Seattle Sounders made the right decision to shut down Clint Dempsey

When it comes to a heart problem, Seattle was right to take no risk playing Clint Dempsey.

Sports are often a place where being the toughest is a weekly competition among athletes. Willis Reed limping onto the court at Madison Square Garden, Ronnie Lott chopping his pinkie off, and countless other tales of playing through pain. While risking spraining an ankle worse, or completing a break in your collarbone are bad, they are not life threatening situations. Issues with the heart, however, are a different story.

Earlier this season, Clint Dempsey was suffering from symptoms of an irregular heartbeat. He has not played since, but did participate in minor training activities recently in preparation for an unlikely return. This week, it was announced that Dempsey will instead be shelved for the season, ending his 2016 campaign officially.

While with most of the injuries I mentioned earlier, a team will rely on a combination of its medical staff, and the player, to see if the injury can be played through. Thankfully, Seattle did not entertain the option of Dempsey “playing through” this, as the condition did not relent.

We’ve seen the loss of too many athletes well before their time. This week, the tragedy of Jose Fernandez. In the 1990’s, the sports world mourned the deaths of basketball players Hank Gathers and Reggie Lewis, both from heart conditions.

Sports are fun, and we all love soccer, but that entertainment is not worth anybody’s life. The Sounders playoff chances, and MLS Cup aspirations, may suffer from Clint Dempsey’s absence this season, but those losses aren’t even comparable to the possibility of loss of life. Hopefully, Dempsey will return at 100% health in 2017, but either way, life is always more important than soccer.