Another wake up call for football:
Over a thousand former NFL players have joined in lawsuits against the NFL, 1600 to be more accurate!
Several NFL veterans have committed suicide, most notably Junior Seau, perennial all-pro linebacker and a lock for the Hall of Fame.
There is a growing body of research that shows repetitive blows to the head, even those that do not cause a classical concussion, can cause permanent brain damage. The brain simply is not made to be hit, jolted, and slammed around for years.
And, there is mounting research that point to damage incurred by football players not just at the professional level. Former college players, and even some high schoolers are also manifesting concussive associated injuries.
That bothers me. I put in eight years of tackle football, four in high school, and four at Stanford. I sustained one concussion in high school, broke four helmets at Stanford while severely injuring my back.
I have constant ringing my ears ever since the countless incidents of "getting my bell rung" in college. I am sure I had dozens of the concussive incidents that lead to the tragic brain trauma that has claimed so many. Nobody has tracked major college football players....yet!
It was a different game then. We wore Riddell suspension helmets then, I actually wore the same model for eight years. We had face masks, but not the grills they wear today.
We were taught however to put our foreheads on the numbers to tackle a ball carrier, and to go through a receiver's head to the ball. The collisions for a defensive back, on receivers running across the middle, were every bit as violent as those of today. But, the helmets were lighter, and the face masks smaller.
So we did not put our foreheads on the numbers as we were coached, because you could bust your nose. Very few individuals will drive their face into someone running at them at twenty miles an hour, unless you are wearing a modern football helmet. The Riddell I wore did not protect enough to use like a weapon.
I think, and this will sound counter intuitive, that the helmet is the largest contributing factor with the concussive damage we are seeing today. The helmets are too good, especially in protecting from skull and facial fractures. Blockers and tacklers have a false sense of security, because the helmets and face masks of today are so impressive, except in preventing concussions; it is not the fall that gets you, it's the sudden stop.
Moreover coaching to lead with your head, both blocking and tackling is crazy. First, it is a bad way to tackle a ball carrier. When you center up on a Pac 12 back, he can easily avoid you in two ways. If you take a side, and tackle with your shoulder pads and arms you can get even a top runner down. He may drag you a ways, but you can hang on and hope for help.
It is called tackle football for a reason. The idea is to get the ball carrier down, tackle him, not punish him.
Junior Seau said to punish is to win, and he was one of the greatest to ever play the game. But years of hitting with his head reduced his brain to what probably killed him: a mass of damaged synopses that led to depression, loss of impulse control and suicide. His punishing caught up with him.
Football is in real trouble. The rules must be changed, the helmets made smaller and lighter, and take the head as much out of blocking and tackling as possible.
Parents of high school players, college athletes, and finally pros should insist that the era of the head shot end, else the game itself will end.
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