The NFL Commissioner’s office has released data that concussions in the league have dropped by an overall 13% over last season’s figure and that helmet to helmet hits had decreased by 23% over the same period.
The NFL’s Senior Vice President of Health and Safety Policy, Jeff Miller, told reporters that the new uniform protocols on the sidelines for diagnosing concussions have helped to make the game safer. Basically they are saying, ‘If there is a doubt, sit him down’!
Miller went on, “We feel confident in the data. There will be inevitable statistical abnormalities year over year. We’ll continue to look at this data as this injury continues being of great importance.” He was talking about the 228 diagnosed concussion cases in the NFL during 2013. That figure is down by 13% over the 2012 figure of 261 while concussions related to helmet to helmet hits were also down from 117 in 2012 to 90 in 2013.
Most NFL players are pretty hard headed anyway. You have to be to play the game. If asked, most will tell you that they are more concerned with knee injuries that concussions. You can keep on playing with your brains scrambled…but when that ACL goes out..that’s it.
Dr. Mitchell Berger of the NFL’s Head, Neck & Spine Committee was a major mover in getting independent neurospecialists on each sideline during games. He told the press, “We were always welcomed by the team physicians and the medical staffs of all the teams. We’re not there to replace the team physicians; they’re very good at what they do. Because it’s such a fast-paced game, to have an extra set of eyes can only help.”
Dr. Berger spoke of connectivity testing which examines the possibility of a concussion occurring when certain areas of the brain aren’t communicating with each other. Dr. Matthew Matava, who oversees the activities of all NFL team physicians, demonstrated a baseline assessment program that includes a list of symptoms and gave a composite score that helps measure the severity of the injury, including possible concussions.
Former NFL Players all have horror stories about players being sent back into the game with significant injuries, just because that was the way that the game was played in those days. Iron Mike Ditka tells of separating a shoulder, an extremely painful experience, going to the sidelines where the trainer popped his shoulder back into place, and sent him back into the game. The good old days?
