Sports Med: Technique, Fundementals lost art in the NFL

In light of the barrage of NFL fines, talk of subsequent suspensions, player/personnel decisions and injuries the NFL has decided to take a hard stance on the nature and delivery of hits in the league. While the controversy continues to draw hard lines between fans, coaches, players and analysts across the country its the medical community that should undoubtedly have the final say when educating others on the effects of helmet to helmet injuries. To say that the NFL represents a whole new brand of football is an understatement, as the last 10 years have seen a dramatic increase in the incident and severity of injury due to blatant and miscalculated hits. To the point that the ones delivering the blow are at just as much risk as those receiving the shot. To find a wide receiver willing to go over the middle this day in age, with pure hitters like Ray Lewis, Patrick Willis and Troy Polamalu lurking in the intermediate and deep secondary, it no longer an issue of how many times, but how much money is it going to take to convince a twenty something year old that its a good idea. With a trend away from the foundational techniques and fundamentals from the NFL and college game, the number of concussions and injuries have sky rocketed. The so called originators, for example Roy Williams, and their reincarnated generation of NFL rookies like Taylor Mays, will be forced to learn a new breed of football having had that no arms, projectile approach to tackling acting as their staple during their collegiate and professional careers. The movement to the old way of doing things: form up, head square, shoot the hips, wrap up and follow through feet churning is without a doubt what the NFL is asking its players to adopt. A concept taught from the earliest days of Pop Warner as a means of protection children from the dangers of head, neck and shoulder injuries, form tackling is almost a lost art outside the box in most NFL games. With the size, speed and skill of NFL running backs improving yearly with players like AD: All-Day Adrian Peterson, Marion Barber and rookie Ryan Mathews, Defensive Backs in particular have found going for the knees a great alternative to getting trampled by on coming tailbacks. The emphasis on lower leg and knee contact is the sole reason why the incident and number of ACL/MCL injuries have sky rocketed amongst the leagues top runners (i.e. Reggie Bush, Ryan Grant). Lets face it, you no longer win a Fantasy Football season by drafting the best ball carriers or wide receivers, because we all know that the odds of them making to week 6 or 7 in one piece is a joke. Its now better to go two or in some cases three deep with the boys in the backfield because they will drop like flies throughout the brutal 16 game schedule. With an increased emphasis on stacked backfields and personnel, the principle behind trading, waiving and putting players on injured reserve has become more of a weekly occurrence than at any other time that I can recall in my nearly 20 years of watching football. Sure guys get banged up, its a violent game made for the biggest, baddest, most physical specimen on the planet, but ones physiology and anatomical features like tendons, ligaments and muscles can only put up with so much wear and tear before they break, tear, shear or just plain give out. With NFL career lengths dropping significantly, its easy to see why their is such an emphasis on players expectations and wanting to get paid before they take a snap. Let them make their money before their bodies are so worthless or have taken so much abuse that they aren't worth it to anybody else, in which case you get cut or have to look to early retirement as a means of not killing yourself after taking hundreds, or in most cases thousands of life threatening hits. How else are you supposed to afford treatment, medical bills, prescriptions and therapy if you had to retire early because of injury during a less than stellar career where you were underpaid, spent you money poorly, and didn't finish college because everyone and their mom was telling you to leave school and go pro. Its this back to basics approach that should teach players, if anything, about the importance of finishing school and obtaining their degree before making the jump. In that case (situation), you at least have a viable career waiting for you and can support yourself outside of your first pro contract, because we all know that money tends to dry up real quick for rookies (i.e. Dez Bryant's $54,000 team dinner tab). Players like Florida State Safety Myron Rolle represent the pinnacle of the so called student-athlete and he will forever benefit from his experiences both within football, and more importantly the classroom. Having been drafted late and then released due to scouts, GMs and owners understanding that he may not be fully committed to the game of football, I for one was glad to see him go and use his mind to further the life of himself and those around him. The mind is a precious resource, a tool used to calculate equations, figure out complex formulas, and coordinate your daily functions, not something you wrap in a thin layer of plastic and metal only to be throw around a field with reckless abandonment in the pursuit of landing that one awe inspiring shot. Regardless if the guy was talking trash, busy burning you on every play or simply looked at you the wrong way, this increased emphasis on helmet to helmet contact will be responsible for the death of an NFL player in the future, period. I for one do not want to be watching a game on Sunday and see that happen. What a terrible thing to see and what a waste of a perfectly good life that would be. In light of the paralysis of Rutgers DT Eric LeGrand last week, another perfectly healthy players life was FOREVER changed due to the nature of a game that has gone too far. While this is not the first time this has happened, nor will it be the last, take it as a wake up call to the dangers of playing the great game of football in todays environment. In my eyes the NFL's release of a video detailing illegal hits, which included last weekends helmet to helmet hit on the Eagles WR DeSean Jackson should serve as a means of ending this stream of violent play. While I encourage players, including my own to play aggressive and with a chip on their shoulder, there is a fine line between aggressive, reckless and/or violent. Today on Twitter Reggie Bush said it best when he states that, "Worst case scenario you get hit up top = concussion. Worst case scenario you get hit down low = knee surgery or possible end of career." With players not knowing what to expect week in and week out on both sides of the ball, players, coaches and the league must adopt a protocol of legal, back to basic tackling fundamentals before changes are going to be made in the NFL regardless of player fines, improvements in equipment and treatment initiatives restricting players returning to the field. Ultimately it is in the medical communities hands to educate others on the long term and life altering affects of these hits, only then will younger players fully understand the impact and consequences of their thoughtless actions on the field of play. *For footage of the DeSean Jackson hit, simply click on the title of this article

Football Friday: Head Injuries in Practice - How Exercise Science and Sports Co-exist

With research on head injuries being the topic of conversation this week in football I was able to track down, with the help of my roommate, a supplemental article on the relationship and occurrence of practice induced head injuries and how Exercise Science is being applied to learn about the severity, biomechanics and physiology of prolonged play in contact sports. Utilizing data collection and assessment techniques through the Head Impact Telemetry System, in which accelerometers inside players’ helmets measure the linear and rotational forces acting on the skull, researchers at three major Division I universities have begun testing the reaction forces to such aggressive contact and the consequences of such frequent exposure to these situations. The article also suggests recommendations for the establishment of sport and practice specific guidelines condescend to training and drills across all levels of football. It also points out that such changes are more than likely to flow from the upper ranks first, that being the NFL, and trickle through the collegiate, high school and amateur ranks in an attempt to improve practice conditions. “I think there absolutely should be some regulation or extremely strong guidance as to how much we hit young men in the head,” said Chris Nowinski, a former Harvard lineman and a co-founder of the Sports Legacy Institute to pursue research into head injuries in sports. “Brain trauma is not correlated to success in football. We should reinvent how we practice — I know from having played that there were other ways to become a good player that didn't involve the drills that created repetitive brain trauma.” For further analysis of the article I invite you to take a look by clicking on the title of this post: Head Injuries in Practice - How Exercise Science and Sports Co-exist or check out the study later this month in the Journal of Athletic Training (Will Post). The study was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

Football Friday: Return of Eagles Bradley leaves Fox announcers stunned

Earlier this week I wrote and article highlighting the growing concern of concussions and Second Impact Syndrome in professional football and offered some insight into the NFL's on-site diagnosis, treatment and evaluation standards. Just yesterday, Richard Sandomir of the New York Times, weighed on the immediate reaction to Eagles Middle Linebacker Stewart Bradley's concussion by Fox NFL Sunday announcers Troy Aikman and Joe Buck, who were on location in Philadelphia to call the Eagles vs. Packers game on opening week. Having watched the live broadcast and seen the hit in real time, in addition to a number of replays from three or four alternative angles, it was clear that the hit Bradley took was a one and done contact injury that should have sidelined him for the rest of the game. As the article highlights, Aikman and Buck were astonished to see him return to the field only minutes later and begin play. Aikman and Buck expressed their concern and immediate surprise to seeing his return to the game stating that, "it was hard to watch," and that he appeared, "dazed and confused." Although Bradley did not play in the Eagles final defensive series before the half, all signs pointed to Bradley having passed his sideline concussion screening, having been cleared by medical professionals to take the field. Whether or not this is true is still inconclusive, but as highlighted earlier this week, he was held out of the second half and has yet to pass post concussion testing at the Eagles facility this week following the hit. With a degree Exercise and Sport Science it is easy for someone like myself to recognize the signs, symptoms and overall body language of a player that has sustained contact induced head trauma, but for seasoned announcers to do the same is a statement to the severity of the injury at the point of contact. While sideline reporter Pam Oliver did not weigh in on the issue before half, it was apparent that the broadcasters were put in a situation where there was an uncertain line between what was deemed acceptable to say, and what was not. With Aikman having a series of concussions in his NFL medical history it was apparent both from the broadcast and article that he was aware of the situation and I feel he, as well as Buck, should have weighed in on the issue or at least drawn comparison to the situation and used it as an opportunity to continue to educate viewers. I feel that it is important for broadcasters and announcers, and I have thought so for some time, to be educated or understand the injury or trauma related to the sport with which they cover. As the voice of the game, I feel that it is within the scope of their profession to understand game related physiology and to weigh in on such issues during broadcasts. It would be great to gain insight and add value to the discussion of injuries and offer advice to younger views, parents and fans on what the injury was and how it impacts their performance on a more scientific level. While this might be asking for too much, I feel that if we continue to neglect these issues it is only a matter of time before the inevitable happens, that being catastrophic injury, disability or death on the field during an NFL game. It has happened before and will happen again, the question is when will someone truly take action to protect the players at all cost and educate them on the value of respecting their bodies, and more importantly, their minds. *A link to the NY Times article is below and the footage can be seen by clicking on the title of this post. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/sports/football/17sandomir.html?_r=1

NFL Week 1 Injury Report: Concussions

There is a developing trend among contact sports, in particular those involving head to head, head to shoulder, or even head to leg contact that is an ever present phenomenon and is one that should not being taken lightly. Concussions were at the forefront of the NFL Week 1 injury report, noting that four players (Eagles QB Kevin Kolb and LB Stewart Bradley, Panthers QB Matt Moore and Giants TE Kevin Boss) were properly assessed, treated and diagnosed for head related injuries sustained within the normal scope of play during Sunday's opening weekend. While co-chairman of the NFL's Brain, Head and Neck Medical Committee claimed that, "he did not see the four concussions sustained by players in the first weekend as a trend,” one has to believe that the physical nature of the game, in conjunction with the size, speed, quickness and unrelenting play displayed by NFL players should raise red flags in the Exercise and Sport Science community. The so called "anti-concussion" helmet that Riddell developed roughly five years ago has been used widely throughout the league and rules preventing players from leading the with head (helmet as weapon), attacking defenseless receivers or illegally contacting someone else’s helmet/facemask are all in place, but when does it become less about the equipment and rules and more about the injuries condescend to violent contact sports like football. With that being said I guess the ultimate debate lies in the transition point between the recognition of symptoms, subsequent testing and diagnosis. On Sunday Eagles LB Stewart Bradley returned to the field of play after Bradley, “banged his head on a teammate's leg, struggled to get up, took a couple steps and fell helmet-first onto the ground." Bradley not only re-entered the game, but it was not until being re-evaluated in the locker room at halftime that he was deemed unable to perform. So here's my question, where do we draw the line between a player "saying" he is okay (after taking a severe shot to the head), the coach wanting the player to return to play, their teammates own desires to see them return to play and the medical professionals opinion on how to ultimately make an overriding decision? As Dr. Adam Shunk states, "Some (players) are very responsible with their own health and others are going back to play because it determines their salaries and bonuses," he said. "But athletes generally are aware now that they have to think about whether they should return to play or not." While these comments are reassuring, I feel that until athletic trainers, team doctors and other licensed medical professionals can conduct their work within the scope of their profession and truly make the tough decision to sideline a player, the politics and mindset/mentality involved in football will override that of the team physician. I feel that the ultimate goal is to preserve the safety and integrity of these athletes and to prevent conditions like Second Impact Syndrome or other traumatic brain injury from decrementing the livelihood of these players now and into the future. For more information on Second Impact Syndrome visit: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2672291/