CFLers and Brain Damage

[Argo]

The Toronto Star reports:

https://www.thestar.com/sports/football/2017/08/31/you-felt-you-had-to-be-invincible-retired-cflers-talk-about-concussions.html

[doubleblue]

The Toronto Star reports:

https://www.thestar.com/sports/football/2017/08/31/you-felt-you-had-to-be-invincible-retired-cflers-talk-about-concussions.html

Not a good report for football. Something has to change or we are going to lose the game we love. I know what these guys are talking about as even in High School I had my "bell rung". QB's are always fair game. I found out what the term "having your bell rung" really felt like. When your brain bounces around inside your skull it actually feels like your whole head is vibrating. Paralyzing you for a few seconds.
I know the officials are just calling the game within the rules but it seems they are more concerned with a little hand push a way from the play on a run back or a finger over the goal line on a one yard plunge then a vicious helmet to helmet hit.
The teams are going to have to start teaching more the Rugby style of tackling and put in game ejections and fines for tackles leading with the helmet.

I saw an article recently that some NCAA teams are starting to get the message and are bringing out Rugby Coaches to teach tackling without leading with the head. But it has to come from the top, and in Pro Sports that starts with the owners.

[1971GreyCup]

True. The more we learn about CTE, the more there is a concern that this isn't a manageable issue. Faster, stronger athletes create violent impacts, which is great for TV. Knowing that the brain impact is damaging and cumulative how much longer will we tolerate this?

While you can count on a lot of young men willing to ignore the risk, how many parents would knowingly permit their sons to go on even one traumatic impact?

I think big changes in future should be expected if the sport is to survive.

[Argofan_1000]

Not a good report for football. Something has to change or we are going to lose the game we love. I know what these guys are talking about as even in High School I had my "bell rung". QB's are always fair game. I found out what the term "having your bell rung" really felt like. When your brain bounces around inside your skull it actually feels like your whole head is vibrating. Paralyzing you for a few seconds.
I know the officials are just calling the game within the rules but it seems they are more concerned with a little hand push a way from the play on a run back or a finger over the goal line on a one yard plunge then a vicious helmet to helmet hit.
The teams are going to have to start teaching more the Rugby style of tackling and put in game ejections and fines for tackles leading with the helmet.

I saw an article recently that some NCAA teams are starting to get the message and are bringing out Rugby Coaches to teach tackling without leading with the head. But it has to come from the top, and in Pro Sports that starts with the owners.

Before the NFL concussion study funded by the National Football League, NFL insisted the other sports also be included in the study. Assholes in charge over ruled the NFL and now we are only talking football. Everyone knows you are going to see the similar results in the other sports. Some of the highest concussions are reported in girls soccer. Male soccer probably high - hockey for sure - rugby, wrestling, boxing, UFC, martial arts, baseball in young kids as they get hit in the head with the bat or ball. Gymnastics and how many other sports.

Some ideas from others

No helmets during practice.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ban-helmets-during-practice-to-make-football-safer/2016/04/22/f72f7d2c-0628-11e6-b283-e79d81c63c1b_story.html?utm_term=.65b2d1355798

No helmet to helmet contact during a game = ejection
Not talking about accidental - talking about the Cox hit a few weeks ago
NCAA banning helmet to helmet hits. NFL may follow
https://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--ncaa-s-new-helmet-to-helmet-rule-will-force-college-football-players-to-relearn-how-to-tackle-174052423.html

[Argo57]

New helmet technologies could help as well.

https://www.wired.com/2016/01/the-zero1-flexible-football-helmet-may-save-players-brains/

[Argofan_1000]

New helmet technologies could help as well.

https://www.wired.com/2016/01/the-zero1-flexible-football-helmet-may-save-players-brains/

seems like a few changes and the sport becomes safer. If NFL adopts the new helmets then the CFL should also. Some of the donated money to youth football could be directed towards these new helmets.

[Argo]

New helmet technology and, even more importantly, rule changes with extremely strict consequences for contravention would go some way in reducing brain trauma injuries.

That is, head impacts should be few and far between and entirely accidental when they occur.

Yet some will certainly still occur.

[Argo]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurent_Duvernay-Tardif

states that: Duvernay-Tardif has been working with the developers of Shockbox, a device that is placed inside of football helmets to measure the impacts received on the field. He says that he hopes that his work will help to prevent concussions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concussion) in football.[6] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurent_Duvernay-Tardif#cite_note-CTV-6)

[6] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurent_Duvernay-Tardif#cite_note-CTV-6) "McGill medical student chosen in NFL draft" (http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/mcgill-medical-student-chosen-in-nfl-draft-1.1816330). CTV News Montreal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CTV_News_Montreal). Retrieved June 22, 2014.

[Argo]

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2017/09/03/cfl-should-compensate-former-players-for-brain-injuries-caused-by-concussions-editorial.html

Horrifying study results reported.

[argonaut11xx]

First off anything printed in this FAR/ALT left rag should be taken with a grain of salt.

That said,

All combat sports can cause injuries, and where and when possible every opportunity should be taken to prevent said injuries.

However, at the professional level, college level it is a LIFE CHOICE made by the adult participant.

The world is going crazy, and anything that requires an ounce of testosterone is being chastised.

I truly think that until every male is turned into a GELDING, Football, Boxing, Hockey, etc, will be attacked.

Lets make the sports safer, not neuter all men and boys.

[ArgoGabe22]

I feel that people generally have no problem with killing the sport of football but are too scared to mention or look into hockey and concussions.

[argonaut11xx]

I feel that people generally have no problem with killing the sport of football but are too scared to mention or look into hockey and concussions.


Truer words have never been spoken.

[doubleblue]

I feel that people generally have no problem with killing the sport of football but are too scared to mention or look into hockey and concussions.

I don't know about that. Fighting in Hockey has almost been eliminated over night so to speak. Those were the main guys getting the concussions. Hockey has had a penalty for any head contact now for quite a few years. Game misconducts in the OHA and Minor Hockey. Major Junior has also really cracked down on fighting and the body contact is nothing like it used to be. Football has done mighty little about head contact except for on the QB's. Football better get on board on the Helmet hits or the Courts will do it for them. IMO

[Argo]

First off anything printed in this FAR/ALT left rag should be taken with a grain of salt.

That said,

All combat sports can cause injuries, and where and when possible every opportunity should be taken to prevent said injuries.

However, at the professional level, college level it is a LIFE CHOICE made by the adult participant.

The world is going crazy, and anything that requires an ounce of testosterone is being chastised.

I truly think that until every male is turned into a GELDING, Football, Boxing, Hockey, etc, will be attacked.

Lets make the sports safer, not neuter all men and boys.

"Those who hate you dont win...unless you hate them...and then you destroy yourself"

While you destroy yourself Hater, please spare the rest of the posters here your tedious rants that, alas, occur with alarming regularity.

[ArgoGabe22]

I don't know about that. Fighting in Hockey has almost been eliminated over night so to speak. Those were the main guys getting the concussions. Hockey has had a penalty for any head contact now for quite a few years. Game misconducts in the OHA and Minor Hockey. Major Junior has also really cracked down on fighting and the body contact is nothing like it used to be. Football has done mighty little about head contact except for on the QB's. Football better get on board on the Helmet hits or the Courts will do it for them. IMO

I just think majority could live without tackle football and that there would be more uproar, say if hockey was ever threatened/ on the brink of extinction.

[argolio]

"Those who hate you..." is a Nixon quote. Not the best guy to quote.

After watching some NCAA games this week, I saw many occasions where the replay official got the ref to stop the game to review whether a player targeted with his helmet on the previous play. If the verdict was yes, the player was automatically ejected.

I wonder if the pro leagues would ever adopt that.

[Argo57]

I don't know about that. Fighting in Hockey has almost been eliminated over night so to speak. Those were the main guys getting the concussions. Hockey has had a penalty for any head contact now for quite a few years. Game misconducts in the OHA and Minor Hockey. Major Junior has also really cracked down on fighting and the body contact is nothing like it used to be. Football has done mighty little about head contact except for on the QB's. Football better get on board on the Helmet hits or the Courts will do it for them. IMO

I have refereed many levels of hockey for 35 years, most concussions are caused by collisions during play.
Actually at the pro level there is much more physical contact (bodychecking) than there used to be, the players are in much better condition (faster), the equipment offers way more protection and shifts are shorter thus more high speed collisions.
Most if not all hockey helmets offer very little protection to the brain, a clean hit can cause a concussion just as an elbow to the head can.

[ArgoGabe22]

Also what are the health risks for miners/firefighters/skiiers/etc.? Why just stop at football?

[doubleblue]

I just think majority could live without tackle football and that there would be more uproar, say if hockey was ever threatened/ on the brink of extinction.

You've got a point there. But Hockey has tried to address the concussion issue a lot more than Football.

[jerrym]

A study by researcher Scott Delaney of McGill University that was published this month in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine on athletes' attitudes towards concussions surveyed 454 CFL players, found that most players are still trying to hide concussions. Personally, I find his study useful in providing some concrete numbers on how players deal with concussions, but I do not believe that simply renaming concussions as brain injuries as the author proposes will make any difference, because the purpose of hiding a concussion, even when you know the great risk involved, is to reduce the perceived risk that such an injury and the resulting missed playing time could lead to the loss of one's job in football.



If the word “concussion” was replaced by “brain injury,” perhaps more athletes would admit they have had one. That was one suggestion from Scott Delaney, who led a study by a team from the McGill University Health Centre into athletes’ attitudes on concussions. ...
Delaney’s team hopes to find ways to get athletes to seek treatment when they experience concussion symptoms such as headaches, nausea or blurred vision.With multiple cases of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known as CTE, among former athletes suffering from the long-term effects of concussions making news, one might expect athletes to be eager to seek medical help after a blow to the head. But McGill researchers found while most know what a concussion is, how it may damage the brain and how they are treated, many shrug it off or try to hide it. “Maybe we should just call it brain injury, which is what it is,” Delaney said. “Maybe that would drive it home a little more . ...
It might just change the culture if people said ‘She injured her brain. This is serious.’”The research team surveyed 454 CFL players.
Players anonymously filled out questionnaires during the 2016 pre-season.
They found 23.4 per cent felt they suffered a concussion during the 2015 season and 82.1 per cent of that group did not seek treatment for a suspected concussion at least once during the season.Only six per cent who said they would see a doctor after a game did so, and only about 20 per cent always reported concussions to medical staff.
The report noted “players seemed educated about the concussion evaluation process and possible treatment guidelines, but this knowledge did not necessarily translate into safe and appropriate behaviour at the time of injury.”

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/edmonton-journal/20180110/281895888639511

[rdavies]

While you destroy yourself Hater, please spare the rest of the posters here your tedious rants that, alas, occur with alarming regularity.There was nothing wrong with the bulk of his post, the world has gone that crazy.

[rdavies]

I feel that people generally have no problem with killing the sport of football but are too scared to mention or look into hockey and concussions.Soccer has been looked at marginally for heading the ball, which no one can tell me doesn't cause head trauma. They must have been too busy looking at that ridiculous scare story about goalies getting cancer from artificial turf.

[jerrym]

The CFL finished a two conference on player health and safety on the weekend with concussions being a central focus of the meetings. However, questions remain concerning whether the league is doing enough quickly enough in this regard.



“Our team presidents and general managers devoted much of their winter meetings earlier this week to the topic of making our game as safe as it can be at all levels,” said Kevin McDonald, Vice-President, Football Operations and Player Safety for the CFL. ...

The conference’s agenda includes:

• Evaluation of ongoing concussion research projects the league is participating in with an eye to understanding and incorporating emerging information.
• An annual review of CFL Concussion protocols to ensure they remain world class.
• An assessment of player education and awareness initiatives the league undertakes to encourage players to understand the signs and symptoms of concussions, the importance of reporting suspected concussions, and the type of play that can increase the risk of various types of injury.
• A Review of the CFL’s Injury spotter program which places a person dedicated to injury monitoring in its Command Centre for every game.
• A Review of processes for Injury Data Collection and extraction.
• A review of the processes surrounding the CFL/CFLPA Drug Policy.
• Updates on the latest information on helmet technologies.
“While this is our annual face-to-face meeting for team personnel at the forefront of our player healthy and safety efforts, the truth is we all are in constant contact and discussion throughout the year,” McDonald said.
“This work never ends and must always progress. We owe that to our tremendous players, devoted fans and great game.”
“That focus has continued into the weekend as team doctors, athletic therapists and representatives of the Canadian Football Players Association (CFLPA) joined league staff for two days devoted to this top priority.”


https://www.cfl.ca/2018/01/13/cfl-wraps-conference-player-health-safety/