Football Concussions

DYK Helmets Do Not Stop Concussions: An article that must get traction

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I can tell you there is more coming on this issue – from here and other platforms – but this Regressing (part of Deadspin) article really needs to be highlighted here for those seeking accurate concussion information.  I would be remiss if I didn’t – virtually – give Kyle Wagner a “good game” for writing a beauty!

‘Hockey’s About To Get The Bullshit “Anti-Concussion Helmet” Treatment’ appeared 7/23/14, here are some great excerpts.

Lets begin with the opening salvo;

Virginia Tech thinks hockey helmets are bullshit, which is more or less true. In turn, it wants to look at the differences between hockey’s helmets and football’s recently evolved versions, and bring the concussion-stopping advances to hockey. This is pretty much bullshit.

Then the all-important – simplistic – overview of the concussion process (emphasis mine);

The brain floats suspended by fluids in the skull, and when it suffers concussion, it both smacks into the inside of your skull and incurs rotational force, irreparably damaging the brain stem.

Why we wear helmets;

Helmets, meanwhile, are there to protect your skull from fracturing in the impact of a collision. They provide this protection, and the best helmets have interior mechanisms that can offer some small aid in decelerating a collision.

A wonderful note in the article, that may be glossed over by most readers, but it very peculiar to many of ‘us’ in the know and actually understand/grasp both the concussion injury and the statistics that are thrown out about them;

If the above numbers seem low to you—a combined 64 concussions for eight college football teams over six seasons, or just about 1.3 per team per season—then you’ve likely read enough to have seen players talking about getting their “bell rung” often enough that those Virginia Tech numbers wouldn’t just represent a decrease in risk by half, but exponentially. If the available data say anything, it’s that they are hugely incomplete.

Further on the above excerpt, 1.3 concussions for AN ENTIRE TEAM for AN ENTIRE SEASON is just asinine, Continue reading →

California First on Football Hitting Legislation

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I received this email late last night:

Friends….

Assemblyman Cooley’s office just phoned to say that Gov. Brown has signed Ca. AB 2127, making California the first state to legislate reduced contact on high school practice fields.  As you know, other states have taken similar action via their governing bodies of high school athletics but, after failed attempts in Texas, Illinois and Connecticut, Ca. is the first state to pass legislation and have it signed into law.  Public announcement will be made shortly.  Thanks to Warren Moon, Oliver Luck, Patrick Larimore, Leigh Steinberg, Dr. Chris Giza and others who made it happen.

Reading further on SF Gate:

The law limits full-contact practices to two 90-minute sessions per week during the season and preseason, and prohibits full-contact practices during the offseason. Currently, coaches can hold full-contact practices daily. The law also forces schools to bench players for at least a week if they suffer a concussion. Current rules allow players to return within a day.

The last part of the above paragraph has me very excited about this legislation – AT LEAST one week down time!

Good on CA for taking this to the next step, honestly I don’t think we need more legislation, however if you don’t want to listen this may be the route it has to go…

NOW CALIFORNIA GET YOUR BUTT IN GEAR AND LICENSE THE ATHLETIC TRAINERS IN YOUR STATE!  THEY MUST BE RECOGNIZED FOR WHAT THEY ARE: ALLIED HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS.

Terry Ott: Personal Observations in the Wake of Suit

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Terry Ott files a follow-up regarding the law suit in Canada and Arland Bruce.  This is his commentary on the coverage of the issue; all information, illustrations, pictures and links are his.

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DOES CANADA’S TSN, THE HOST CFL BROADCASTER, APPEAR TO BE “CIRCLING THE WAGONS” OVER ARLAND BRUCE III CONCUSSION LAWSUIT AND SUBSEQUENT NATIONAL HOOPLA AND HOOTIN’ AND HOLLERING, OR IS IT JUST A CASE OF, AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING (REALLY) COMPLETELY DIFFERENT?

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it.” — Upton Sinclair, author of The Jungle

The irony of the American-based Concussion Blog breaking one of the biggest stories about the Canadian Football League in recent memory when it exclusively revealed the first concussion lawsuit in CFL history, is certainly very rich.

Prior to D-Day, July 16, 2014, much of the Canadian sports media didn’t know too much about concussions, and, well, seemingly, they didn’t wanna know too much. Or, as they also mused in the movie Casino, “ah,why take a chance?”

And of course there is that lovely old Buddhist proverb of “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.” Maybe that’s what most of the big time scribblers and jolly jock-sniffers were up to up here prior to the Bruce legal revelation but since most would not even talk to me, how would I really know?

However, after Andrew Bucholtz of the Yahoo! Canada 55 Yard Line CFL Blog gave the story of the Bruce lawsuit nation-wide coverage mere hours after it first appeared here, the story became a talking point throughout Canada for days as well as shaking the previously comfortably cocooned CFL , who may have been alerted to the Concussion Blog post by a trusty and observant friendly just shortly after it went live from Chicago at 12:32 EDT, on July 16.  Continue reading →

Book Review by Dorothy Bedford: “Fourth Down and Inches”

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Dorothy Bedford is an avid follower and contributor to The Concussion Blog.  She has offered up a book review – out of the blue and appreciated – for me to post here.  I have not read the book and if I get the chance may offer up my two-cents but until then I think that perhaps some of you may want to know about the book.  With out further ado here it is (Thanks Dorothy);

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The history, the stories, and the latest science of football concussions

“Fourth Down and Inches: Concussions and Football’s Make or Break Moment”   by Carla Killough McClafferty (2013)

Every week during the season, a few famous players’ concussions attract attention. They are attended by expert medical teams. Every week during the season, many youth and high school players suffer head injuries in silence because they don’t believe that a “ding” is a real injury, or they don’t want to “let the team down,” or the coach shrugs it off, or the parents don’t realize the medical or academic consequences. This book could change all that.

Carla McClafferty has written an excellent survey in a format accessible to a broad age spectrum of football players, their families, fans and youth football volunteers. With an extensive selection of heavily captioned illustrations and photos, and featuring short, punchy chapters the author presents a balanced view of the epic story of American football’s 1905 head injury crisis and the hidden, functional brain injuries underestimated and misunderstood until modern scientific methods began to reveal the truth in the 21st century. The colorful historical tale fills about one-third of the book, while the unfolding of a new perspective on brain injury and clear explanations of the latest research mix throughout the balance of the 87 page text, (plus wonderful supplemental material in the form of notes, bibliography, and further reading suggestions).

As a concussion safety advocate and fan, I have Continue reading →

Boston Globe Opinion: James Carroll

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It certainly is not the first opinion piece that has graced the papers in recent year, nor will it be the last, but James Carroll’s opinion piece does take a reflective look at the sport and issue we now face;

Even as a high school kid, I knew that more honor was to be had in playing through an injury than in the few passes I actually ever caught.

As I learned when my parents later took me to the doctor, I had suffered a concussion. That was nothing to the embarrassment I felt when they made me tell Coach I’d be sitting out practice for a week. His sneer flooded me with shame. That simply, I’d been plunged into the macho heart of football — a gladiator ethos which has lately drawn scrutiny because, indeed, of brain concussions.

This attitude must change when it comes to playing with concussions.  The entire game or mindset does not need to be completely rewritten, rather the view-point of one specific injury needs to be changed up.  Can you imagine what Bo Shemblecher or Woody Hays would have thought about spreading 5 wide receivers out and only have the QB in the backfield in shotgun?  Certainly they would have thought the game was coming to an end.

Naturally since the sport of football is so popular any type of tinkering or changing the game many people, especially those established in the sport, feel they are personally taking something away.

Listen, concussions are not good, in the short-term or long-term, and its and injury that will be part of football and of other sports too.  Some changes are necessary to protect the player – Continue reading →

In the category of NOT shocking; Catastrophic Brain Injuries Rising in Football

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digtriad.com posted a story written by WFMY News 2 about the recent report from the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (NCCSIR);

Monday, researchers at UNC Chapel Hill said catastrophic brain injuries associated with full-contact football appear to be rising, especially among high school students.

They call the increase alarming and said it indicates that more coaches and athletic trainers should change how they teach the fundamental skills of the game.

Until recently, the number of football-related brain injuries with permanent disability in high school had remained in the single digits since 1984.

However, in 2008 and 2009 10 injuries were recorded and in 2011 there were 13 injuries recorded. That’s according to the latest catastrophic football injury research annual report from the UNC-based National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research.

To me it is a double-edged resource; on one hand it is good the “good ol’ boys” of the research world (aka those most listened to) have presented this material.  On the other hand we have published information about this research BEFORE its release recently with the tremendous work of/by Matt Chaney.

The full report from the NCCSIR can be found here, it chronicles the catastrophic injuries from 1977 – 2011.

However with the recent and VERY accurate listings from Chaney there seems to be a difference, which Chaney so eloquently put it in an email to me; Continue reading →