Last Sunday, a very unfortunate thing happened. The Kansas City Chiefs’ quarterback, Matt Cassel, was injured in the course of playing football against the Baltimore Ravens. But what is worse, cheering at this injury emerged around the stadium from some fans — Kansas City fans.

The fans in question realized that an injury to Matt Cassel would necessitate the starting of the Chiefs’ second string quarterback, Brady Quinn. Many fans had been desiring to see Quinn on the field, because they felt Quinn would give their team a better chance to win.

These so-called “fans” were willing and eager to see a man suffer injury so their team could possibly benefit. Perhaps the Chiefs’ offensive lineman Eric Winston put it best when he said bluntly the behavior was “100 percent sickening.” Winston also urged everyone to realize that “We are not gladiators. This is not the Roman Coliseum.”

Here in Ames, many football fans had also been calling for a change in quarterback. Some felt that Jared Barnett would be a better choice after Steele Jantz got off to a rocky start, turning the ball over four times in a loss against Texas Tech University. I attended the Texas Tech game, and I certainly heard fans yelling for Barnett to be put in.

I am relieved to say I never heard anyone wishing injury on Jantz, but I fear what reactions may have been voiced if he had ever stayed down too long after a hit.

Injuries are certainly a part of football. At every level, in every part of the game, there is a possibility of injury. That is simply a fact that goes along with playing a contact sport, where people are going to hit each other and the ground very hard. Recently there has been a large push, however, to recognize that injuries, specifically head injuries, need to be watched closer.

One of the most notable examples of brain injury leading to tragic events was the 2011 suicide of Dave Duerson, who had played as a safety for 11 seasons in the NFL. Duerson requested that his brain be studied, and evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, linked extremely closely with concussions, was indeed found.

The NFL has taken extra measures in the last few years to try to reduce the number of head injuries. It has started implementing fines and penalties on players who appear to be leading with the top of their helmets when making tackles and has instituted a penalty for launching oneself at a defenseless player. Both of these practices were once commonplace and were linked to injuries both for players getting hit and for players making a hit.

The increased awareness and caution has not been confined to the professionals, however. The NCAA has made a rule stipulating that any football player whose helmet comes off during the course of a play, but not due to a personal foul, must sit out at least one play. The idea here is that the player can at least be given preliminary concussion testing and held out of play longer if anything seems amiss.

Even young children have not been left out of the increased safety concern campaigns. Over the past few years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has started their Heads Up Initiative, which provides information and training about concussions to coaches, parents and players involved in youth sports.

This atmosphere of increased concern has caught on slowly with many fans at the higher level of football, however. For a fan, a penalty on a favorite defensive tackle can be seen as taking the physicality out of the game and punishing their team to boot. The fans are not around years later, though.

The fan only watches the games on Sunday or Saturday and does not always see the lives of players after they stop playing. Such was the case with Junior Seau, who was beloved over the 20 years he played in the NFL as a linebacker. Seau committed suicide last May.

Concern for the permanent health of players is what is driving league-wide rules and policies aimed at curbing injuries in the NFL and NCAA. Those injuries, especially head injuries, have a real and lasting effect on players and their families, as was the case with former Rutgers player Eric LeGrand, who is in an ongoing fight to walk again after suffering paralysis from his neck down during a matchup against Army in 2010.

While sports like football are lauded and loved for the physical battles they create, there are limits to the violence and the brutality. As Winston said, these men are not gladiators. They are players in a game and should be shown the respect they deserve as fellow human beings.