Head Shots

Professional boxers intentionally try to induce concussions in their opponents as the shortcut to victory – it’s called a knockout. But except for this extreme contact sport, professional sports (and their advanced high school and collegiate equivalents) are moving in a different direction. Even little things, like “heading” a soccer ball (literally using your head to direct the ball), are now carrying warnings for younger players, particularly below the age of 10, although these are hardly the serious risks faced by bigger players making very hard contact with something or someone. The National Hockey League has issued an entirely new set of guidelines and rules that focus on blindside hits to the head, which can result not just in game penalties and ejections, but in serious suspensions from a number of games.

Famous NHL players have seen their careers ended (Eric Lindross) or curtailed (the recently returned Sidney Crosby) from concussions, an injury that particularly plagues sports like ice hockey and football. While the National Football League actually doesn’t certify helmets for their players, Virginia Tech set out to rate helmet for their relative effectiveness in reducing injury. “A star-rating system modeled on crash safety rankings for automobiles, the rankings clearly identify the best and worst helmets. Virginia Tech researchers give high marks to these helmets: the Riddell Speed, Riddell Revolution, Riddell Revolution IQ; the Schutt Ion 4D and Schutt DNA; and the Xenith X1. The Virginia Tech researchers give medium grades to the Schutt Air XP and Schutt Air Advantage. The Virginia Tech rankings warn players not to wear these helmets: the Riddell VSR4 [pictured above] and the Adams A2000.

“Now the chilling part: the VSR4 -- Virginia Tech's second-lowest-rated helmet -- was the most common helmet in the NFL last season. The VSR4 is widely worn in college and high school, too. Immediately after the Virginia Tech findings were released, Riddell advised football teams to stop using the VSR4, long the company's best seller.” ESPN.go.com, July 19^th. The issues have been discussed in the backrooms of collective bargaining sessions, examined in locker rooms all over the world and, most recently, have been the subject matter of serious efforts in courtrooms, trying to establish standards of care and responsibility. Long subject to a general liability-releasing notion of “assumption of the risk,” courts are giving this arena another examination to see if that notion, and the contractual releases that go with it, truly shelter the teams, colleges, schools, associations and leagues from liability.

Central Arkansas wide receiver, Derek Owens, actually caught a punted ball and hung on as a violent tackle ended his ability to play any contact sport forever. He and Alex Rucks (a Northwestern linesman) have filed a class action lawsuit against the National College Athletic Association: “Both claim they have suffered preventable brain trauma… Attorneys for the players say the NCAA failed to establish a head injury screening system and hasn't enforced safety measures introduced in the 1970s. The lawsuit seeks to have the NCAA institute a medical monitoring program.

“The NCAA called the lawsuit ‘merely a copycat’ of a lawsuit filed earlier this month by former Eastern Illinois player Adrian Arrington seeking class-action status. The NCAA says Wednesday's lawsuit ‘contains gross misstatements’ and plaintiff's attorneys ‘have a fundamental misunderstanding’ of the NCAA.” ESPN.go.com, September 28^th.

“The legal action comes after a five-year flurry of awareness of brain injuries in contact sports and follows lawsuits filed this year by dozens of former N.F.L. players who claim the league was negligent in its handling of brain trauma. The issue has moved from science labs to Congress and now to courtrooms, where the financial exposure of the sport’s governing bodies may be tested… The N.F.L. is subsidizing care for some of the most seriously damaged of its former players, after public and Congressional pressure forced the league to acknowledge the gravity of the issue. But the damage did not begin with the first hit in an N.F.L. training camp. Players have been absorbing blows to the brain since they were children.

“‘I hear from former players who were taught spearing,’ said Representative Linda T. Sánchez, Democrat of California, who has been an active participant in Congressional hearings into brain damage among N.F.L. players. Her constituents tell her how they learned to use modern helmets as weapons to injure their opponents in youth leagues or high school.” New York Times, November 29^th. Helmet-makers are working overtime to create helmets that provide greater protection to players, but so many legacy helmets are still “out there,” with an economy that deters both teams and players (particularly at the amateur, high school and collegiate levels) from stepping and buying new equipment. Some, under a false sense of bravado that is often necessary to play any of these games, think they are simply going to “man-up” and stay with traditional equipment.

If you think concussions and head shots are simply sports injuries where players should just “tough it out,” think again. Repeated blows to the head go well-beyond the immediate shorter term symptoms, but it took a couple of suicides from professional athletes with serial concussions to prove the theory. Most of this damage can only be measured posthumously by looking at the brain itself. NHL enforcer, Derek Boogaard (still in his 20s), was only one of several former NHL enforcers whose suicide invited a more thorough post-mortem examination of their brains. Mood swings, drug addiction, loss of emotional connectivity and generally erratic behavior marked Boogaard’s behavior shortly before his death. “Two other N.H.L. enforcers died, reportedly suicides, stoking a debate about the toll of their role in hockey.

“Boogaard had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, commonly known as C.T.E., a close relative of Alzheimer’s disease. It is believed to be caused by repeated blows to the head. It can be diagnosed only posthumously, but scientists say it shows itself in symptoms like memory loss, impulsiveness, mood swings, even addiction… More than 20 dead former N.F.L. players and many boxers have had C.T.E. diagnosed. It generally hollowed out the final years of their lives into something unrecognizable to loved ones… And now, the fourth hockey player, of four examined, was found to have had it, too.” New York Times, December 5^th. But Boogaard was the youngest player ever diagnosed with this disease, perhaps because no one ever performed such an autopsy on someone so young. The results of these autopsies are nothing short of stunning.

We know there are risks. We know that a school or league may or may not insure that its players have the latest and the greatest equipment out there, whether out of financial considerations or just plain ignorance. We are still learning about the brain, one of the least understood organs of the body, but we do know that slamming into a head repeatedly doesn’t exactly improve cognitive function! It is our responsibility as parents, brothers/sisters, and taxpayers to make sure that players are in fact accorded the state-of-the-art protection in their particular sports. Not protecting or talking about it serves absolutely no one. Even from a greedy, self-preservation perspective to extinguish massive lawsuits against school districts and local league – costs borne by all of us – we need to pay attention to this issue.

I’m Peter Dekom, and expressing your care and concern in this part of Americana is more than just a good intention.