Concussions: Taking aim in the NFL
Last season provided a number of NFL landmarks that remind us why the game is so popular. New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees recorded the highest completion percentage for a single season. Buffalo’s Stephen Hauschka connected on his 13th consecutive field goal of 50 yards or more, which had never been done before. At 40, Tom Brady became the oldest man ever named Most Valuable Player.
Another record, however, was a reminder of the serious challenges to the popularity and long-term viability of professional football. In the 2017 season, 291 concussions were diagnosed — affecting one out of every 11 players. In other words, of the 22 players you see trot out onto the field for the first play from scrimmage, you can expect that two of them won’t finish the season without an acute traumatic injury to the brain.
During the offseason, the NFL acted to reduce this alarming risk. Its new rule is simple and stark. Any player who “lowers his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent” will be flagged for unnecessary roughness at a cost of 15 yards. For severe violations, players will be ejected.
This is stricter than college football’s targeting rule, which bans any hit to a defenseless player’s head or neck and typically involves a receiver leveled by a defensive back. And the NFL ban applies to offensive as well as defensive players, including linemen.
This rule is at issue in the contract negotiations between the Bears and their first-round draft pick, linebacker Roquan Smith. He has held out demanding a provision that if he is suspended for violating the rule, the team won’t take back some of his guaranteed pay. He fears he will have trouble adapting his aggressive style to fit the new rule. The Bears have refused, and with good reason: It makes no sense to protect a player from the consequences of making illegal hits.
A lot of grumbling has been heard from players about how the league is changing the game, forcing them to unlearn techniques that have long been standard. What they and Smith should appreciate is that the reform is for their health and safety. Of the concussions last season, the NFL determined, 57 came on plays that would have drawn a flag under the new rule.
The change addresses just one part of a broader malady: the epidemic of chronic traumatic encephalopathy among former professional players. Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at Boston University’s medical school, reported last year that she had examined the brains of 111 deceased NFL veterans — 110 of them had CTE. Preventing concussions would be helpful, though the ordinary blows to the head that football entails are believed to be enough to cause this debilitating and incurable disease.
The human consequences of CTE — memory loss, depression, dementia and more — are enormous. Even the NFL’s financial health is at risk. It entered a settlement that obligates it to compensate hundreds of former players, with the total amount expected to surpass $1 billion. The league is under intense pressure to find ways to minimize the risk to its athletes.
The implementation of this rule may be messy. Expect the preseason to feature a lot of confusion and a lot of yellow laundry on the turf. Expect a lot of griping from people accusing the NFL of becoming a refuge for pantywaists.
But the game has undergone many changes to make it safer, and the need for this one is hard to deny. Barring a retreat by the NFL, players will have to stop using their helmets as weapons. Atlanta Falcons CEO Rich McKay, head of the competition committee, emphasized the need “to teach it out of the game” and “get it out of the game.”
That achievement will protect not only those being blocked and tackled but those who do the blocking and tackling — Roquan Smith included. Like others, he will need to adapt. Facing the possibility of swift, stern penalties, we’re confident he’ll learn to operate under the new rule.
Every important reform creates a certain amount of disruption and discontent. In the end, though, professional football will be safer than before. It needs to be.