A proposal was made earlier this year to ban tackle football for kids 12 and under in Illinois; however, the idea ultimately fell through. These efforts were made to try and eliminate the risk of concussions for all young children. Lawmaker and state Representative Carol Sente was the main person behind the “Dave Duerson Act,” and acknowledged that there simply wasn’t enough support; however, she plans to change this in the near future. In an article written by Steve Sadin from The Chicago Tribune, Sente says that “Passing this bill is an extremely important goal to me. I don’t plan to call the bill for a vote this year, but I’m going to keep it open because every week there is new information.” With Sente not seeking a re-election this year, her departure from the General Assembly will require someone else to take charge. Even after she leaves the House, Sente still plans to continue her campaign. “To support the bill, Sente assembled scientists and former football players who were educated about the dangers of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a brain disease believed to be linked to repeated blows to the head. Her bill was named for the former Chicago Bears player who committed suicide at age 50 and was later found to have CTE,” says Sadin. He also says that youth football coaches were not in favor of such a ban as they have “made strides to make the game safer and that players who are ill-prepared to play tackle football when they’re older may be more susceptible to injury.” In my blog titled “Tackle Football; Why Children Under The Age of 13 Shouldn’t Participate,” my argument against children from ages 12 and under fully supports Sente’s position.

Around 2.5 million teens who either play sports or are physically active recently reported suffering a concussion or some sort of head injury over the past year, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In an article written by Linda Searing from The Washington Post, that number accounts for 15 percent of U.S. high school students. Of those students, nearly 1 million reported suffering at least two or more concussions over the past twelve months. Spears says that those who are most at risk were teens who played more than one sport. “About 30 percent of athletes who played on three or more teams had at least one concussion in the preceding year,” says Spears. Doctors recommend that those who suffer any symptoms for a possible concussion should immediately be taken off the field and seen by medical professionals. “Researchers have found that returning to the playing field before full recovery increases the risk for another concussion, and a second concussion can be more severe. Symptoms of a concussion include headaches, dizziness, confusion, memory gaps, trouble concentrating, blurred vision, vomiting and being knocked out,” says Spears. With so many teenagers reporting signs of suffering head injuries over the past year, the result is staggering.

The National Football League has recently opened up to the idea of changing the way punting is done to make the game safer. After revamping kickoffs last season, the league will consider modifications to how punts are performed during next year’s offseason. In an article written by Mark Maske from The Washington Post, he says that that the N.F.L.’s competition committee will “consider changes both from a player-safety standpoint and from a competitive aspect, based on the high rate of penalties on punts.” According to league officials, kickoffs are considered “the sport’s most hazardous play,” with players suffering concussions at a much higher rate than on plays that result from the line of scrimmage. Some of the changes made from kickoffs last year include the elimination of “wedge” blocking, with a ban implemented on “would-be tacklers” that get a  running start before the ball is kicked. These efforts were made to prevent kickoffs from being permanently eliminated from the game. In another article written by Sean Wagner-McGough from CBS Sports, although the league plans to listen to any and all ideas, they did not promise any assurances. Time will tell whether these change will prove to be beneficial for all players involved in the foreseeable future.

The National Football League awarded over $35 million in grant money to fund medical research for brain health and injuries last month on November 11, 2018. In an article written by Mark Maske from The Washington Post, the grants were part of the “Play Safe. Play Smart” $100 million-dollar initiative announced by the league in 2016. The funds will be distributed with $60 million going to technological research and $40 million toward medical studies on the effects of head injuries. Improving the quality of helmet safety is another of many ways in with the money will be used. Maske mentions that the league established an “independent scientific advisory board of doctors, scientists and clinicians to identify and support research proposals.” The grants were also distributed to research projects that were analyzed and selected by the same advisory board. “The largest award announced Thursday was a nearly $14.7 million grant to Boston Children’s Hospital and the Harvard Medical School for a study to assess the neurological health and track the progress of a group of as many as 2,500 former NFL players originally assessed in 2001,” says Maske. The funds were also spread out elsewhere, with $9.4 million going to a University of Calgary study of concussions suffered by high school students; “nearly $6.1 million to a study of brain health of retired football players by the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; nearly $3.5 million to a University of California-San Francisco study of clinical knowledge and research into traumatic brain injury; and nearly $1.6 million to a study by the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and Harvard Medical School into brain injuries suffered by young athletes in football, hockey, soccer, rugby and other collision sports,” says Maske. The remaining $5 million was entrusted to Peter Chiarelli, a retired U.S. army general and former CEO of the nonprofit One Mind, who chaired the Play Safe Play Smart panel during the funding. According to the N.F.L., the amount of concussions suffered by players during the preseason this year dropped roughly 13 percent from 2017. “The decrease came after the league enacted a plan to reduce concussions following a 2017 season in which concussions were up,” says Maske. The strategy was designed to reduce the number of concussions during the preseason, get players to wear performance-enhanced helmets and implement rule changes. The modifications include adjustments to kickoffs and bans on players for “lowering their head and using their helmet to initiate hits.” This is another effort by the league to hopefully continue to support those who are suffering from head trauma due to their participation in football.

As mentioned in previous blogs, concussions are at the forefront of football injury concerns for former and current players to many parents across America. With so many in distress over the issue, former N.F.L. legend decided to open up about his experience with concussions over years. In an article written by Des Bieler from The Washington Post, he sits down with Favre to discuss his experiences with head injuries and how he seems to cope with them today. “I feel as though I’m lucky, to this point, but … I find that my short-term memory, someone I met six months ago, it has gotten a lot worse. Simple words that would normally come out easy in a conversation, I’ll stammer,” says Favre. When asked about how many concussions he had suffered through his playing career, the former quarterback said that he was officially diagnosed for three; however, he did mention that being “dinged” or “seeing stars” is considered as having a concussion, according to doctors. Furthermore, Favre says that he likely has “hundreds, probably thousands” of head injuries based off of that criteria. “The thing about what little we know about the brain, and the injuries and CTE, is that tomorrow could be totally different. Tomorrow I may be in great health, but I don’t know who I am and where I’m going. So it can happen overnight, and I know it’s not as dramatic as that, but that’s the scary thing. No matter what I do to try to take care of myself physically, there is a part of my future that I really can’t control, and that is very scary,” says Favre. For Favre and other former football players, this this is the reality they face on a daily basis. Even with these harsh realities, the N.F.L. Hall of Famer ultimately expresses satisfaction with his career path. The same may not be said for others.

 

The NCAA has implemented several concussion protocol procedures over the years designed to protect football players. The Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Test, or the ImPACT, has been in effect for several years, testing athletes for concussions and the severity of those injuries. As players have taken the test however, they seem to have eventually found a way to bypass the system in order to return onto the field sooner than expected. In an article written by Jacob Bogage from The Washington Post, a new study from Butler University researchers proves just that. Athletes typically take the exam during the offseason to record a baseline score. The test was released in 2002 and has performed over 12 million assessments according to ImPACT Applications, the company behind the exam. Other professional leagues such as the MLB and MLS also provide the test to its players. “The computerized test asks subjects to answer word, design, color and symbol matching questions to test the brain’s function. After a traumatic brain injury, an athlete is asked similar questions in another version of the test, and the scores are compared. If an athlete “sandbags” on the original baseline assessment, he or she would only have to match that lower threshold to possibly return to action after a head injury. Nearly a third of athletes reported to researchers in a separate 2017 study that they didn’t provide “maximal effort” on computerized neurocognitive tests, such as ImPACT,” says Bogage. This is quite alarming to say the least. Bogage also notes that many of the people who work with concussed athletes are fully aware of their trickery for the exam, making matters worse. “Previous studies, including one cited by ImPACT’s “Administration and Interpretation Manual,” have found that the test successfully flags 89 percent of sandbaggers and invalidates their scores, which requires subjects to retake the baseline assessment. The test has five built-in indicators meant to flag any irregularities. But Butler’s study, co-researched by Indiana University medical student Courtney Raab, found only two of those indicators detected more than 15 percent of test takers who tried to trick the exam.” This means that essentially half of test subjects managed to defeat the flagging mechanisms without being coached. A more precise form of testing must be implemented by the NCAA to fully enhance the safety of these athletes.

 

Head injuries continue to be a staple for concern amongst parents and football players. The fear for head injuries has made an impact in every level of football from pop-warner to the N.F.L. With distress embedded in the minds of many, several former collegiate athletes have taken action. Hundreds of former players sued the NCAA and other major conferences for damages done to them through head injuries. In an article written by Evan Grossman from the New York Daily News, the suit began to materialize back in March this year. “They argue the NCAA has known about the dangers of head injuries in football for decades, but has done little to protect athletes, which is painfully ironic since the NCAA was created to do just that,” says Grossman. The NCAA settled a class-action concussion lawsuit with former players for $75 million back in 2014. However, the case was placed on hold on five different occasions due to some of those players being unaware of a lawsuit. Grossman says that “not a single penny of that money will actually go to the guys living with brain damage,” but rather “used to fund testing, monitoring and research.” “The original settlement also includes safeguards such as return-to-play guidelines and uniform concussion protocols, because the NCAA to this day does not have a universal concussion policy in place. Instead, it leaves it up to individual schools to monitor, and that’s part of the reason players blame the NCAA for being negligent,” says Grossman. Rule changes have been implemented across all leagues to make the game safer for quarterbacks and defenseless players — think of the helmet to helmet, targeting rule. Even so, the NCAA faces many challenges in trying to make football as safe as possible without damaging the product on the field. Former and current players are desperate for more answers.

 

Arguably one of the biggest (if not the biggest), controversies in football across all levels deals with the question: should children be allowed to play contact football? My thought on this debate is simple: kids should not be allowed to partake in contact football, at least until they reach the age of 13. There are people who make the “they know the risks” argument, and that is certainly understandable. However, when we’re talking about children, especially those who aren’t teenagers, then how much of a choice do they actually have? In an article written by The Washington Post’s editorial board, they essentially are in agreeance. The article says that “children aren’t allowed to accept the risks of smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol, so it defies logic to let them accept the dangers that football may present to their developing brains.” In 2017, a long-term study on as many as 214 former high school, college and professional football players was completed by Boston University researchers. Each participant was asked to partake in a variety of phone interviews and online surveys designed to test their responses to certain questions. The test results found that “those who started playing contact football before the age of 12 suffered more behavioral, cognitive and emotional problems than those who started playing after they turned 12. Exposure to repetitive head impacts may double the chances of developing behavioral problems and triple the risk of experiencing depression.” According to Robert Stern, one of the authors of the study from the university’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center, “The brain is going through this incredible time of growth between the years of 10 and 12, and if you subject that developing brain to repetitive head impacts, it may cause problems later in life.” The article goes on to mention how participation in youth football is in a steady decline because of safety concerns, and that the majority of the university’s studies conducted on deceased brains of former NFL players were found to have CTE (110 out of 111 to be exact). This evidence further shows that perhaps tackle football should wait for kids under the age of 13. Maybe flag football, a topic discussed in another blog, might actually be the answer.

It’s no secret that concussions have had a major impact in the decline of youth football. With studies constantly proving just how dangerous the sport is, more parents and athletes have begun to stay away from tackle football. However, for some, football is still a very much a part of their lives, just in a slightly different way. In an article written by Fred Bowen from The Washington Post, more kids from ages 6 to 12 are playing flag football instead of tackle football. “The Sports & Fitness Industry Association, a group that keeps track of sports participation, says that flag football is the fastest-growing team sport in the past three years,” says Bowen. The Aspen Institute, an organization that studies sports and other issues, has recently published a report in favor of athletes making the transition from tackle to flag football before the age of 14. Bowen first alludes to the fact that flag football is most likely safer because there is no hard, physical contact involved. “While most of the attention has been about injuries to NFL and college players, kids may be in danger, too. Kids have weaker necks than older athletes, and so their heads (and brains) may bounce around more when they get hit. In addition, kids’ brains are still developing, and so brain injuries and hits to the head may have more effects on them than on adults,” says Bowen. Some studies also suggest that children who play tackle football before the age of 12 are more susceptible to memory and behavior problems down the road. The second reason eludes to the reality that more kids may be able to play flag football because of how much cheaper the cost is. “Youth football helmets can cost almost $400,” says Bowen. Less costs leads to fewer equipment. There are some, however, who aren’t in favor of the change. “Some people, however, think kids can become good football players only if they learn the blocking and tackling techniques early. But plenty of great players — such as quarterbacks Tom Brady and Drew Brees, as well as Hall of Famers Jim Brown, Walter Payton, Jerry Rice, Anthony Munoz and Lawrence Taylor — did not play tackle football until high school,” says Bowen. According to a study conducted by the University of Massachusetts at Lowell in 2016, 78 percent of adults believe kids under the age of 14 should avoid tackle football entirely. Bowen believes that flag football is the future for children; time will only tell.

A decline in football participation seems to be affecting America altogether. In an article written by Cristin Severance and John Tierney from KGW News, participation in youth football has seen a decline across Oregon, with concussions being the main concern amongst parents. The article mentions that Casey Graver, a Lake Oswego High School junior, had to quit the sport altogether because of two concussions suffered in middle school. Doctors essentially told him that a third head injury would’ve prevented him from playing any sports. As an aspiring sportscaster, Grayer serves as the school’s commentator for their football games. While Grayer loves what he does, Severance and Tierney mention that he would still rather be on the field instead of in the booth. ““If I was able to compete with the varsity guys and compete at a high level, then yeah,” he said. Casey is one of thousands of kids in Oregon leaving the sport. “According to numbers KGW obtained through the Oregon School Activities Association, 23 percent fewer kids are playing high school football compared to 10 years ago. Records show 11,891 kids are playing high school football this year, down from the 15,009 who played in the 2008-2009 school year, say Severance and Tierney.” Lake Oswego High School head football coach Steve Coury says the numbers are concerning, and believes “the link between concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, have led to parents keeping their kids from ever starting the game.” Coury also mentions that adjustments have already been made as a result. “You’ve got to have 25 kids to have a freshman team. Two years ago, we had 14 kids, so we didn’t have a freshman team, so we’ve moved those kids up,” he said. “So, we’ve already done it, we’ve adjusted. We’ve already felt it.” Doctor and sports medicine director at the Oregon Health and Science University concussion program Jim Chesnutt sees a trend with parents removing their kids from football at a younger age. He says that “research shows it takes longer for children to recover from concussions than adults, about four to six weeks, and that three of more concussions in young people increases the risk of reoccurring or more serious concussions.” Even with these concerns, Chesnutt believes the game is moving in the right direction and doesn’t discourage kids and parents from football. Changes from the OSAA have been made to make the game safer for kids. Some of them include: starting third and fourth graders in flag football instead of tackle football and young players moving to rookie tackle in fifth and sixth grades. Coury believes, however, that not every parent seems to be on board with the changes. “Change is tough. So, you have people down there, dads, fighting that stuff, too. In order to save this sport, we’re going to have to make changes,” said Coury. With dilemmas like these occurring in youth football across America, time will tell whether changes like these can make enough of an impact.