Head injuries in football

[Wally]

I heard Barreiro talking about this and had to read it myself. You would think coaches would be more aware of these concussion situations, but I guess not.

The first day of full-contact drills during fall camp at Frostburg State in August 2011 lasted four hours, the lawsuit said. No collisions compared to those generated by the outside zone drill in which fullbacks pummeled each other. Each time, Derek was the first to go.
One fullback pretended to be a linebacker and stood defenseless. The other fullback had to hit him at full speed as hard as possible after the quarterback handed off to the running back. The make-believe linebacker couldn’t move or brace himself. He had to absorb the shot or face the wrath of Mr. Schumacher, the running backs coach.
In theory, this simulated a fullback blocking a linebacker. But players didn’t see much connection to any realistic game situation because linebackers don’t stand unmoving and defenseless.
“It was stupid,” former running back and fullback Matt Buchanan said. “That’s how everybody who was playing fullback got hurt and people that transferred over to fullback quit. They’re like, ‘Yeah, I’m not doing that.’”

Mr. Buchanan went along with The Drill. Playing time meant keeping your mouth shut at a university where the 2011 team’s policies described injury as a “rare event” and insisted “great champions can distinguish between pain and injury.” To players, the message was clear: If you’re hurt, you’re not a champion. Injured players were labeled “gripers,” the lawsuit says, and detailed to clean the field when practice ended.
“If Derek hadn’t died,” former lineman Kiven Williams writes in an email, “I’m pretty sure someone else would have died or have been severely hurt from the training staff not correctly doing their job.”

During a full-speed 7-on-7 exercise, the lawsuit says, Derek told Mr. Schumacher that he had a “headache” and “didn’t feel right.” Derek never acknowledged pain. Mr. Rogish and other coaches stood within earshot. In response, Mr. Schumacher reportedly shouted: “Stop your bitching and moaning and quit acting like a pussy and get back out there, Sheely!”
Minutes later, Derek collided with a defensive back while running a fly route.
“Just a little tap,” Mr. Buchanan says. “He got up, took his helmet off, sat down. You never sat down during practice. He started stretching and that was it. That was it. It was terrible.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...=all#pagebreak

[tony]

Some of this is getting to the point that it sounds like the Apple Scare of 1989 or the Great Duct Tape Panic of 2001 (i.e. more hysterical overreaction than actual substance.)

The article points out a problem, but is has nothing to do with playing football - it had to do with football practice as conducted by a clueless coaching staff.

I remember two sporting deaths from my days in ND. One was a javelin injury and was a soccer head injury.

[mebisonII]

Some of this is getting to the point that it sounds like the Apple Scare of 1989 because I keep hearing stuff that plain just isn't true (like football players die younger than the general population) or that soccer is safer (there are two sporting deaths I remember from my ND days: Javelin and a soccer head injury.)

The article points out a problem, but is has nothing to do with playing football - it had to do with football practice as conducted by a guy who had no clue.

Sorry tony, but that just isn't true. You are correct that the death had to do with football practice conducted by a guy who had no clue, but in many other sports, a screw-up in coaching or training results in moderate to severe injury, but not death. You just can't completely dissociate the injury from the sport.

I'm a biomechanics person, and I find myself increasingly conflicted about the sport. I love watching it, but I find it harder and harder to ignore how brutal the game is on the body. And you can implement all the rule changes and incremental helmet improvements you want, but you can't change the physics of being run into at full speed by a 250lb person. I've got daughters, but if I had a son, I'd discourage him from playing football at a high level.

[LITTLEGUYSINGREEN]

Sorry tony, but that just isn't true. You are correct that the death had to do with football practice conducted by a guy who had no clue, but in many other sports, a screw-up in coaching or training results in moderate to severe injury, but not death. You just can't completely dissociate the injury from the sport.

I'm a biomechanics person, and I find myself increasingly conflicted about the sport. I love watching it, but I find it harder and harder to ignore how brutal the game is on the body. And you can implement all the rule changes and incremental helmet improvements you want, but you can't change the physics of being run into at full speed by a 250lb person. I've got daughters, but if I had a son, I'd discourage him from playing football at a high level.

How about boxing or MMA? What are the concussion incidents in these sports? One would think the concussion rates would be higher in these sports.

[BisonTeacher]

How about boxing or MMA? What are the concussion incidents in these sports? One would think the concussion rates would be higher in these sports.

Two words: Ali

[onbison09]

How about boxing or MMA? What are the concussion incidents in these sports? One would think the concussion rates would be higher in these sports.

MMA is WAY different than boxing. It looks more brutal but it's a lot safer (disclaimer: I'm not an expert). Fights are stopped soon after a guy gets knocked down. Boxing a guy keeps taking a pounding.

[td577]

MMA is WAY different than boxing. It looks more brutal but it's a lot safer (disclaimer: I'm not an expert). Fights are stopped soon after a guy gets knocked down. Boxing a guy keeps taking a pounding.

MMA is actually much safer than boxing. The fighters are not wearing gloves to protect their hands like boxers. The gloves they wear are to minimize lacerations. You can only hit sometime as hard as your knuckles can take. Like onbison said, fights are stopped the moment someone can't defend themselves. Boxing is all about blunt force trauma. MMA is about beating someone down, not out. Huge difference.



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[bisonmike2]

MMA is actually much safer than boxing. The fighters are not wearing gloves to protect their hands like boxers. The gloves they wear are to minimize lacerations. You can only hit sometime as hard as your knuckles can take. Like onbison said, fights are stopped the moment someone can't defend themselves. Boxing is all about blunt force trauma. MMA is about beating someone down, not out. Huge difference.



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I get that matches are safer but how many blows to the head do they take while training? You have to wonder if that has an effect. Bottom line is if you are going to play a sport at a professional level you are going to have heath consequences. If it's basketball, you are going to tear up for knees and feet. Tennis, arms and elbows. Football - almost everything. That's part of the risk that needs to be weighed against the reward. It will be interesting to see if CTE starts to slow down as we go along. The guys now showing up with CTE played in the era where the head slap was legal, padding was minimal and the artificial surfaces were little more than green colored concrete. I hope that's the case but it doesn't look likely. That NFL denial documentary had experts that were saying they have seen evidence of CTE in kids as young as 17. Now that is some scary shit and it doesn't make me want to push my kid into playing football.

[Hammersmith]

How about boxing or MMA? What are the concussion incidents in these sports? One would think the concussion rates would be higher in these sports.

The brain disease that everyone is concerned about in football(CTE - chronic traumatic encephalopathy) was originally called dementia pugilistica. Draw your own conclusion whether it involved boxers.

[Hammerhead]

Teams are hesitant to monitor impacts to the head as noted in a recent article in The Oregonian.
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/ore...vention_t.html

Not only does the watchdog monitor acceleration in the helmet, it can also be used to track every player's position, speed, and direction throughout a play.