CTE Diagnosed in 99% of former NFL players

[ConnHuskBask]

Maybe it's just not talked about, but it seems like there haven't been any major developments in helmet technology that could limit the damage. Anybody (in the NFL at least) recovering from a concussion or has a history of concussions wears that special helmet that looks bigger than the rest... why isn't that the norm if it better protects the head? Seems like a logical place to start.

I'm just an idiot posting on a message board but I've always been curious why the outer shell is that hard plastic. I would think that if you kept everything the same but then added an inch of some sort of foam it would help soften the impact.

 

[Chuck]

Well it looks like smart NFL players are starting to walk away. I mean that they are intelligent and educated individuals that probably have other options in life, not that the only smart move is to retire.
Ravens' Urschel retires 2 days after CTE study

 

[Rufus]

If scientists can invent a better football helmet, this might no longer be a problem in the future. They just have to figure out the science to do this.

 

[sammydabiz]

I sincerely hope I'll be old and gray and about to pass before the NFL ceases to exist.... Just can't do the NBA and let's be honest a root canal is more exciting than soccer

I just find it funny how many young men & women put their lives on the line for a chance at a better life through the military (true some do it for patriotic reasons) and get paid a minute fraction of what a nfl player will earn. But somehow it's slowly becoming "taboo" to play football.

As long as football produces the highest tv ratings against pretty much anything, the green will flow, and football will remain King (as it should be)

 

[Irishfan]

I'm just an idiot posting on a message board but I've always been curious why the outer shell is that hard plastic. I would think that if you kept everything the same but then added an inch of some sort of foam it would help soften the impact.

This used to be discussed a lot. The thought was that a softer helmet would tend to stick onto the other helmet. This would tend to result in more significant neck injuries. A hard outer shell would bounce or slide off the other helmet, and be less dangerous. I guess the idea was that carting some guy off the field with a concussion was better than carting them off with a broken neck.

Joe Paterno had an interesting thought. He said removing the face masks would significantly reduce head first tackles. You'd see a lot more use of the shoulder pads in tackling. More broken noses, fewer concussions.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

This used to be discussed a lot. The thought was that a softer helmet would tend to stick onto the other helmet. This would tend to result in more significant neck injuries. A hard outer shell would bounce or slide off the other helmet, and be less dangerous. I guess the idea was that carting some guy off the field with a concussion was better than carting them off with a broken neck.

Joe Paterno had an interesting thought. He said removing the face masks would significantly reduce head first tackles. You'd see a lot more use of the shoulder pads in tackling. More broken noses, fewer concussions.

Meaning like in a glancing blow to the helmet, the plastic outer shell won't have as much friction in helmet to helmet contact, where as the soft shell could drag slightly causing neck injury?

 

[Irishfan]

Meaning like in a glancing blow to the helmet, the plastic outer shell won't have as much friction in helmet to helmet contact, where as the soft shell could drag slightly causing neck injury?

Yup

 

[billybud]

FSU has introduced soft helmet covers for practice...to reduce head traumas...wore them in the spring game.

FSU to use protective helmet shells during spring practice

 

[Waquoit]

Joe Paterno had an interesting thought. He said removing the face masks would significantly reduce head first tackles.

Joe Paterno was good with young boys getting raped. Who cares what he said?

 

[ConnHuskBask]

FSU has introduced soft helmet covers for practice...to reduce head traumas...wore them in the spring game.

FSU to use protective helmet shells during spring practice

That's pretty cool and the same idea I had mentioned above about extra padding.

With all the tech out there today, I just have to imagine there is a safer way to guard against head injuries than hard shelled plastic helmets smashing up against each other.

 

[buckley503]

That's pretty cool and the same idea I had mentioned above about extra padding.

With all the tech out there today, I just have to imagine there is a safer way to guard against head injuries than hard shelled plastic helmets smashing up against each other.

If you get a chance, watch the Mythbusters episode on concussions where they simulate the brain (in the former of a "jello" mold) in various sport collisions.

Basically, since the brain is suspended, it doesn't matter what protective layers are around the head, the brain still slams into the skull at the same force resulting in concussive damage. Pretty interesting and scary.

 

[metsfan2323]

That's pretty cool and the same idea I had mentioned above about extra padding.

With all the tech out there today, I just have to imagine there is a safer way to guard against head injuries than hard shelled plastic helmets smashing up against each other.

Yup, softshell seems like a great improvement, they could even go to shells that break during a hard hit the way cars are designed to collapse to absorb energy.

 

[traitor71]

There is a lot of ongoing research into making better helmets. One thing is for sure, with the amount of money at stake, the NFL is going to be all in on this stuff moving forward. I google searched "new football helmet" and found this company that seems to specialize in this area. If enough smart people are working on this, maybe the next big study years down the line will show some better results.

 

[Waquoit]

Basically, since the brain is suspended, it doesn't matter what protective layers are around the head, the brain still slams into the skull at the same force resulting in concussive damage. Pretty interesting and scary.

That's the bottom line. They need to find a way to pad the inside of your skull.

 

[CL82]

Yes, if you play football in the fall and, say, travel baseball in the summer (instead of 7 on 7 football) then your risk of sustaining repeated hits to the head goes down.

Basketball has it's share of concussions. Over the years I've seen plenty of girls wearing the concussion head gear and know of a few who left the sport due to repeated concussions. (Not sure if the same is happening on the boy's side but gets ignore by the kid due to cultural bias.) Likewise I lost a decent soccer player to a concussion based withdrawal from the sport. I suspect the key is to preventing this is new guidelines that take you out for a longer period upon the happening of the first concussion. Kids seem prone to getting a 2nd and 3rd due to coming back too soon.

I'm not worried much about Pee Wee because you don't see the same sudden deceleration that is typical as you get older.

 

[Waquoit]

One thing is for sure, with the amount of money at stake, the NFL is going to be all in on this stuff moving forward.

Yeah, right. Report: NFL To Walk Away From Deal To Fund Concussion Research With $16 Million Unpaid
The NFL is no different than cigarette companies.

 

[traitor71]

Yeah, right. Report: NFL To Walk Away From Deal To Fund Concussion Research With $16 Million Unpaid
The NFL is no different than cigarette companies.

They may pull out of this study for whatever reason, but they can't ignore what is going on. These people aren't stupid and they aren't going to let their product die. It's why you are seeing rule changes, helmet research, practice restrictions, etc. Let's see what else happens from here as they move forward.

 

[Adios]

What the NFL is going to do is increase salaries. How many players have retired as a direct result of this news release so far?

 

[Chuck]

Still an isolated situation, but here's a story about a relatively large regional school in central New Jersey that can't field a team. There are two high schools in their district and they wanted to have one combined team, but NJ won't allow them to. I have a good friend in the town. It's not one of the NJ football factory towns, and there are a lot of factors that are going in to the lack of football interest, but CTE is cited by families. Some numbers are provided.

Short on players, can desperate high school football team save its season?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Basketball has it's share of concussions. Over the years I've seen plenty of girls wearing the concussion head gear and know of a few who left the sport due to repeated concussions. (Not sure if the same is happening on the boy's side but gets ignore by the kid due to cultural bias.) Likewise I lost a decent soccer player to a concussion based withdrawal from the sport. I suspect the key is to preventing this is new guidelines that take you out for a longer period upon the happening of the first concussion. Kids seem prone to getting a 2nd and 3rd due to coming back too soon.

I'm not worried much about Pee Wee because you don't see the same sudden deceleration that is typical as you get older.

The concussion issue in basketball could get addressed through rule changes, or more precisely, enforcing the rules as written rather than rewarding flops. It wouldn't get rid of all concussions, but I bet it would cut them by 50%.

 

[CL82]

The concussion issue in basketball could get addressed through rule changes, or more precisely, enforcing the rules as written rather than rewarding flops. It wouldn't get rid of all concussions, but I bet it would cut them by 50%.

I've seen it more on 50/50 balls and rebounding. For the most part they were the consquence a lot of good basketball plays.

 

[Bonehead]

I do think this will be a boon for lacrosse.

High Concussion Rate in Boys' Lacrosse Blamed On Intentional Head-to-Head Contact With Defenseless Players | MomsTeam

Lacrosse may be the fastest-growing high school boy's sport in the United States, but only football and ice hockey have higher concussion rates.[1,2] A new study [3] pinpoints a possible culprit: widespread and intentional use of helmets during player-to-player contact, often to defenseless players, and usually without a penalty being called.

Researchers at the Medstar Sports Medicine Research Center in Baltimore videotaped 518 boys' lacrosse games at 25 public high schools in Fairfax County, Virginia during the 2008 and 2009 seasons. A total of 86 concussions were identified and treated by athletic trainers.

Analyzing the 34 concussions in which video captured the injury mechanism, they found that:

• every one resulted from player-to-player contact, not stick or ball contact;
• In over three-quarters of the incidents resulting in concussion, the striking player used his head to initiate impact;
• The injured player's head was the initial point of contact in six out of ten of such collisions;
• The most frequent location of initial impact, involved in six out of ten incidents, was the side of the helmet;
• In 19 out of 34 (56%) collisions, the struck player did not appear to anticipate contact and was deemed "defenseless" (defined by US Lacrosse, the National Football League, and National Hockey League rules as a struck player who was "blind-sided" or unable to see and therefore anticipate and prepare his or her body for an impending collision). [Note: in order to standardize the evaluation of player preparedness for bodily collisions in lacrosse, researchers developed a 10-item Lacrosse Collision Readiness Index (LCRI));
• Penalties were called in only 9 out of the 34 cases (26.5%];
• In 23 (68%) cases, a subsequent impact occurred immediately after the initial player-to-player contact and may have contributed to those concussive events;
• The most frequently injured player positions were midfield (53%) and defense (27%);
• 24 occurred in the attacking zone, and 10 (30%) occurred in the midfield zone;
• In the 5 seconds of game play preceding each of the 34 concussions, players were most frequently on the offensive before the injury (44%) and that most did not have possession of the ball at the moment of injury (59%); and
• At the moment of collision, players were most frequently attempting to pick up a loose ball (47%) or handling a ball (41%)(e.g. running with ball possession) at the time of injury.

Read more: http://www.momsteam.com/health-safety/high-concussion-rate-in-boys-lacrosse-blamed-on-intentional-head-head-contact-and-lax-rules-enforcement#ixzz4oW3z40KD

 

[pepband99]

And 87% of football players from any level.

Study: CTE diagnosed in 99% of former NFL players, 87% of ex-players at all levels

There better be a strong rebuttal, and quickly, or this is the death knell of football as a mainstream sport.

Football drives the train? Not anymore.

"OOO, look at me, i want to be on the forefront of dropping football (again)."

Horribly written clickbait article. This is the equivalent of saying: "99% of people pulled over for suspected DWI, and who refused breath testing, tested positive for alcohol" No kidding.

 

[Nostical]

That Vicis helmet looks promising.

 

[huskymedic]

Veering off OP but relative to the discussion that followed: