New Yorker: Does Football Have a Future?

Seems like Schwarz should start investigating soccer concussions also. Perhaps promote the use of head gear:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/grant_wahl/10/27/soccer.concussions/index.html

"Football may be attracting the most attention for head injuries in sports these days, but fútbol has also suffered a rash of concussions that have derailed the careers of prominent U.S. players. According to Dr. Robert Cantu, a concussions expert at the Boston University School of Medicine, soccer provides the third-highest number of his patients among professional athletes, behind only football and ice hockey. But unlike those sports, soccer has two big differences: Its players don't wear helmets, and the pro and international games allow only three substitutions per match with no chance to return, putting pressure on teams to make hasty decisions to keep injured players on the field.

"The problem in Taylor's case and in general is how concussions are managed," says Cantu, who has treated Twellman in Boston. "It's essential that these athletes not be allowed to physically and cognitively exert while they're still symptomatic and recovering from a concussion. The athletes themselves must take responsibility if they're symptomatic. They can't safely work out or play, and if they try to do that they'll aggravate their condition almost certainly, and that could decide whether they ever come back in the future."

 

A full 10% of the girls on my daughter's high school teams (frosh/soph, jv and varsity) had season-ending knee/leg injuries. 5 on crutches with various braces/casts out of roughly 50 girls.

And this was at the kick off dinner - the end of club season and before the first high school game.

When are they going to think about abolishing girl's soccer?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/magazine/11Girls-t.html

 

Looks like Alan's great reporting has helped inspire people to consider concussion issues in other sports, too.

 

knee injuries = head injuries

 

Er, the concussion issue in soccer has been known for at least a decade, if not more. I believe there was a big study released in the early 2000s that covered several years of UNC women's soccer concussions.

Attributing awareness to Schawrz's reporting in this case is such a reach you'll sprain something.

 

Er, I was messing with Boom but, in fact, nearly sports leagues are reexamining their responses to concussions in the wake scientific research and analysis over the past several years. And Alan has been the reporter at the forefront on the issue.

 

Much like Poindexter being out front on -- shall we say teacher / student bonding.

 

Hockey, like football, is examining how to drastically reduce the number of concussions by eliminating headshots from the game. The Ontario Hockey League and the National Lacrosse league have banned them outright (no grey area in either case) and it has not changed the physicality of either sport one iota.

The CBC's "Fifth Estate" (one of their doc programs) did a story on concussions in the CFL back in 2008. If you have the time, it's worth watching. The host, Bob McKeown played for the Ottawa Roughriders in the CFL

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/content/2008/11/head-games.html

 

Well, probably not the analogy I'd have made but, sure, that's close enough.

 

Esquire on the NFLPA's "The Dangers of the Game" report which will be released soon.

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature/nfl-lockout-2011

 

People seem to forget that the vast majority of the guys we're seeing with traumatic post-football injuries & ailments are former NFL players. College ball doesn't break down the body like the NFL does.

Fewer games, shorter seasons, bigger rosters mean you don't take as much of a physical pounding as you do in the NFL. Couple that with a training staff that is - in the vast majority of cases - more concerned with keeping players healthy than getting them back on the field quickly and college ball is light years safer than pro ball.