Concussions & CTE: Suggestions to Improve These Terrible Injuries

One of the biggest topics of conversation in football these days is concussions and CTE. It saddens me to see former players suffering. But, at the same time, it frustrates me to see penalty after penalty being called for what’s nothing more than clean and aggressive defensive play.

I say that because I’ve always been a big fan of defense. When I was growing up, my favorite players were on defense, and when playing, I always wanted to be on the defensive side of the ball.

Back then, we didn’t get flagged unless it was a blatant ‘cheap shot.’ I understand that rule changes are needed to protect players, but I don’t think it should be to the point where a defender can no longer play aggressively without having to worry about getting penalized.

Let’s be clear: a defender’s job is to stop the offense from advancing the ball. That means attacking the man with the ball or the man who’s about to catch the ball. A defender has a split second to make a tackle.

That means it’s a matter of speed and timing because there usually isn’t time to decide where or how you’re going to make a tackle. You use your instincts.

I was taught by my father to get low, drive my shoulder into the ball carrier’s stomach or hip, wrap my arms around his legs, and drive him to the ground. While that was my intention and preference, executing that approach wasn’t always possible. That’s because a defender has to react and adjust to what the ball carrier is doing. The ball carrier isn’t going to stand there and allow you to tackle him.

I’m not trying to make light of concussions or head trauma injuries. As a lifelong fan of the game, I’m as disturbed by these findings as anyone. I’m also trying to understand the root of the problem.

So just how should a defender tackle or sack a quarterback? If he tackles him low, he may be penalized for going after his knees. If he tackles him high, he may be penalized for going after his head. And if he hits him just a fraction after he releases the ball, he’s likely to be penalized for roughing the passer.

A defender faces similar challenges with a receiver. Hit him too high, too low, or too hard, and you’re likely to be penalized. If you touch him before the ball gets there, then that’s interference. But isn’t it the defender’s job to stop the receiver from catching the ball? And, if he does catch it, isn’t it the defender’s job to make him drop the ball?

I’m convinced that these tackling restrictions are why we see so many missed tackles in today’s game. I understand that today’s players are bigger, faster, and stronger than years ago. And I also understand that officials are trying to stop helmet-to-helmet contact from happening.

But in a high-speed contact game, like football, a lot of those hits aren’t intentional. Throwing a flag every time it happens isn’t going to stop it from happening. At some point, you have to let players play.

I’m not trying to minimize the seriousness of head injuries. The easy answer is to make more rule changes. But, honestly, there are just so many rule changes you can make. Football is a game of contact and collisions. Take that away, and you take away the essence of the game.

So let’s explore what could and also shouldn’t be done.

SUBSCRIBE AND FOLLOW THIS PODCAST FOR FREE

Helmet Improvements

Are improvements to football helmets really helping? Adding padding and increasing the thickness of the shell also increases helmet weight. Heavier helmets make for better battering rams.

Evaluate Criminal Behavior

Much of this criminal behavior is in the form of domestic violence. The NFL needs to take a tougher stance on this. If a player is found guilty of domestic violence, or any other type of off-field violence that’s not in self-defense, he should be suspended for a full season. A second offense should be a lifetime suspension.

What does this have to do with concussions? If a player is willing to hit, beat, and hurt his wife, girlfriend, or anybody else, what makes you think he would stop short of intentionally injuring an opponent?

P.E.D. Testing

Stricter testing and suspensions are needed for steroid use. It’s a well-known fact that anabolic steroids will help you get bigger, faster, and stronger. They’ll also make you more aggressive. Most football players, especially those on the defensive side of the ball, are already aggressive.

Taking steroids will make them even more aggressive. I’m sure most people have heard the term “roid rage.” Now imagine, if you would, a very large, strong, and fast defensive football player with roid rage. He’s probably not going to be too concerned about helmet-to-

helmet contact and he’s probably not going to be all that concerned about injuring his opponent. Bigger, faster, stronger, and more aggressive = more violent collisions.

More violent collisions = more concussions.

If the NFL is serious about protecting players from concussions, they need to get serious about stricter testing and suspensions for steroid use–and they need the cooperation of the players union to do this.

Collisions In Practice

Reduce the amount of full contact in practice. Most NFL, college, high school, and youth football leagues have already done this, but some suggest taking it a step further. I recently read an article about eliminating full contact in practice altogether. The Ivy League has done that.

The League is using robots/tackling dummies to simulate the moves of offensive players. At first, I scoffed at the idea–as did many coaches and players–but it has paid off in the win and loss category. When you really start to think about it, it’s not a bad idea.

Most players at the college and NFL levels already know how to tackle. Aren’t they already taking too many hits in games? Do they really need to take more hits in practice?

Evaluate Rule Changes

Many of the rule changes made during the 1980s and 1990s were designed to make the game more exciting, to open up the passing game… no more ‘three yards and a cloud of dust.’ So these days, it’s not uncommon for an NFL quarterback to throw the ball fifty times a game.

That means more chances for a QB and receiver to get hit and, with that, more chances for head-to-head contact. We easily forget that the game lasts longer today with all that passing: the clock stops on every incomplete pass. So there are more offensive plays in today’s game, which means more chances to hit offensive players.

Up until the late 1970s, it wasn’t uncommon for a quarterback to throw the ball less than 20 times in a game. In today’s game, a QB is likely to throw twenty passes by halftime. So an unintended consequence of making the game more exciting is that it has made it more dangerous, especially for QBs and receivers.

COME BACK NEXT WEEK FOR PART 2 OF THIS DISCUSSION!!!

In the meantime, you can learn more about CTE from an interview on The Football History Dude podcast. This interview revolved around the Mike Webster story, but focused in on how concussions and trauma to the brain lead to CTE. One guest is a leading neuroscientist.

The NFL Season Is Too Long!

The NFL hierarchy keeps telling us that they are doing all they can to reduce concussions and injuries, but playing 21 games in one season (as the Rams and Bengals did last season) hardly seems like an intelligent way to reduce concussions and injuries.

From 1947 to 1960, league teams played 12 regular-season games. The NFL expanded to 14 regular-season games from 1961 to 1977, the same number played by teams in the old American Football League.

From 1978 to 2020, the NFL had a 16-game regular-season schedule. Before the 2021 season, the league voted to expand the number of regular-season games from 16 to 17 games.

What about post-season play? From 1933 through 1965, the NFL had only one post-season game, the NFL Championship. During those 33 years, there were also nine other playoff games–all tie-breaker contests. Then, in 1966, the season ended with the usual NFL Championship game and the first Super Bowl. The AFL also had only one post-season game to determine the league champion. That changed in 1966–and 1967–with the Super Bowl.

How many teams qualified for post-season play? In 1966, the NFL and AFL had 24 teams combined. Only four teams (16.7%) qualified for post-season play. From 1967 to 1969, the NFL played two divisional playoff games in addition to the NFL Championship game and the Super Bowl. Then, in 1968, the AFL had one divisional tie-breaker playoff game, the AFL Championship Game, and the Super Bowl. The AFL expanded its post-season in 1969 to include two divisional playoff games: the AFL Championship and the Super Bowl.

After the leagues merged in 1970, each conference (NFC and AFC) had two divisional playoffs and one Championship game. That system continued through the 1977 season.

In 1977, 28.6% of the league’s teams qualified for the playoffs, and that seemed just right, in my opinion.

But then, in 1978, two more post-season games were added–called Wild Card Games–which increased to 10 the number of playoff teams (36% of league teams). That post-season format continued through the 1989 season. From 1990 through 2019, the league added two more teams to the playoff bracket, which brought the playoff total to 43% of the franchises. More expansion came in 2020 when two more teams were added, upping post-season participation to 44%.

So, let’s compare the total number of games played, then and now. In 1960, the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles went all the way to the NFL Championship Game (Philadelphia won), and each team played 13 games that season. By contrast, participants in this year’s championship game, the Rams and Bengals, played 21 games each. That’s a huge difference!

To its credit, the NFL has decreased the number of pre-season games to three from what had been six pre-season games decades ago. Still, one could argue that most injuries didn’t happen in pre-season contests. After Joe Namath severely injured his knee in a 1971 pre-season game, most coaches have kept their best players off the field for a good share of pre-season games.

While I do not doubt that the league is concerned about players’ injuries, it also seems that the seemingly endless appetite for NFL football–and the revenues that come with it–has overarching implications. It propels an ever-expanding season schedule, including creating more playoff opportunities for more teams, which adds to more teams playing more games.

At issue is whether we’ve seen the last of regular-season schedule expansion and growth in the number of playoff competitors.

Concussion - The Movie

I recently watched the movie “Concussion.” There is no happy ending to this movie. It’s unfortunate to see how many former players are suffering from CTE. While I can certainly sympathize with what they are going through, I don’t think we can point all of the blame at the NFL hierarchy.

The NFL is a money-making machine–of that, there is no doubt–and they should be doing all they can to help these players in need, But to say they had full knowledge of the long-term damage a concussion could cause is probably neither true nor fair.

There were so many things that we, as a society, did not know years ago–or, at the very least, we ignored. If you were a 1970s kid, then you get what I’m saying. Safety was not something we thought about much.

Football was no different. The head slap, spearing, the clothesline, the chop block, headhunting, cheap shots, and late hits were all commonplace in the NFL. No one knew or thought about the long-term effects or how they might suffer later in life.

Can it be proven that head trauma was from football and football alone? It’s hard for me to grasp that concept because it was unheard of years ago. I don’t recall hearing former players complaining of severe headaches and memory loss. There may have been a few cases, but it was pretty rare. I remember when Roger Staubach and Al Toon retired from the NFL due, in part, to concussions. But I never heard about the problem in youth or high school football.

What has changed? Maybe it’s just that we know so much more today than we did years ago. Some will say the players knew the risks they were taking. Did they really? Some say they were well compensated for playing. That’s true.

It’s also true that some players blew their money on poor lifestyle choices and didn’t invest wisely or prepare for life after football. But the fact remains that they put their bodies on the line, week after week, year after year–not only for their respective teams but for the league, too.

You would think that the NFL, a multi-billion dollar operation, would feel some obligation to assist these players, especially those suffering from CTE.

Mark Morthier is the host of Yesterday’s Sports, a podcast dedicated to reliving memorable sports moments from his childhood days and beyond. He grew up in New Jersey just across from New York City, so many of his episodes revolve around the great sport’s teams of the 70s for the New York area.

He is also an author of No Nonsense, Old School Weight Training (Second Edition): A Guide for People with Limited Time and Running Wild: (Growing Up in the 1970s)