Prince Was Not Wearing His Mouthpiece

by BruinJD on Sep 14, 2009 6:06 PM PDT

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

I know that it was discussed in another thread that Prince has a tendency to not always have his mouthpiece in, here is confirmation that that was the case when he got hit on the safety on Saturday. From ESPN:

Neuheisel said Prince apparently wasn't wearing his mouthpiece, which appeared to be lodged in his facemask, where many players keep the plastic guard between plays. Prince, who was recovering from surgery Monday, might have removed the mouthpiece to yell out the snap count deep in the Neyland Stadium end zone surrounded by screaming Tennessee fans.

Hopefully this will serve as a very painful lesson to the kid that there is a reason why they have that protective gear and he'll be sure to always have it in in the future.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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I brought it up

in one of the post game threads after SDSU. But I was hoping we wouldn’t get penalized for it. Never would have imagined this. Tough injury for a tough kid.

by mdjohns4 on Sep 14, 2009 4:58 PM PDT reply actions

Yes, yes you did

Thanks for bringing this up guys. This is a pretty big point.

by Nestor on Sep 14, 2009 6:04 PM PDT up reply actions

I feel like

I jinxed the guy. But hopefully he’ll come back healthier with some sort of bionic jaw immune to helmet to helmet hits. Then not getting the penalty called won’t hurt as much, since the unwise defender will get disintegrated by our half man/half robot quarterback.

by mdjohns4 on Sep 14, 2009 7:30 PM PDT up reply actions

Boy, wouldn't that have been a pisser?

Not only to get a questionable safety against, not to get a helmet-to-helmet call, and to get a busted mouth, but then to be penalized for not wearing a mouthpiece… What an all-time costly play that would have been.

I didn’t realize this was a penalty. What is the penalty for this?

Though, I can certainly understand Prince’s not putting it in, whether he simply forgot or deliberately left it out—trying to be heard on a crucial play in that din. Not that he should have risked a penalty, let alone a busted mouth, but if nothing else, he showed a bona fide warrior spirit.

by Bruinut on Sep 14, 2009 6:32 PM PDT up reply actions

Charged timeout

If you’re out of timeouts, a five yard penalty.

by mdjohns4 on Sep 14, 2009 7:22 PM PDT up reply actions

I remember

It was a dorrelian era situation, and I remeber this call going for 15, maybe it was recurring or something

by ucla13_usc9 on Sep 15, 2009 7:16 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions

He's a tough kid

and gritty, but needs to learn to not take on defensive players. I think I read he doesn’t know how to slide, so they need to teach him to go down and not bear the brunt of those big hits. There were a couple plays on Saturday and one against the SDSU game where he should have went to the turf.

by bruin95 on Sep 14, 2009 11:09 PM PDT reply actions

the sliding

RTT talked about Crompton did improve in one area, and that’s not trying to truck backers and safeties and look like an idiot and risk injury, but sliding to safety, I believe it set them up for a scoring drive right?

by ucla13_usc9 on Sep 15, 2009 7:18 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions

Would the mouthpiece have prevented the injury?

I always thought it was there to keep players from biting their tongues. If it’s used in the inside of the mouth and the jawbone is outside and below the mouth, how would it have helped exactly?

I’m asking. I’ve never worn one and would be happy to be educated.

by DexterFishmore on Sep 15, 2009 12:31 AM PDT reply actions

Mouth guards have a variety of purposes

There’s biting your tongue as you mentioned. Mouth guards also help protect teeth and gums. In addition, they help prevent facial fractures and concussions because they absorb some of the force and spread it over a greater surface.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Sep 15, 2009 12:37 AM PDT up reply actions

You're right...in his case...

it would have helped to avoid damage to his cranium by helping to spread out the forces. It’s more than likely this type of hit would have broken his jaw either way.

But he will be better about wearing his mouthpiece after an experience like this.

He’s a tough kid. This is by far the simplest surgery he has had and the easiest to recover from (compared to his past shoulder surgery/rehab).

At this point he’s already clear to run and throw. Once his arch bars and wires are taken out he’ll be ready to go (likely in time for Oregon).

by ucla06 on Sep 16, 2009 12:30 AM PDT up reply actions

A friend

of mine (not wearing a mouth guard at the time) playing in 7 on 7 drills in high school made helmet-helmet contact and it shattered his front teeth (top and bottom). The dentists that fixed him up told him wearing a mouth guard would have prevented the entire thing. Quite a little piece of equipment.

by mdjohns4 on Sep 15, 2009 1:56 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions

This was going to be my question

I’ve done lots and lots of car crash cases. We defense guys always ask if the plaintiff was wearing the vehicular counterpart of the mouthpiece aka the seatbelt. (they always say they were, of course, and that they had only had two beers.) Anyway, if you want to make something of the fact that the plaintiff wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, you have to put on a biomechanical expert to explain how the seatbelt would have prevented some or all injuries.

So if we assume that the mouthpiece would prevent some injuries, and if we assume that you can pretty much bet that the coaching staff will be pretty explicit in instructing players to keep their mouthpiece in, the question still remains whether this particular hit would have caused the injury if Prince had been wearing the mouthpiece? It’s all academic, of course, because he has a broken jaw. I just wonder if he would have had such a serious injury anyway, which leads to the question about the hit. What was it that hit Prince’s jaw and broke it? (My Tivo quit before the game ended, so I never saw it.) I can’t imagine a clean, legitimate hit would break someone’s jaw. I just can’t see that happening. Any repercussions about the hit that anyone knows of?

by Fox 71 on Sep 15, 2009 10:41 AM PDT up reply actions

In Prince’s case distribution and absorbtion of occlusal forces would have been the main benefit of the mouthpiece. Its still possible to fracture the mandible of course, but far less likely. I’m also sure the UCLA football team has access to custom fit mouthguards, type made by a dentist/dental lab. These are also far superior than the ones from the sporting goods store. Anyway, not wearing it, was in effect a dental fail. Hopefully, he’ll learn how to slide and protect his body even more now that he’s been injured once. Some of those hits during the were brutal. The kids lucky, thats the only thing that happened.

by Bruin'96 on Sep 15, 2009 10:44 AM PDT up reply actions