The 'Concussion' Scientist Has A Radical Proposition For Football

[fleur-de-lisa]

Treat it like we treat alcohol, voting, cigarettes and sex.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bennet-omalu-football_5665d244e4b072e9d1c6e10b

In an op-ed for The New York Times published Monday, a forensic pathologist by the name of Bennet Omalu argued for a unique approach to football’s concussion crisis: Require children to reach the legal age of consent before they can play the sport.
“We have a legal age for drinking alcohol; for joining the military; for voting; for smoking; for driving; and for consenting to have sex,” he wrote. “We must have the same when it comes to protecting the organ that defines who we are as human beings.”

You might not know Omalu’s name off the bat, but if you’ve turned on the TV in the last month, you likely know some version of his story. Omalu is the basis of Will Smith’s character in the upcoming film “Concussion,” which depicts Omalu's fight to prove that NFL players develop the brain disease Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) as a direct result of football -- a link the league famously tried to discredit.

Because CTE can only be detected in the dead, it is difficult to say exactly how dangerous it is to play football at a young age compared to later in life. But there are a growing number of signs that it may be not worth the risk. Two studies this year have provided evidence that NFL players who played tackle football before age 12 had an increased risk of cognitive issues later in life, compared to peers who started later. A study recently published by the Mayo Clinic found evidence of CTE in amateur athletes across a variety of sports, football included.

[randys1]

1. Makes perfect sense, Texas would be bummed, though.

[KamaAina]

7. As would college football fans everywhere

who would find themselves watching a bunch of n00bs with only sandlot experience.

[B2G]

2. And don't let them get on bikes or scooters or sleds

or skates or anything else that might injure them. Just cover them with bubble wrap and lock them in their rooms.

And we wonder why we have an epidemic of obese kids and college students who need safe spaces. God.

[TexasProgresive]

3. When I was young we didn't play football

We played all kinds of running games and baseball. Nobody was fat let alone morbidly obese. It was really rare to see a fat kid.

[B2G]

5. Same here.

My point is that a huge number of activities that children engage in are equally risky, if not more so, for concussions. That doesn't mean we ban them until they turn 21 unless you want to suck the joy right out of childhood.

Take me hitting a tree head on sledding down a hill when I was 8, for example. Concussed myself quite nicely, but no one suggested I didn't sled any more. Cracked the crap out of my head ice skating one year. Crashed my bike multiple times.

Living life comes with risks.

[TexasProgresive]

6. I don't see kids playing at all

It seems they must all be inside playing games. The last time I saw children at play (without adults organizing the fun out of it) was in Ireland in 1994. The Irish kids weren't fat either.

The kids around here who engage in physical activity are all in organized sports. It's all about winning and not about fun.

[Kber]

22. Depends where you are, I guess.

I'm in suburban NJ and we have tons of kids riding bikes, playing sandlot baseball, street basketball, sledding in season, two hand touch football in the local park.

When I visit my aunt in urban Newark, lots of street ball and similar on her street.

But I'm not a member of the "back in my day" club.

[randys1]

9. sigh

[choie]

19. are you really comparing

most of the activities that children play with the hard hitting pounding that takes place in football? That's ridiculous! The brain doesn't fully develop until one is about 24 years old. Their brains are fragile - cut out the macho crap.

[XemaSab]

28. Hitting a tree while sledding is an accident

Smacking your head into someone is intentional.

[morningfog]

4. None of those involve a regular, expected, anticipated and necessary

action to participate that has been proven to cause brain damage.

It is not a question of if it might injure them. It has been proven that it will, when played as expected.

[zipplewrath]

10. Not exactly

Football, unlike almost any other sport than boxing, involves the regular and repeated impacting of the head with the ground and other people. Actually, the one other sport that is starting to get some notice is soccer because of the popularity of the "header" and the tendency to practice this technique. Hockey doesn't even get to anywhere near the kind of repeated impacts we are seeing in football. Furthermore, as is currently being implimented in all sports in highschool, once one has a concussion, further impacts must be eliminated for a period of weeks. Even "getting your bell rung" means no impacts for at least a couple of weeks.

So it's not about wrapping them in bubble wrap, it is about recognizing that a sport with the primary feature of repeated head impacts (even as part of practice) is not sustainable, at least at the teenage level. And furthermore even in sports where head impacts are not regular features, once one is experienced, a healing time of weeks must be recognized and enforced.

[Arugula Latte]

17. Soccer is brutal in terms of concussions.

I know several kids (mostly girls) who got severe, and often repeated, concussions from the game. It's not necessarily from the headers, either -- often it's one player's head striking another head or body part (elbow, etc.).

[zipplewrath]

26. Yes, but...

Yes, it has a real issue with head strikes. And that is a concern. Alot of what is being learned however is that the small "normal" head strikes of football and "headers" have their cumulative issues as well. That, mixed with even a few (very few) true concussions can generate permanent damage.

[Arugula Latte]

27. Definitely!

Our oldest kid was always tall and big and got recruited for football from a young age. We always said no, not just because of the head injury risk, but also because of the risk to the spine, knees, you name it. Turns out he got lots of head blows from other things -- basketball, baseball, goofing around with friends, etc. -- but I'm glad that we didn't have to add football injuries to the mix.

[KittyWampus]

13. Screw seatbelts. When I was a kid people died even MORE often in car accidents.

Last edited Mon Dec 7, 2015, 08:22 PM - Edit history (1)

Ah, the good old days.

How can you not get there's a huge difference between biking and playing tackle football?

And that's there's a large number of other sports and activities for physical exercise?

[hedgehog]

20. You do understand that concussion can be an unavoidible part

or practicing and playing football? Kids can play safely on bikes and scooters, and they wear helmets for those activities. No one has come up with a helmet to protect the brain from smashing around inside the skull.

[rockfordfile]

25. that's not the same thing

that's not the same thing as what's being talked about.

[aikoaiko]

8. I've wondered if they see the same brain damage in rugby players

And if not perhaps we need to eliminate protective gear.

[pnwmom]

11. And soccer players.

[aikoaiko]

14. I did read some articles about concussions due to heading

Some youth leagues are banning heading

[pnwmom]

16. Good. I nudged my kids toward other sports when they got old enough

to be taught heading.

No sport is injury free, but the odds seemed better with basketball and cross country.

[Arugula Latte]

18. My kid got a couple of concussions from basketball.

One time it was a super tall kid's elbow to his head. Ouch.



Soccer is bad, too, when it comes to concussions. I posted upthread that it's not necessarily from the headers -- it's often from unintentional collisions of a head and a body part of another player, such as a head or elbow.

[Kber]

23. My daughter got a concussion in music class

No really. She was leaning forward to whisper something in her friends ear and they bumped heads. Threw up and everything.

However, I do think we can do more to reduce the micro shocks in football and to address and prevent more head injuries. My son plays college ball (D3) and yes I worry. There are too many "old school" coaches (and players and even parents) who see getting your bell rung as a mark of macho pride.

[Arugula Latte]

30. I get it -- my kid got some weird head blows/concussions.

Some from sports but some from random stuff you could not have predicted.

[951-Riverside]

12. One word...

Robots.

[Android3.14]

15. And no climbing trees

The horror.

[maxsolomon]

21. is smashing into the tree with your head a feature of climbing one?

there really is only one way to end CTE for American football players: ban the sport. football football, too.

and I really enjoy watching both games.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

24. well crap

I did play tackle football from 9-14 and did get my bell rung at least once. You know how in cartoons when someone gets hit in the head or knocked out, they see stars? I know where that comes from, cause I saw the same thing!

[LittleBlue]

29. Not sure how it works in Nigeria, but that's illegal here

You can't legally ban a group of people from assembling and competing in a sport.