More Concussion Evidence

[ViriLudant]

This is a very interesting article on Kevin Kolb. It's truly frightening what hits can do to the brain.

http://bills.buffalonews.com/2015/09/27/brains-under-pressure-concussion-crisis-continues-to-haunt-the-nfl/

I've come to believe that football as we know it will not exist in its present form in 10-15 years.

[chad72]

Wow, that is scary. Thanks for sharing. It is not for no reason that folks like Kurt Warner and Ed Reed say that they wouldn't want their kids to play football. If you ask a parent if they'd rather have their kid have a bodily condition like a limp or a debilitating neurological condition for life, the obvious answer would be the bodily injury. The kid can be independent and get a hold of their lives and figure things out if their brain and mental abilities are intact as time goes on. 

 

To me, it is the bottom tier that goes through the practice squad and special teams where there are more bang-bang plays and their names go unnoticed. Even if they endure symptoms like what Kevin Kolb did, it may not get the notoriety or press. I understand it is a choice but we do have to evaluate in 20 years whether the heads-up focus and friendly rules for QBs and pass catchers indeed has an impact.

 

To be honest, I'd like them to do away with helmet-to-helmet contact, period. QBs and WRs are more protected now but RBs are left to dry, IMO. Did you see C.J.Anderson and Juwan Thompson both get clocked head-to-head in the Broncos-Lions game? How hard is it to enforce an intentional helmet-to-helmet contact rule for RBs? I am all for that. C.J.Anderson returned and played but deep down, he could be thinking - "I am an RB, my longevity in the NFL is already ticking and in this Not-For-Long league, I could lose my job easily due to a concussion. So, if my symptoms aren't too obvious, I will lie, circumvent, whatever I can do to get back on the field." I can see several other players thinking along the same lines. Even Peyton has said that they fake their baseline enough so that when they do have a concussion, the baseline is not that hard to pass.

 

To be honest, I would not be shocked if several NFL players that have been recently retiring early had those things in mind when they retired, including a QB like Jake Locker or the flurry of 49ers.

[BrentMc11]

Thanks for sharing.  All I have to say is that I have already seen about 6 players absorb helmet to helmet this year with no call being made.

 

Should the NFL go to college rules where the referee can call 'targeting' and kick a player out of the game?  I believe it may be time for this.  

[bababooey]

The most insane thing about this is we are just learning more about CTE in former players that are up there in age. We have two entire generations of players who's concussion symptons/brain damage are currently undiscovered. It is far too late for these generations but the findings are going to get worse, and the damage, sadly, is already done.

 

Would never want my kids to play football except maybe high school and even then the equipment needs to be better. I also agree the game may not be the same in 15-20 years. High profile people like Mark Cuban and Howard Stern think the same thing. I think Lacrosse and Soccer are going to be the most popular with kids going forward. Soccer is insane popular we just don't give it enough credit but kids who grew up late 80s/early 90s were the first real generation to play every weekend. Fifa is the most popular video game and now that generation is starting to have children of their own to play soccer on the weekends.

 

One thing that has gone under the radar because the NFL is a magnet for controversy: Hockey helmets. This Outside The Lines piece on Virginia Tech's study of hockey helmets found most of the available ones to be unsafe:

 

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/12564082/virginia-tech-study-hockey-helmets-finds-many-unsafe

 

Mats Zuccarello of the New York Rangers took a shot off his helmet in the playoffs this year that caused a skull fracture/brain bleeding/contusion. He couldn't speak for FOUR days! He lost feeling in his arm and still goes to speech therapy. This week he just played in his first game since late April.

 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2444991-mats-zuccarello-injury-updates-on-rangers-stars-upper-body-and-return

[ViriLudant]

Great post, bab. I agree. I coach soccer (played in college, with baseball), and I grew up in the 80s

Lacrosse is easily the fastest growing sport . I do ended if it's lack of a big professional level hinders it at all. Then again, it may be coming down the road soon.

[amfootball]

The most insane thing about this is we are just learning more about CTE in former players that are up there in age. We have two entire generations of players who's concussion symptons/brain damage are currently undiscovered. It is far too late for these generations but the findings are going to get worse, and the damage, sadly, is already done.

 

Would never want my kids to play football except maybe high school and even then the equipment needs to be better. I also agree the game may not be the same in 15-20 years. High profile people like Mark Cuban and Howard Stern think the same thing. I think Lacrosse and Soccer are going to be the most popular with kids going forward. Soccer is insane popular we just don't give it enough credit but kids who grew up late 80s/early 90s were the first real generation to play every weekend. Fifa is the most popular video game and now that generation is starting to have children of their own to play soccer on the weekends.

 

One thing that has gone under the radar because the NFL is a magnet for controversy: Hockey helmets. This Outside The Lines piece on Virginia Tech's study of hockey helmets found most of the available ones to be unsafe:

 

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/12564082/virginia-tech-study-hockey-helmets-finds-many-unsafe

 

Mats Zuccarello of the New York Rangers took a shot off his helmet in the playoffs this year that caused a skull fracture/brain bleeding/contusion. He couldn't speak for FOUR days! He lost feeling in his arm and still goes to speech therapy. This week he just played in his first game since late April.

 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2444991-mats-zuccarello-injury-updates-on-rangers-stars-upper-body-and-return

Great post. Soccer has more concussions than football. My kids play and I wish they wore soft helmets. They have not started heading the ball yet as that causes neck issues on top.

[bababooey]

Great post, bab. I agree. I coach soccer (played in college, with baseball), and I grew up in the 80s

Lacrosse is easily the fastest growing sport . I do ended if it's lack of a big professional level hinders it at all. Then again, it may be coming down the road soon.

 

 

Great post. Soccer has more concussions than football. My kids play and I wish they wore soft helmets. They have not started heading the ball yet as that causes neck issues on top.

 

I had no idea about soccer being big for concussions but it makes sense, you have more chances of getting hit there than being beaned by a baseball or getting slammed on your head wrestling.

 

Check out the front page of Grantland.com right now about high school football deaths.

 

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-death-of-evan-murray/

 

According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, which is housed at the University of North Carolina, 13 high school American football players died from injuries between 2012 and 2014. This is a plain and simple statistic. Alone among our sports spectacles, American football kills our children. I was at none of these games but, as Toby Ziegler once said to Jed Bartlet on The West Wing, I will bet all the money in my pocket against all the money in your pocket that the people in the stands cheered the “big hits” that killed all three of these children. This is something that should give anyone pause but is not likely to do so. Not now. Not in the American fall, when American football is played, and when the cheers echo from sea to shining sea.

[ViriLudant]

Heading the ball properly does not cause neck problems in soccer. Same with heading the ball.

Collisions in soccer is what causes concussions.

[amfootball]

Heading the ball properly does not cause neck problems in soccer. Same with heading the ball.

Collisions in soccer is what causes concussions.

 

Lots of studies on neck subluxations from soccer heading. Even when done properly it puts tremendous stress on the neck especially when players whip their heads to get more power on the header.

 

You are right about the concussions. They are from the collisions. Why don't soccer players wear helmets?

[NFLfan]

The most insane thing about this is we are just learning more about CTE in former players that are up there in age. We have two entire generations of players who's concussion symptons/brain damage are currently undiscovered. It is far too late for these generations but the findings are going to get worse, and the damage, sadly, is already done.

Would never want my kids to play football except maybe high school and even then the equipment needs to be better. I also agree the game may not be the same in 15-20 years. High profile people like Mark Cuban and Howard Stern think the same thing. I think Lacrosse and Soccer are going to be the most popular with kids going forward. Soccer is insane popular we just don't give it enough credit but kids who grew up late 80s/early 90s were the first real generation to play every weekend. Fifa is the most popular video game and now that generation is starting to have children of their own to play soccer on the weekends.

I have done a lot of work with those with cognitive impairments. I have attended many dementia symposia. There is a growing number of soccer players who have been found to develop degenerative neurological problems because of heading. Many have also been diagnosed with ALS.

The case of Patrick Grange was presented at one conference I attended. After his death, he was found to have signs of CTE.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/soccer-player-diagnosed-cte-brings-sports-risks/story?id=22697477

Quote:

Dr. Michael Lipton, the associate director of the Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University, has been studying the effects of heading the ball on soccer players for years.

“The lion's share of heading seems to come from practice. They head the ball again and again and again,” Lipton told ABC News. “From speaking to players, they will tell you they can become symptomatic during those drills ...[with] concussion symptoms related to competitive heading.”

Lipton said he’s talked to players who have experienced nausea, confusion and hearing loss during a drill.

“The thing that is unique about soccer is people are doing this again and again and again,” Lipton said of players practicing heading.

A published study of amateur adult soccer players found the more players headed the ball over a year, the likelier they were to exhibit signs of brain damage and inflammation on an MRI and have less cognitive function, Lipton said.

Another worrying sign in Grange’s case is the fact that he was diagnosed with ALS at just 27. "

[Gabriel Alexander Morillo]

Lots of studies on neck subluxations from soccer heading. Even when done properly it puts tremendous stress on the neck especially when players whip their heads to get more power on the header.

You are right about the concussions. They are from the collisions. Why don't soccer players wear helmets?

Why don't nfl players stop hitting each other? Why don't they just use flags?

[BloodyChamp]

Idk about that article. It says some of the infected brains played only highschool football.

[Synthetic]

The most insane thing about this is we are just learning more about CTE in former players that are up there in age. We have two entire generations of players who's concussion symptons/brain damage are currently undiscovered. It is far too late for these generations but the findings are going to get worse, and the damage, sadly, is already done.

 

Would never want my kids to play football except maybe high school and even then the equipment needs to be better. I also agree the game may not be the same in 15-20 years. High profile people like Mark Cuban and Howard Stern think the same thing. I think Lacrosse and Soccer are going to be the most popular with kids going forward. Soccer is insane popular we just don't give it enough credit but kids who grew up late 80s/early 90s were the first real generation to play every weekend. Fifa is the most popular video game and now that generation is starting to have children of their own to play soccer on the weekends.

 

 

 

 

 

I will never have kids and I would never want them to play football either. Even on a high school level, we see insane injuries and levels of concussions. 

 

 

Evidence back in the summer came out that Reggie White may have also suffered from concussions before his death, and we know very well Junior Seau was a victim to them. 

 

 

I believe in the near the future that the younger generation will begin turning down football due to the risks of health hazards. 

 

 

Soccer is a great sport. I actually wish we could call it by 'Football' here in America, since to most of the world Soccer is real football. The American variation of football is really based off of Rugby (a sport I'd love to learn about injuries in regarding the way it's played), and it's rather strange it's always been called football when there is only two players on the team allowed to kick the ball around. 

[ColtJax]

Most are caused by the back of the head hitting the ground or hits to the jaw area. The biggest issue is, what do you do when a player has several but refuses to retire? If they pass the tests that are given, at what point is it his responsibility to look into his own future? We don't seem to care about the player with repeated knee injuries.

Issue is not only the sport, but money. Many of these kids come from nothing and have little future off the field. The vet miminum is roughly 850K, where are they going to get 1/10th of that off the field? If they retire and get a starters job at 40K that means that 850K risk is equal to roughly 21 years of the regular job. Even the first year kids, or new guys at 250K. Where are they going to get that off the field.

Sure it's a HUGH price to pay for their money, but most will pay it over and over again. To me the biggest tragidy is the guys that are financially set like Junior Seau, guys that could walk away but don't and pay for it with their lives..

[aaron11]

 

To be honest, I'd like them to do away with helmet-to-helmet contact, period.

this needs to happen.  defenders wont like it, becasue a running back could still lead with the helmet and that might leave some pretty small target zones for tacklers.  in the long run nobody wins a helmet to helmet hit though

[Defjamz26]

Wow. I wonder if football will even exist in 20 years. What'd I like to see is a bunch of football owners and other interested parties pool some money together and create an experimental football equipment research center where they just constantly researcher new ways to keep players safe.

Whether it's new helmets, more padding, or even changing the turf. Football is worth saving if it can be saved. But the most important thing is to protect these young men who are putting their lives on the line.

[DougDew]

Wow. I wonder if football will even exist in 20 years. What'd I like to see is a bunch of football owners and other interested parties pool some money together and create an experimental football equipment research center where they just constantly researcher new ways to keep players safe.

Whether it's new helmets, more padding, or even changing the turf. Football is worth saving if it can be saved. But the most important thing is to protect these young men who are putting their lives on the line.

IMO, the strategy, execution, circus catches, elusive running backs, and pin point passes are what makes the games interesting to watch. Personally, I could care less about the hard hits. Those are boring.

Not kidding too much, but with flag football you get all the entertaining parts without the machismo hard hits.

[BloodyChamp]

Football is worth saving if it can be saved.

This doesn't get talked about enough even though League of Denial did nail it in that last chapter. Everybody is...I don't want to say scared but...well...everybody seems to have a shameful need to say anything but help people, save people, etc. I'd be broken without football. That doesn't mean I have a lust for football players hurting themselves. I just don't want a world without America's game.

[southwest1]

I knew the dangers of CTE: Memory loss, mood swings, dementia, & suicidal thoughts from violent hits, blackouts, & post concussion trauma VL, but what I was unprepared for was a devastating line like this: 

 

 “I do listen, I just don’t remember.”

 

Divorce rates among football wives is not something that readily comes to the forefront in most CTE discussions. We can envision separations due to infidelity, gambling, illegal drug consumption, or painkiller alleviation methods, but it's shocking to live through a rocky marriage & not be able to articulate to your wife that your foggy forgetfulness is not deliberate. You're not trying to be a colossal jerk or insensitive to the love of your life or your kids. You just can't recall what they just said. You used to make her happy & feel important & now she's furious at you; you don't know why & she's demanding that you sign divorce papers & you can't figure out what went so terribly wrong. 

 

How frustrating must that be as an NFL player to go from bliss to I've lost my kids, my home, & my sweetheart & I can't put into words what the hades happened or how this game changed me not always for the better. You can't articulate why you forget stuff or how this memory void resulted in letting everything you care about slip thru your fingers & disappear forever. Suicide is the easy way out. The real horror is losing everything & not being able to tell even yourself where everything collapsed & went wrong. 

 

Great article VL! A very fascinating read too. Thank you. 

[2006Coltsbestever]

Great insightful stuff Viri. Yeah this is scary stuff. Andrew has taken a lot of hits so far in his career, for all we know he could've been concussed a few times and we don't even know about it. He just looks OK and keeps playing. You can only take so many hits before it catches up to you.

[chad72]

I knew the dangers of CTE: Memory loss, mood swings, dementia, & suicidal thoughts from violent hits, blackouts, & post concussion trauma VL, but what I was unprepared for was a devastating line like this: 

 

 “I do listen, I just don’t remember.”

 

Divorce rates among football wives is not something that readily comes to the forefront in most CTE discussions. We can envision separations due to infidelity, gambling, illegal drug consumption, or painkiller alleviation methods, but it's shocking to live through a rocky marriage & not be able to articulate to your wife that your foggy forgetfulness is not deliberate. You're not trying to be a colossal jerk or insensitive to the love of your life or your kids. You just can't recall what they just said. You used to make her happy & feel important & now she's furious at you; you don't know why & she's demanding that you sign divorce papers & you can't figure out what went so terribly wrong. 

 

How frustrating must that be as an NFL player to go from bliss to I've lost my kids, my home, & my sweetheart & I can't put into words what the hades happened or how this game changed me not always for the better. You can't articulate why you forget stuff or how this memory void resulted in letting everything you care about slip thru your fingers & disappear forever. Suicide is the easy way out. The real horror is losing everything & not being able to tell even yourself where everything collapsed & went wrong. 

 

Great article VL! A very fascinating read too. Thank you. 

 

It was our former Colts TE Ben Utecht, if I remember that had to endure memory losses and started preparing for it. That is a terrible way to live life, IMO.

 

http://www.inquisitr.com/1337264/ben-utecht/

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-nfl-player-ben-utecht-uses-music-career-to-share-memories/

[OffensivelyPC]

I have done a lot of work with those with cognitive impairments. I have attended many dementia symposia. There is a growing number of soccer players who have been found to develop degenerative neurological problems because of heading. Many have also been diagnosed with ALS.

[snipped for brevity]

I would have never guessed that heading the soccer ball would be a culprit of CTE.  If that's true, then there must be some sort of education system in place, starting when kids are getting into Jr. High, and parents should be required to sit in educational programs every year when they sign their kids up for sports.  Because I, like many others, don't see things changing in the sport.  They'll do things to reduce the amount of trauma the head experiences with advancements in helmet technology and whatnot.  I don't really know what you can do about heading soccer balls except remove it, and I don't see that happening either.  I don't know much about soccer, but I would imagine it would just encourage more jump kicks which would lead to more guys getting kicked in the head and face.  

 

But my overall point is, you can't eliminate all harms.  If you alter the sports to the point that it seeks to eliminate lal harms first to the detriment of the sport, it would comparatively be to the detriment of the entertainment value and less people would follow it.  Since you can't prevent it 100%, people just need to be made aware of the consequences of prolonged hits to the head.  I don't want to compare it to smoking, because it's not a great comparison, but one thing that does translate is, when we were younger, and even today, you always see all these educational videos in class, ads on TV, about the dangers of smoking, yet people still do it.  We drive to work every day, calculating that the risk of serious injury or death in a car wreck is low enough to drive.  It doesn't really matter what the risk is, and the likelihood of being diagnosed with CTE (i mean, unless it was such an alarming percentage, that we'd be better off without football, but I don't think that's the case, at least not yet), there are still those people that would say, "Hey, I would still do it for a scholarship," or "Heck yeah I'd play for 30 years straight if it meant I retired from the NFL and made enough to provide for my family the rest of my life without having to worry about money."  

 

CTE is a horrible thing, but to my understanding, its' a diagnosis that isn't attributable to ONLY head trauma (though, it is likely the most decisive factor).  I also believe I read that you can develop CTE in the absence of repetitive head trauma, but perhaps you could confirm that.  People just need to know what they are risking in engaging in a sport.  We do the same with broken bones, yet we still play sports that can cause bodily injury.  As long as people are being educated and full disclosures are made, this risk needs to fall on the participant and not the organization making the sport possible.  That's just my opinion though.

[southwest1]

It was our former Colts TE Ben Utecht, if I remember that had to endure memory losses and started preparing for it. That is a terrible way to live life, IMO.

 

http://www.inquisitr.com/1337264/ben-utecht/

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-nfl-player-ben-utecht-uses-music-career-to-share-memories/

Thank you Chad for your insightful links regarding Ben Utecht. Here is what stopped me in my tracks...

 

"One of the things that scares me the most is to be trapped in a coffin inside my mind," Utecht said. "To be surrounded by people that I know that I love and not know who they are or be able to recognize their role in my life."

 

Wow, just think about that for a second. You know you know  your girls & your lovely wife but you keep drawing a blank on their name. It's 1 thing to experience this lapse occasionally, but it's quite another to go through this memory drought daily. That's the cool thing about music; it has a way of unlocking mysteries from your brain that would otherwise be an abyss. Songs, harmonies, lyrics, hades even just the art of rhyming can trigger memories you never knew you had or thought were long forgotten. 

 

Spectacular video too that darn never made me cry too especially when I learned that Ben's own family starred in it. Quite moving indeed. I like it when something heartwarming & good can emerge from a life changing injury. Thank you for posting it Chad. Bravo! I also like articles that deal with confronting the emotional scars left behind. Not that a person's death is ever easy to handle, but sometimes the ongoing struggles associated with CTE can take an even greater toll on loved ones who wrestle with the aftermaths of this disease 24/7. 

[oldunclemark]

The numbers are skewed...

They seemd to have taken players who thought they had issues..not the NFL as a whole..

Either way...nothing much can be done about concussions beyond what has already been done

[BPindy]

Lots of studies on neck subluxations from soccer heading. Even when done properly it puts tremendous stress on the neck especially when players whip their heads to get more power on the header.

You are right about the concussions. They are from the collisions. Why don't soccer players wear helmets?

More players are starting to use headgear. Half of my club team wore it when I played

[ViriLudant]

More players are starting to use headgear. Half of my club team wore it when I played

Soccer headgear hasn't been proven to reduce anything.

[BPindy]

Soccer headgear hasn't been proven to reduce anything.

No they haven't, you're right. However greater emphasis has been placed on them and has spurned a search for better equipment, much like football. Soccer used to (and still is by quite a few people) be referred to as a "whimp" sport and no one really paid attention to all the contact

[csmopar]

Thanks for sharing. All I have to say is that I have already seen about 6 players absorb helmet to helmet this year with no call being made.

Should the NFL go to college rules where the referee can call 'targeting' and kick a player out of the game? I believe it may be time for this.

Right....so the refs can miss the call.even when the QB is layingotionless on his back after a helmet to helmet hit like Gunner Kiel suffered last week in Cincinnati. NcAA totally blew that call.. the defense was even celebrating as kiel laid there not moving. He was taken to hospital via ambulance.

[amfootball]

More players are starting to use headgear. Half of my club team wore it when I played

Thanks for sharing that. That is great to hear. I really want to see them add the protection for the head. My kids just play town travel but I am nervous about the clubs for their safety.

[ViriLudant]

Thanks for sharing that. That is great to hear. I really want to see them add the protection for the head. My kids just play town travel but I am nervous about the clubs for their safety.

Again, soccer head gear doesn't prevent concussions . It's inly a placebo .

[amfootball]

Again, soccer head gear doesn't prevent concussions . It's inly a placebo .

Nothing truly prevents concussions but I think any type of head protection is a good thing and hopefully they continue to make improvements on what will work to lessen the trauma to the head.