OT-ish : Sports concussions

Ditka was on the radio this morning and said he thinks they should sit out, or they’ll pay the price when they’re in their 50’s.

By the way, your wife is could be right about worrying, as much as I hate to say it. My mother once told me why she pulled from ice hockey. She was horrified by other parents yelling at their 8 to 9 year old kids to “kill him, Johnny!”

But I suppose this might be normal in a Klingon family.

that the NFL may try to place a rule that anyone with a haed injury must sit the following week for safety. I am all for this rule.

the NFL should have a rule against being a dick.

“Being a dick! Offense! Number 86! Fifteen yards, loss of down!”

That said – this is what players have to weigh. Is it worth a better shot at a title to have health issues (sometimes quite serious) after you retire? As far as the Steelers and Roethlisberger go – he’s got two rings. Sit a week and make sure you can actually enjoy the rest of your life. Even if he hadn’t won anything it’s the right decision to tell the truth and sit out. But this is the decision that NFL players have to make when they have to answer ‘are you still getting headaches’. You can’t discount the fact that these guys are incredibly competitive, and that’s a big reason why they are professional football players.

I think the idea that Tim mentioned above is a good one – if you get concussed, you miss a week, no matter what.

here.

and that concussions need to be taken more seriously, I don’t have a problem with NFL players who choose to ignore doctors orders and play with a concussion.

They are grown men who are working a high stress job that could be over at any moment, one week on the bench for anything other than the top 5% of players in the league could cost that player his job. With that kind of pressure and the kind of money on the line, I don’t blame guys who want to play through a concussion- in the NFL.

College and high school is a different story, they aren’t adults and they aren’t as educated (though I know the NFL could do a better job with education) about the negative effects of a concussion.

Bottom line for me- if you are a NFL player and want to risk your health to make a bunch of money (think LT in Any Given Sunday) then go for it, that’s your dumbass choice. In lower levels of the game though people need to take more charge and make sure people not only report their concussions and get the right help, but also are educated on how bad playing with a head injury can be.

who’s had several concussions from playing football, I’m glad the NFL is finally saying something.

More people (coaches at all levels, players, fans, etc) need to be educated on this serious topic.

Football is a collision sport.
Collisions cause concussions.
If you want to limit concussions you will need to limit the collisions or the intesity of the collision.
In football you cant limit the collisions, but you can limit the intensity of the collision.
Remove the pads and helmets from the players and they will instinctively limit the fierocity of the collision. This is the main reason rugby players can play so late into their lives. Contact is far less brutal in rugby matches compared to football. New tech is great, but tech and rule changes can only go so far. Human nature is far more reliable.

if they don’t protect players.

Big Ben and Kurt Warner have built up the credibility — and have useless enough backups — to where they can get away with this.

The real question is whether the 45th guy on the roster will be able to do this.

The NFL needs to step in and make sure these guys are protected. Or else players are just going to lie.

let me simply say that the nausea doesn’t go away any time soon. And the last one ended any chance of playing hockey beyond college. That was 28 years ago and anytime I’m playing in a pick-up game I can get light-headed without any contact by just moving quickly. Most times when I hear someone say, “tough it out” I can be almost 100% assured of them never having had one of these.

My mom was worried about me on the ice all the time. Its what moms do. its what moms will always do. She never thought though I’d get a concussion my HS senior year by a HPB. So after that she was a worrywart whenever I played baseball too. Suffice to say, baseball helmets have improved the last 30 years.

As a coach now for girls fast-pitch, my own daughter has a knack for the HPB, leading the league for the past 2 seasons combined. Though she’s never taken one up even as high as the shoulders, it gives pause as a father and a coach. My wife cringes from the stands every time Sarah gets plunked. We’re doing our best to manage that fear yet support our girl since she’s a pretty good little player.

The NHL has the best system in place among the major sports regarding concussions. The player has to pass various tests administered by and overseen by the NHL before he gets back on the ice. Marty Havlat caught a wicked hit during the conf finals this past spring. He had to pass those tests before getting back on the ice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqanH27U338

We can thank ex-Blackhawk #27 Jeremy Roenick and his 20-ish concussions for helping the NHL move forward with their system. But even with that, no system is fool proof and Havlat may still be feeling the affects, now with the Minn. Wild.

This thread reminded me of several years ago when Steve Young was considering retirement because of numerous concussions, and the effects were getting kind of scary. I was at the Stanford driving range, because I worked about a mile away from there, and I was just finishing hitting my bucket of golf balls.

I could hear some “old guys” behind me discussing the Steve Young case, and one guy was really adamant that this was not something that Steve should mess around with, it was dead serious and he should just retire. I was thinking “but come on, you don’t understand how passionate a pro football player is about his career, and it might be harder to quit than you think”. As I picked up my golf bag and walked past them, I could see that the guy who had made the remarks was none other than Jim Plunkett.

My last thought was “yeah, I guess that he knows what he’s talking about”.