What is being done

The problem with concussions and hard hits in the NFL is still huge.  Even now with the NFL on the brink of a hold-out, the league could be working on fixing this problem.  Because there may be a hold-out, this could be a great time for the NFL to take more action on creating rules or providing more information and research on this issue.  I found a memorandum the other day while researching more on this issue that shows what the league could be doing to mediate this problem.  Heres the link to the article.  The memorandum is one that is addressed to the Principals and Athletic Directors of the Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association (TSSAA).  Its is a document that states that the schools involved in this area are implementing a new "concussion policy" that must be followed by all schools that started the 2010-2011 school year.  The main rule to the publication was this line "Any player who exhibits signs, symptoms or behaviors consistent with a concussion (such as loss of consciousness, headache, dizziness, confusion or balance problems) shall be immediately removed from the game and shall not return to play until cleared by an appropriate health-care professional."  This rule is not only going to be used in games but also in practices as well.  This document really looks into the well being and safety of the players affects by it.

This is something the NFL needs to do to try and make things more clear revolving around concussions that may take place during the game.  Here, the memorandum clearly outlines the rules being implemented and clearly outlines the most important rule that has to go into every sport rule book for these schools.  Something like this should be sent to every player, coach, and manager so that the controversy of a hard hit and the after effects of one can be more clear to players.  

High School Trauma

Concussions have been a problem occurring in contact sports for a while now. Not only are concussions happening in professional sports and even college sports, but they are also happening on a lower level; the high school level. There have been a number of incidents that have occurred in the recent months that has brought more attention this injury and the effects they have had to the person that undertook this injury. The person that calls out to most people is former football player Dave Duerson. He was a former player of the NFL that played for the Chicago Bears championship team in 1985 that committed suicide because of implications caused from the concussions he suffered while playing football. The death of Duerson has lead a school in Springfield, IL to adopt some new rules and legislation to deal with this crisis of concussions, dementia, and depression that have been linked to contact sports. The schools "Legislation approved unanimously Wednesday the House Education Committee would order school districts to require a doctor's written permission before a player who might have received a concussion could resume playing. The measure now goes to the full House." This move is one being made by this committee to help prevent this sort of thing from happening as a result of the concern going along with the long term health risks of concussions. "New research indicates concussions and repeated blows to the head may lead to depression, dementia and other mental health problems later in life. This damage can begin at a young age, many times through contact sports such as football or hockey." New rules are being implemented to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Like this school in Springfield, the NFL is trying to do similar things to try and mediate this problem. Not only is this school using new equipment and using these rules to protect players, but they are also "The Illinois bill also requires school districts to adopt concussion awareness and treatment policies and provide information to students and their families." This committee is going above and beyond in regards to looking out for the safety of their players and in their futures. They are thinking about what they can do to protect these young kids.

Double Hit

Back in mid October, when the 2010 season was well on its way, there was a controversial hit that took place between Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson and Atlanta Falcons cornerback Dunta Robinson.  Robinson put a helmet to helmet hit on Jackson that knocked both players out of the game in the second quarter.  This hit left implications on both players.  DeSean suffered a concussion and Robinson suffered a head injury.  It was a very scary site to see as both players laid on the field for several minutes before they were helped off of the field by team doctors.  Robinson's hit on Jackson was a prime example of the "illegal hits" the NFL is trying to resolve in regards to the hard hit issue, especially prevalent in the 2010 season.  He was also flagged on the play for hitting a defenseless receiver.

Kevin Kolb, the Eagles back-up quarterback, suffered a concussion earlier in the season.  He had a few things to say after the game to help out his teammate DeSean Jackson and also mentioned how serious concussions can be.  Kolb said, "take it seriously because it is serious."  Kolb wants his teammate to know that this is a serious injury.  Not only does this statement from Kolb show the criticalness to concussions but it also shows how serious some players are taking it.  A player saying this really helps show how severe this concussion issue is and how some players are taking note of it.

This problem is still a prevalent one in the league.  Even though the season is over, the NFL needs to take up this time off to try and find ways to resolve this issue.  They have already made great strides towards resolving the issue by fining players more frequently who have executed "illegal hits" and by flagging more players to try and prevent these hits from occurring as much.

Concussions on a Different Level

As I've been talking about, concussions have been detrimental to football, especially to its players.  Just recently, I found an article on football that shows the damage and side affects concussion have been having on a different age group.  An age group that's not the normal 30+ and retired but the age group that consists of teenagers playing football at the high school level.  I found out that there was an extraordinarily amount of concussions happening to high school players.  I always thought of concussions as something that only happened to older people because I didn't think that young teenagers had the ability and power to place hits on other players that could cause a concussion like NFL players or even college players.  But boy was I wrong.  This article I found presents data that I found overwhelmingly unbelievable.  In 2008-2009, studies showed that there were over 400,000 concussions involved with high school athletics, most of which came from football.  That number seems extremely large to me.  I mean that's almost half of a million teenagers or students that suffered a concussion.  Not to mention, the link concussions have had with other problems like depression and dementia.  But these kids are suffering concussions at this early of an age.  Research tells us that once a person suffers from their first concussion, they are four times as likely to receive another and the number only increases from their.  Take for instance NFL quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Steve Young.  Both are hall of fame quarterbacks that had amazing careers but careers that may have ended sooner than expected because of the concussions they received playing the game.  Aikman suffered from 10 concussions during his 12 years in the NFL.  Young didn't receive as many as Aikman but he took four concussions during his last three seasons (source).  These concussions are presenting a huge problem and the fact that their happening to teenagers in high school makes the problem more critical.  The thing that's the most frightening about concussions is the difficulty in diagnosing a concussion.  Someone may hit their head really hard and suffer a concussion but have no idea that they actually had a concussion and they may suffer brain damage or impairment later in life because of it.

Huge Concussions

Concussions are quite the attraction in football right now.  Now that this seasons over, I wonder what the NFL will do to help prevent concussions from happening.  I've recently just tapped into some numbers that I think will be quite a shock for some people as they were for me.  From recent reports, it appears that more than 61% of former NFL players suffered from a head injury of some kind.  Some of those players even said that they weren't even sidelined after receiving the hit.  I can think back to a few major players that ended their careers because of the amount of concussions they were receiving every season.  Troy Aikman and Steve Young are two hall of fame quarterbacks that ended their careers early because of the number of concussions they had taken during their football career.  Aikman retired after 12 seasons of work and undertaking 10 concussions during those seasons.  Young retired after having 4 concussions in 3 years.  These are just the numbers to some famous players.  Players are receiving unfair treatment after suffering a concussion during the game.  A number of players have said that they were told to go play again even though some players felt some tingling, discomfort, and pain after undertaking a concussion.  Some players after the game were so demoralized that they couldn't even dress themselves.  Their have even been some links to players getting Alzheimer's from the concussions they had playing football.  The links to brain damage and concussions is starting to become overwhelming.  The NFL needs to take a more hands on approach to help this growing problem that will only get worse if left alone.  Players cannot be allowed to go out on a field and drill someone with 300lbs of force directly to the head.  Concussions are becoming an even larger problem in the NFL.  Something needs to be done so that players can know that their safe on and off the field and when their not even playing the game anymore.
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2001/05/16/nfl-concussions010516.html

Long Term Damage

Last post was an introduction to my blog that gave a feel to the things I'll be looking into with the NFL and such.  This post is going to focus more on the long-term effects and serious damage football does to a players body.  Concussions are becoming quite a serious problem in the NFL.  Over this past season, there has been a noticeable change in the amount of players being diagnosed with concussions than in recent seasons.  Players that suffer a concussion have to go through a variety of different neurological tests that have to be passed if they want to play in the next game.  Some notable players that suffered concussions this year are Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers, who suffered two concussions this season and is rumored to may have had another on in the NFC Championship game versus the Bears http://bleacherreport.com/articles/591601-super-bowl-2011-aaron-rodgers-ben-roethlisberger-and-latest-news-from-dallas/entry/45990-green-bay-packers-aaron-rodgers-denies-reports-of-another-head-injury, and also Brett Favre whose season and career ended because of a concussion he had near the end of the season.   It is quite evident that the NFL is definitely starting to take a much larger interest in this whole concussion thing.

A man named Bennet Omalu is someone particularly interested in this matter plus much more.  He is a doctor and researcher predominantly interested in post-concussion syndrome (PCS) cases where retired football players struggle with this syndrome everyday.  One player Omalu looked at was Steelers play Mike Webster.  Webster suffered intensely from PCS after his days playing as a center for Pittsburgh.  He had days where he forgot where he was or what he was doing.  He sometimes couldn't even remember the house he lived in.  Omalu took the information he gathered from Webster's brain and two other former players brains where he found connections between the concussions they had and brain damage received from those concussions. Omalu has researched quite a few brains and is continuing to gather up information so that he can try to persuade the NFL to look into this issue more intently.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports/dolphins/doctors-study-of-brains-of-nfl-players-shows-909087.html

There is still much the league and doctors and such need to learn to help this issue of hard hits and their damage.  People like Omalu are doing a great job by researching and trying to find ways to help players out.  Hopefully the NFL will listen and contribute so that we can continue to watch the game of football.

The "Hard Hit"

If anyone watches the NFL, then they know what a year it has been considering all the fines and such being implemented due to the NFL's top dogs sudden and needed interest in the players safety.  This year, there seemed to be a lot of attention drawn to tackles that seemed too harsh and too damaging to the leagues players.  ESPN showed a number of tackles made against opposing players that looked "unfair" or that appeared to be too dangerous to player safety.  I can remember watching these highlight reels on ESPN thinking that some of these hits have gotten out of control.  The amount of information and research going on now that shows the affects these gruesome hits have had on players is overwhelming.  This new knowledge is showing players and anyone interested that these hits that cause players to have concussions can have implications to the players mind and body for the rest of their lives.

The NFL administration is implementing fines and penalties into the game so that players that give these hits will be cautioned to not do them as much.  I mean some of these tackles look ridiculously painful.  I distinctly remember the tackle Steelers Linebacker James Harrison put on Joshua Cribbs of the Cleveland Browns in week 6 of this season.  Harrison knocked Cribbs out cold.  This was not the first time Harrison was fined.  He was fined earlier in the season for a hit he put on another Browns player, Mohamed Massaquoi.  James Harrison was fined for these hits and investigated for a few other hits he did through out the season.


The league is doing what it can to fix this problem.  Now I know, these hits are a part of the game and are sometimes generally fun to see.  But you have to look at this from the players stand point.  These are people, and their safety needs to be taken into account as much as any other person even though their profession calls for them to beat the crap out of each other every Sunday.  I'm not saying that hard hits should be taken out of the game completely, but something needs to be done to make sure that we can still watch football and so that these players can live out their lives once they are done with the game of football and move on with their lives.  The NFL is doing a good job so far with the issue.  I can't wait to see what they do next.