Football Brain Injuries

[RealSchool]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/26/athlete.brains/index.html

Man, this is some scary stuff.

Yes I know this is not M football specific, but not much going on right now.

[bigboyBlue]

Saw that too, scary, especially where it says 6-out of-6 players show the same damage, including the 18 yr old with just 2 concussions. Makes you wonder if its right.

[joeismyname]

this may sound distasteful...but I hope none of our recruits read this article.

[GoDeepHammer]

I think that they should start looking into boxers as well.

There are a lot of factors that could be leading to this as well.

[Blue In Ohio]

The NFL should do more to prevent this. I've always thought that the players are getting too big and their should be weight limits. It looks like these former nfl players paid with their lives so that they could play football.

[1OSUNUT]

Football on all levels has turned from a contact sport to a collision sport. The gear has gotten better but the players are getting bigger and faster. We had a high school team in Cleveland (actually a few of them) who's offensive lines averaged 40lbs a guy more then the 1964 championship Browns team. Even with the rule changes that have made to protect players - injuries are up. The bidy was not made to absorb that kind of punishment. This is a serious problem that goes undetected or ingnored for what ever reason - then causes serious life altering effects later. Just because of the nature of the sport I'm not sure anything else could be done to eliminate concussions.

[Sten Carlson]

Football on all levels has turned from a contact sport to a collision sport. The gear has gotten better but the players are getting bigger and faster. We had a high school team in Cleveland (actually a few of them) who's offensive lines averaged 40lbs a guy more then the 1964 championship Browns team. Even with the rule changes that have made to protect players - injuries are up. The bidy was not made to absorb that kind of punishment. This is a serious problem that goes undetected or ingnored for what ever reason - then causes serious life altering effects later. Just because of the nature of the sport I'm not sure anything else could be done to eliminate concussions.

There was an article several years ago in S.I., I think, that talked about the physics of football collisions. It showed that in the past several decades that weight (mass) of the players has been increasing, but at the same time, the speed (velocity) of the more massive players has been increasing as well. When you have a faster moving, more massive object, colliding with another faster moving more massive object, the forces on the body increase exponentially.

A 265 lbs. LBs running a 4.5 is exponentially more forceful and potentially destructive than a 235 lbs. LB running a 4.7 of 20 years ago as BOTH mass and velocity have increased. I think the article went on to show that it only takes a very slight increase in these two factors to effect catastrophic results.

Not to mention the fact that so many guys lead with their helmets now. I like Ditka's idea, take the face masks off and you won't have people leading with their heads any more -- unless they want to get a broken nose every time they tackle. If you've ever watched rugby, or Aussie Rules, or even NHL Hockey in some instances, you see how players used to hit and tackle -- with their shoulders and hips, not with their heads. Also, I think that the "big hit" syndrome has really ruined the art of form tackling, as we have all acknowledged from watching Michigan play over the last few years.



I wish I could find the article, it was very interesting.