How the NFL is Preventing Concussions
Last season, Denver Broncos wide receiver Bennie Fowler sustained a concussion when he landed on his head after catching a pass. He got up easily, but stumbled and collapsed twice on his way to the sidelines.
Baltimore Ravens wide receiver, Mike Wallace, suffered a concussion after his helmet flew off and his head hit the turf. The call: unnecessary roughness.
During the 2018 Super Bowl, Philadelphia Eagles Malcolm Jenkins made helmet-to-helmet contact with New England Patriots Brandin Cooks, causing a concussion and forcing Cooks to lay limp on the field.
In total, the National Football League reported 291 concussions during the 2017-2018 football season, the most in six years. Former NFL head coach Steve Mariucci is a member of the NFL Player Safety Advisory Panel charged with figuring out how to address the problem.
“We’re never going to eliminate injuries. Never in a million years will sport eliminate injuries,” Mariucci said. “But we try to reduce it and minimize it as best we can.”
Several factors, he said, may have contributed to the high number of concussions last season. For starters, players are getting bigger and stronger each season. More players are self-reporting a concussion. And the NFL instituted a more rigorous protocol overseen by a doctor unaffiliated with either team watching on the sidelines.
The NFL also provided funding for impact-absorbent helmets, added omega-3 supplements to players’ diets and ordered players to include neck strengthening exercises in their weekly fitness routine.
The NFL has come a long way since the first games in 1920, when players, following collegiate rules at the time, could legally grab their opponents’ face masks and a quarterback couldn’t throw a pass to his receiver unless he was at least five yards behind the line of scrimmage.
But now, the NFL has approved some 50 new rules since 2002 aimed at reducing injuries.
Mariucci is one of about 14 members on the panel made up of former NFL players, coaches, general managers and doctors. Mariucci says concussions are “first and foremost on our minds” when making rule changes because they are the most serious concerns.
The panel analyzes data and presents their ideas for rule changes or new rules to the Competition Committee, the official body in charge of adopting rules for the game. This eight-member committee is made up of current NFL presidents, owners, general managers and coaches.
Before the Panel and Committee meet to discuss rules, they are presented with data that is recorded by each team. Teams must report each injury, its severity, where and when it happened. This data helps identify trends.
The NFL Player Safety Advisory Panel and the NFL Competition Committee have one mission: to make football as safe as possible.
The most far-reaching new rule that will be in place next season: Lowering the head to initiate contact with the helmet is a foul.
“We’re starting to penalize players for leading with their helmets,” Mariucci said. “Because just as many concussions occur to the person, the defensive player who is tackling with his head, as the guy who is getting hit. In fact, a little bit more.”
Ryan Shazier, linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers, suffered a back injury due to tackling while lowering his head. He underwent spinal stabilization surgery and will be out for the 2018-2019 season.
“So we’re trying to take the head out of the game as much as possible, as much as feasible, where players are tackling more with their shoulders, chest or arms rather than their head,” Mariucci said.
Morgan Cox, long snapper of the Baltimore Ravens, doesn’t want the sport of football to change too much. He says there is a reason he and the other players play the game. It has changed their lives in a positive way.
“In the context of concussions, I think we as players need to continue to almost police it ourselves in the sense that if we see somebody that’s struggling or whatever, we understand the dangers of it and we can help each other by notifying somebody,” said Cox, who snaps the ball for field goals and extra point attempts.
But Dr. Michael Alosco, a postdoctoral fellow at Boston University’s Alzheimer’s Disease and CTE Center, hopes to see football change in the future. Alosco and his fellow researchers have conducted studies to examine the correlation of head impacts with long-term negative health outcomes, such as CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy).
But Dr. Michael Alosco, a postdoctoral fellow at Boston University’s Alzheimer’s Disease and CTE Center, hopes to see football change in the future. Alosco and his fellow researchers have conducted studies to examine the correlation of head impacts with long-term negative health outcomes, such as CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy).
He says he hopes this research will translate to changes of the game to protect the safety of the football players. But Scott Zuckerman, co-director of Vanderbilt’s Sports Concussion Center Research group, says it’s hard to say how the NFL will change in the future.
“We need more prospective longitudinal studies of all kinds of football players to see if there is a relationship between concussions and future neurologic function,” Zuckerman said.
Some former NFL players believe the NFL will still live on and will still continue to be a tackling sport. Some also see the possibility of more rule changes in the future due to the data the league collects.
“The game’s changing. The game continues to evolve,” said former linebacker for six NFL teams in 2008-2012, Thomas Williams. “You look at where it first started to where it is today. Positions are changing. The game, the strategy, the rules. The more and more information the [NFL] gets an understanding of, they’ll start to take the precautionary steps for it.”
And others, such as former tight end Gregg Guenther for the Tennessee Titans and Cincinnati Bengals from 2005-2006, don’t see the game changing all too much.
“Until something exceedingly bad happens, I don’t think there’s much more they can do as far as having the protocol, making sure their guys hit properly and enforcing the penalties,” Guenther said. “I don’t think there’s much more they can do at this point right now.”
Los Angeles Rams Sports Dietician, Joey Blake, says the NFL has been proactive in making the changes they already have up until this point. He can’t see how else the NFL can improve from their precautionary rule changes thus far. Seattle Seahawks scout, Todd Brunner, emphasizes that football is meant to be played a certain way.
“I don’t know if we will ever get to a point where we can totally prevent [a concussion] without actually not hitting or using your head to play the game. But you’re not going to get around it. You’re always going to use your head to play the game,” Brunner said.
For now, football safety remains a work in progress.
“We’re here to promote football and encourage people to play football if they choose. But at the same time, make it safe. And make it as safe as possible for the player’s health and well-being,” Mariucci said.
