To protect players, NFL needs 'culture change,' doctors say

[Ed Barrow]

Source: Baltimore Sun

The NFL needs a "culture change" -- and perhaps major modifications to helmets, injury-reporting procedures and practice rules -- to better protect players from head injuries, two prominent neurosurgeons said Wednesday.

"We're at that tipping point where there is probably going to have to be an enormous culture change that occurs that will happen over years," Richard G. Ellenbogen, co-chairman of the NFL's Medical Committee on Head, Neck and Spine, told reporters after a one-day, league-financed educational conference.

"The youth athletes are looking to the professionals as role models, and the professionals now realize if they don't do it right, the kids aren't going to do it right," said Ellenbogen, a University of Washington professor.

Ellenbogen and Batjer were named co-chairs of the committee in March. The previous chairmen resigned in November after one was criticized by members of Congress for questioning research into a linkage between repeated NFL hits and long-term brain damage.




Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/bs-sp-nfl-concussions-0603-20100602,0,5603853.story

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. There was an article about this in The New Yorker a few months ago.

And the basic question was, with all the repetitive trauma injuries and premature deaths of pro football players, should this sport be outlawed as too violent for a civilized society? Is it the equivalent of cockfighting in brutality?

The article pointed out that neurologists had studied the brains of former pro football players and found very particular kinds of damage consistent with many blunt force multiple-G traumas.

I think the fact that the participants are consenting adults has nothing to do with the brutality. It's still brutality.

[Tumbulu]

2. I read that article too

and was left so sad....I have always felt that football was far too violent.

A retired very famous professional football player worked for my parents from the 60's though the 80's and he was in moderate to severe physical pain at all times. My mother used to say that they should bring him to every high school and have him talk to the kids. These were joint issues, before the days of astroturf over concrete.... when it apparently became worse.

[melm00se]

5. "too violent"

what's the next sport that will fall? rugby? hockey? lacrosse? just about any kind of contact sport carries a certain amount of risk to the participant...as long as the participant goes in with a full understanding of their risks then that's up to them.

[caraher]

6. Good question

The data should be collected on those other sports; but you really need to read the New Yorker piece to understand what the real issue is - it's not the occasional severe injury, it's the fact that the game played normally does severe long-term damage to the brain. The level of repetitious, low-level brain trauma is likely much higher for football than any of the sports you mention. Ironically, the sport that might be the most similar in terms of this risk might be soccer, thanks to the header!

The other thing you'll find is that the "full understanding of their risks" simply isn't in place for this particular risk of football. Everybody understands the risk of acute injuries in any contact sport (even if not quantitatively), but if you read the New Yorker piece you'll see that isn't the risk we perhaps need to worry about most for football players.

[boppers]

3. Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Yes, a cultural change needs to happen: This mockery of a "sport" needs to be eliminated.

[truthisfreedom]

4. They're going to end up looking like Gazoo. Try to make that look cool to the kids.

Good luck. There's a Neanderthal aspect to boxing, too, but I cannot look away... I've always been fascinated by the sport.