Society somehow thinks it’s sensible to check Halloween candy for drugs or poison despite overwhelming evidence that such incidents are an urban myth, but faced with real reports of serious injuries to kids playing football, people seem unperturbed.
But high school football is changing anyway, so maybe change can offer a chance to correct long-neglected woes.
There’s a new proposal in the Illinois legislature to limit tackling in high school football, and data make that more logical than radical. Plus, wouldn’t the Peoria area benefit far more from healthy adolescents than good or at least exciting football programs?
The bill, HB 1205, sponsored by Vernon Hills Democrat Carol Sente, would limit tackling in football practice to once a week. The measure stems from Sente talking with Dr. Larry Robbins, a neurologist who alerted the lawmaker to the risks of head injuries to kids. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) says that up to 3.9 million concussions in the United States each year are due to sports-related and recreation-related blows to the head, and an average of more than 173,000 of them are kids.
Sente’s proposal also would have local school boards set up response policies concerning student-athlete concussions, and also present information to students and families on head injuries and their risks.
In the greater Peoria area …
* it’s still months before next season;
* the Mid-State 6 conference this fall will disappear for football when it merges with the Western Big 6 and IVC and Quincy Notre Dame move to the West Central Conference;
*schools such as Peoria Christian and Bradley University show that good athletic programs need not include football; and
*a dozen area schools with football together posted an unimpressive 61-58 record in 2012.
Most people are aware of the hundreds of National Football League veterans suing for debilitating brain damage sustained in their careers, some leading to migraines, early-onset dementia or suicide. NFL players are adults, of course, presumably making informed decisions about the risks they’re willing to take. Kids can’t give legal informed consent.
One of the ongoing consequences from head injuries is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), which cannot be detected while someone’s alive; only in post-mortem procedures can it be confirmed.
“As distinct from Alzheimer’s, which kills patients, on average, seven to 12 years after diagnosis, CTE sufferers can live for decades in pitch-black confusion and distress,” writes reporter Sean McCabe in Rolling Stone. “It’s a fate you would wish on no one you know, least of all your strapping teenage son.”
But about 8 million American high schoolers take part in sports annually, according to the American Journal of Sports Medicine (AJSM), and concussion risks start at the youth level. Emergency-room visits have increased 60% in the last ten years, and in 2009, there are more than 248,000 such cases. AJSM reports that football is the main culprit, mostly from player-to-player contact, and some from falls.
Researchers correlate CTE in high school fatalities and hidden damage to kids whose head injuries were never treated – or, sometimes, even noticed. Young athletes now are increasingly exposed to blunt-force trauma, they’re bigger and faster than years ago (although most young athletes have still-developing neck muscles incapable of preparing for hits), and protocols to deal with possible concussions are less strict and lightly enforced at many high schools.
Besides post-concussion syndrome (PCS), high school athletes are especially vulnerable to second-impact syndrome, where immature nervous systems may have players appear to have recovered despite remaining very sensitive to another blow.
The National Academies of Science this winter started a new study of sports concussions sustained by children, and results are expected this summer. Meanwhile, Sente’s bill seems like a longshot for passage – a “Hail Mary” play, if you will. But experts say such a measure is needed.
“A high school football player who suffers multiple concussions is no less in danger of lifetime problems than a pro who does,” writes reporter Jeff Fecke, who lists nine football players who died as a result of brain trauma, including ex-Bears safety Dave Duerson.
Dr. Robert Cantu, a neurologist with the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy and an authority on concussions, recommends parents prevent kids from tackle football until age 14.
In January, the Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry published findings that scientists are improving ways to detect CTE, which could lead to new treatments and maybe even preventive measures. However, long-term, repetitive injuries – even to youngsters – can cripple or kill athletes years after they played and sustained head injuries.
Researchers at Virginia Tech and Wake Forest are collaborating on testing sports helmets and hope to have results in two years. But that’s no answer, they concede.
“It is important to note that no helmet can prevent all concussions,” said Virginia Tech researcher Stefan Duma. “The most effective strategies to reduce concussions in sports involve modifying league rules and player technique to limit exposure to head impacts.”
Cantu, the neurologist, is clearer, saying, “The best helmets in the world won’t stop rotational forces, where the brain whips around and snaps back.”
As far as the bill in Springfield, it might have a chance if it’s viewed as common sense – in a sports context, according to former college football player and professional wrestler Chris Nowinski, author of “Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis.”
He said, “We’ve put it pitch-count limits to protect kids’ elbows. Why wouldn’t we do likewise to protect their brains?”
Contact Bill at Bill.Knight@hotmail.com; his twice-weekly columns are archived at billknightcolumn.blogspot.com