For Ashley Freedland, a junior at the University of Miami, there is nothing quite like working on the sidelines at her university’s football games.
“The energy down there is truly unlike any other,” she said. “Everybody truly has so much passion for the sport.”
As a reporter for her college TV sports department who runs her own media account, she calls the game day experience “truly insane” due to all the excitement and love for the team shared by the people surrounding her.
Her experience, however, has been a little different than the experiences of others this season.
Twice, players knocked her off her feet while she was working on the sideline, and she suffered serious injuries.
“The odds are so slim that somebody gets hit once, nonetheless twice,” she said.
The first hit, she said, happened early in the season during a face-off between Bethune-Cookman and the University of Miami.
“I want to say I was near the end zone,” she recalled. “I was paying attention to the ball, not to the guys coming towards me, and I got hit by one of the players and got knocked down, and I saved myself with my wrist.”
She ended up with a hairline fracture in her wrist.
The injury required a brace and eventually, a hard cast.
After that hit, Freedland said she did not do much differently to protect herself other than move her feet “a little bit faster” when plays seemed to move in her direction.
“I’m on the sideline to pay attention to the game ... so I am paying attention already,” she said.
But in November, it happened again.
She was struck during a University of Miami game against Virginia Tech while standing very far off the sideline.
She ended up with a concussion.
The clip of the violent hit, meanwhile, went viral.
“It’s freaky to say I don’t entirely remember the exact moment I got hit,” she said, “but I’ve seen the video enough to know kind of what happened.”
Freedland said she did not have many choices for an escape route because she was surrounded by obstacles.
“I obviously can’t go forward,” she said. “So, I moved slightly back, which is probably the worst thing to do because I got closer to (a) pole, and then I got hit, and I was thinking to myself right before I got hit, I was like, ’not again, not again, not again.’”
For the first few moments, Freedland said she could not really process what had happened.
“I’m so fortunate and so thankful that I managed to swing my head forward just enough that it didn’t hit that pole,” she said.
Scripps News has been investigating sideline hits at college football games and in the NFL. This season, an analysis of 30 televised college games found at least 20 people had been knocked off their feet.
Last season, an analysis of every NFL regular-season football game revealed close to 90 sideline hits in which someone was knocked off their feet.
Freedland said shehas notthought much about what might make the sideline safer for people like her, but she said it might be helpful to have a pre-season meeting to know the safest spots to stand.
“I truly love being down there, and I’m so fortunate to be down there doing and covering what I am covering,” she said.“At the end of the day, the game is so unpredictable sometimes. You can watch the ball as much as you want...but I think at the endof the day you trulyhave tokeep your head on a swivel.”
