brain damage that already occurred, except to say that the more times you get injured and the more injuries you have, it makes total sense that it is likely to affect you more, he said. I think its quite clear that repeated, multiple injuries increase your risk of becoming demented with the passage of time.Of course, it was probably a lot easier for Earnhardt to make peace with sitting out the rest of the year than it would be for him to call it a career, given his potential -- if healthy -- to race at a high level for several more seasons. He had three victories in 2015, four the previous year. While Earnhardt has never won a season championship, hes been a perennial Chase contender.Lets just hope when Earnhardt sits down with his doctors, when he talks this over with his family and closest friends, he errs on the side of caution.Hes already done so much for the sport.Hes certainly made his daddy proud.He deserves to live a long, healthy life.---Paul Newberry is a national writer for The Associated Press. Write to him at pnewberry(at)ap.org or at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963 . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/paul-newberry . Cheap Adidas NHL Jerseys . -- Lou Brocks shoulder-to-shoulder collision with Bill Freehan during the 1968 World Series and Pete Roses bruising hit on Ray Fosse in the 1970 All-Star game could become relics of baseball history, like the dead-ball era. 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CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Robert Wright is permanently scarred from Miamis win over Duke last season .And he was on the winning side.Anyone familiar with Miamis game-ending kickoff return for a touchdown at Duke last season knows all about the eight laterals, the wild scene when Corn Elder reached the end zone, the lengthy review from the replay booth, the officiating mistakes and the Hurricanes wild celebratory reaction when they were declared winners.Turns out, there was so much more than what was seen on the field that night. With the Hurricanes set to host Duke on Saturday in the teams first meeting since that still-debated 30-27 win by the Hurricanes, some of the principals involved in The Miami Miracle recalled this week how it happened.---SETTING THE SCENEMiami was at its lowest point that week.Coach Al Golden was fired on Sunday, a day after the Hurricanes lost to Clemson 58-0. Star defensive back Artie Burns mother died in the days before the Duke game, and quarterback Brad Kaaya was ruled out with a concussion.It was a rough week, said Kaaya, who didnt even make the trip to Duke.There was more, too. A backup player was arrested that week on suspicion of domestic battery, and police came to practice on Tuesday to talk to some graduate assistants after the home they shared was burglarized on Monday night.But practice went on and something Miami installed that week was a throwback-pass kickoff return that the Hurricanes had run a couple of times in Goldens tenure, including in his first game at Maryland in 2011.The plan was to run it at Duke. They ended up running something else .We wanted to run what we called `Music City, for the Music City Miracle, said Wright, a graduate assistant coach for Miami last year and now an assistant at Illinois, referring to the throwback-pass kickoff return that lifted Tennessee over Buffalo in an NFL playoff game in January 2000. But when we called it, the GA who was on the field lost the card and we couldnt show it to players.So they scrambled and came up with a new play on the fly.I just remember thinking, `Its going to work, Elder said. We were going to win.---THE PLAYDuke scored its go-ahead touchdown with 6 seconds left -- some at Miami still say the Blue Devils didnt cross the goal line -- and everyone knew the ensuing kickoff would put the Hurricanes in a desperate spot.With Music City off the table since the card was lost, Miami set up a different throwback return. Its now known as Desperado, though that name was apparently given after the fact.Dallas Crawford fielded Dukes squib-kick at the Miami 26. Crawford was a last-second addition to the unit, after Miami scrambled to come up with something to replace Music City. His job was to get the ball across the field to Elder, which he did -- twice, actually, the ssecond of those being the eighth and final lateral.dddddddddddd.Elder took that last one 91 yards to the end zone. The play wound up taking 49 seconds. What happened next took nearly 9 more minutes.When Corn cut inside of the last defender, my natural instinct was just to like run, so I ran out of the coaches booth and started running around going crazy, Wright said. We all took off down four stories to get to the field.Thats when they saw the flag.Miami got called for a block in the back, with Mark Walton being flagged at the Duke 25. The game wasnt over. Miami was getting an untimed down.Theyre going to have to bring him back, Duke offensive lineman Casey Blaser remembers thinking, as he watched from the sideline. Even if they get one play, our defense will stop them.Maybe he would have been right. But that play never happened.---THE REVIEWConfusion reigned, but after a few minutes -- with replay still going on -- Miami figured that at worst, it would have a 57-yard field goal attempt to try to tie the game.Kicker Michael Badgley was told to get ready. There was so much chaos on the sideline, though, that Badgley didnt have enough space to warm up by kicking into the net behind the bench.So he kicked into the woods.I dont know what happened to those footballs, Miami sports information director Tom Symonds said.Finally, the word came from referee Jerry Magallanes: After review, there was never a knee down by any of the runners of Miami. However, the block in question was from the side, not from the back. Its a legal play. Touchdown. Games over.The officials and those in the replay booth were suspended for two games for botching how the play was handled, but the score stood.Miami 30, Duke 27.There had to be 35 people watching with us on TV, said Kaaya, who was watching in Coral Gables at a teammates apartment. Trick-or-treaters kept coming to the door. I was having all the candy I could eat. And then Corn took off and the whole house went crazy. People threw stuff everywhere. Dudes were running outside. It was awesome.---THE SCARAn hour after the game, Wright was changing out of his coaching attire to get ready for the joyous flight home -- one on which everyone was taking photos with the football that Elder carried into the end zone (and should have been returned to Duke, technically, since it was the Blue Devils ball).Thats when he saw the blood.Turns out he smashed his shin into a metal bench during the chaos and didnt even realize it.I now have a permanent scar right there, Wright said.An unneeded reminder, from a game hell never forget.---More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25 ' ' '