Robofootball: Doublespin

Head Injuries in Football, A transcript report by Dr. Isabella Mendoza, CDC, joint session of Congress, May 15, 2014, Hearing #678-23-1266:

“Let me first say that contrary to popular belief and opinion, a concussion is not a bruise to the brain caused by hitting a hard object or surface. As is often the case, there is ordinarily no physical swelling or bleeding that is observable on radiological scans. Although helmet to helmet collisions appear to be the most violent, they are not the most prevalent. Often, concussions arise from routine tackles and the resulting brain bruises are not even diagnosed until the end of a typical football game if at all. The head injury associated with the game of American football generally occurs when the head is either spun rapidly or accelerates rapidly, then is suddenly stopped. This violent shaking depolarizes the brain cells which in turn cause them to fire all of their neurotransmitters at once. Within this dangerous cascade, the brain is flooded with chemicals that aid in deadening certain receptors linked to memory and learning ability.

The end symptoms include confusion, blurred vision and speech, memory loss, nausea, and with a particularly severe blow, unconsciousness and even permanent brain damage. My fellow neurologists concur that once a person suffers a concussion, that individual is more than 4 times as likely to sustain a second one. After several concussions, it takes much less of a blow to repeat the injury while requiring far more time to recover. In the National Hockey League (NHL), there have been many players forced into early retirement due to repetitive concussions. In the National Football League (NFL), we have found several cases where team doctors have suppressed the results in order to return the player to the field. In other cases, there is inadequate testing performed to diagnose concussions, and once again, the player is usually allowed back on the field.

Our most recent survey indicates that approximately two-thirds of former NFL players had sustained at least one severe concussion in their playing career. Thirty percent have had three or more and now have reported problems with coordination, poor balance, concentration, both short and long term memory loss, speech impediment, cognitive degeneration, chronic headaches, depression, amnesia, dizziness, and a variety of other neurological and psychological problems. In our latest study, retired football players from the age of 30 to 60 are 20 times more likely to suffer from both dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, the same rate as retired boxers.

Citing their own studies, the NFL has repeatedly denied what we believe to be overwhelming evidence against their viewpoints. The NFL has constantly downplayed our research and we have numerous examples where league doctors have resigned in disputes with the NFL including individual team physicians. On managing concussions, the only thing that the NFL has done is to require players to sit out a single day whether it is practice or a game once they have exhibited a significant sign of concussion. Do note that team trainers and those involved in sports medicine are not practicing MD’s and simply do not have the necessary qualifications to make such a diagnosis. Players are either put back on the field once again, or are barely rested a day for something that usually requires a minimum of 2 weeks rest and limited physical activity or head movement for even the most trivial of concussions, even if such a potentially serious concussion can be categorized as trivial. We do know that symptoms of a concussion can appear hours or even days following the initial injury.

We could argue that more stringent concussion standards combined with enforceable regulations are definitely needed, and there is no argument that can possibly be made against that view given the data in front of you; however, our overall conclusion is that concussions sustained in football are inherent to the sport and cannot be controlled or readily reduced despite the progress and technological advances made in helmet design and production. We will publish a new study on helmets in our next report. For now, we view the current data involving concussions as unacceptable and unsustainable from a general health and well being standpoint.”

“The difficulty in life is the choice.”

George Moore, The Bending of the Bough, Act III