The Columbus Dispatch

Taking aim at concussion­s in the NFL

- Chicago Tribune

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 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.

The NFL has acted to reduce this alarming risk with a new rule. 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. 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. 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 Boston University medical school neuropatho­logist, 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 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.

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.

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