Steps the NFL could take to limit head injuries
I love NFL football. I lived my first 30 years in Pittsburgh and my next 40 in Allentown, so I am partial to both the Steelers and the Eagles, but it pains me to see players getting serious head injuries and the cumulative brain disease CTE.
Recently, Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a serious injury to the back of his head when he was knocked to the ground and then stumbled going back to the huddle, returned to play in the second half, and then was injured again the following week.
Aside from this type of severe head injury and concussions, there is the cumulative effect of smaller blows to the head over many years resulting in the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Symptoms can include impulse control problems, aggression, mood swings, depression, paranoia, anxiety, short-term memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment and dementia.
CTE was discovered in Pittsburgh on Steelers center “Iron” Mike Webster’s brain tissue by forensic neuropathologist Bennet Omalu. It is estimated that he had been in the equivalent of 25,000 automobile crashes in over 25 years of playing football. A few other more recognizable NFL names that also died after suffering CTE include Nick Buoniconti, Earl Morrall, Ken Stabler, Junior Seau, Bubba Smith,
Aaron Hernandez and Frank Gifford. These NFL players were confirmed with CTE post-mortem along with at least 60 others so far.
Many living former players show symptoms that could indicate CTE (which can’t be confirmed without a post-mortem examination of a player’s brain). Notable names include
O.J. Simpson and Tony Dorsett.
Since identifying the CTE link to football, players are now more informed about the risks and can make decisions accordingly, such
as retiring early, but the NFL has not made many changes to the game to protect players.
Following are some ideas to reduce CTE and concussions to protect players. These fall into two categories: rule changes and equipment changes.
Some possible rule changes:
Eliminate kickoffs and just start at the 20 yard line.
Eliminate punt returns and make every punt an automatic fair catch.
Limit playing time to 20 minutes per game per player.
Some possible equipment changes:
Redesign helmets with a
crumple zone consisting of a thin outer shell with filling between inner and outer shells to absorb impact energy, similar to automobile design. The outer shell would be permanently deformed, displaying the results of the impact while reducing the energy absorbed by the player.
Install G sensors to measure the impact force on the head. Each “G” is the multiple of the gravity force felt by the player’s head.
I envision the G sensors as three thin accelerometers, each measuring the real-time acceleration during impact in 3-D. Locations of the sensors would be on the top of the head, back
of the head, and at one ear, all on the inner lining of the helmet.
The peak force in each of the three sensors would be added as vectors (i.e. force and direction in X, Y and Z axes) providing a resultant combined peak force.
All this information would be transmitted wirelessly to computers and displayed instantly to officials, team managers and onto TV. The sensor technology already exists. This is not science fiction.
A player’s total cumulative damage would be computed from the individual CPFs. Just as a car moving at 20 mph has four times the energy (not two times) as a car moving at 10 mph, collisions are nonlinear and exponentially more damaging, so you can’t simply add up the individual CPFs. This is similar to the cumulative damage theory in engineering related to metal fatigue failures.
There will also be a G level below which a collision is considered to be harmless, similar to the endurance limit stress for metals below which there is no damage. It would be interesting to define this number.
Similarly, there will be a G level above which a player should never receive, and if he did, he should retire. Limits for TCD could be established for each game and for each season. After limits are reached the player must sit out until the next game or the next season. Lifetime limits could also be set. NASA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration with their crash test dummy data should be a wealth of information.
The idea of setting damage limits is not unprecedented. The nuclear industry sets limits for radiation exposure at 5 rems per year. Long-haul truck driving hours are regulated too, with rules such as “may drive a maximum of 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty.”
Some will argue that too much protection of players takes excitement out of the game, but regulating player TCD would add new dimensions to the game. Coaching strategy would have to consider player TCD limits, resulting in more use of all the players. Player’s skill and physical ability would be just as important as ever and players might be able to have longer careers.
In addition to keeping players safe, medical costs would go down. There is no reason that all players should not be able to enjoy decades of life after pro football with full mental capabilities. Future generations hopefully can look back and wonder why it took so long to properly protect the lives and livelihoods of NFL players and their families.