# Aaron Rodgers - Concussions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 27, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aaron-rodgers-concussions/565543 "2010-12-27T19:36:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pierrot\_Le\_Fou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f475e1/32.png) [@Pierrot\_Le\_Fou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pierrot_Le_Fou)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aaron-rodgers-concussions/565543/1 "2010-12-27T19:36:20Z")
How many concussions has Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodges suffered in his career (at all levels)? ---
**Author:** ![Al\_Bundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@Al\_Bundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al_Bundy)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aaron-rodgers-concussions/565543/2 "2010-12-27T21:29:58Z")
I don’t know for sure. There have been times I wished I had his new helmet on. Doctors might say a concussion is a concussion. The NFL has come up with a protocol to prevent a quick repeat of them, which is extra bad for long term brain damage. It’s just my opinion that a boxer might suffer a concussion in the ring and it could be the result of repeated blows and perhaps over several rounds whereas a football player receives a concussion on a single play and leaves the game. The football player could probably take a few over a career with far less damage. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aaron-rodgers-concussions/565543/3 "2010-12-27T22:14:51Z")
He’s had two this year. Wikipedia doesn’t mention any others. And of course we can only talk about known concussions. > [@Al\_Bundy](#): > > It’s just my opinion that a boxer might suffer a concussion in the ring and it could be the result of repeated blows and perhaps over several rounds whereas a football player receives a concussion on a single play and leaves the game. No. It hasn’t been proved yet, but there is evidence that football players suffer a lot of damage from repeated collisions like hits in practice, not just from the big hits that might knock an individual player out of a game. It’s the same as what happens in boxing and with guys who end up punch drunk. Malcolm Gladwell recently wrote about head injuries and football in the New Yorker. [Here’s a cite from late in the story](http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/10/19/091019fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all): > [@](#): > > Yet the HITS data suggest that practice—the routine part of the sport—can be as dangerous as the games themselves. We also tend to focus on the dramatic helmet-to-helmet hits that signal an aggressive and reckless style of play. Those kinds of hits can be policed. But what sidelined the U.N.C. player, the first time around, was an accidental and seemingly innocuous elbow, and none of the blows he suffered that day would have been flagged by a referee as illegal. Most important, though, is what Guskiewicz found when he reviewed all the data for the lineman on that first day in training camp. He didn’t just suffer those four big blows. He was hit in the head thirty-one times that day. What seems to have caused his concussion, in other words, was his cumulative exposure. > […]But a football player’s real issue isn’t simply with repetitive concussive trauma. It is, as the concussion specialist Robert Cantu argues, with repetitive subconcussive trauma. It’s not just the handful of big hits that matter. It’s lots of little hits, too. ---
**Author:** ![Raskolnikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac8455/32.png) [@Raskolnikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raskolnikov)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aaron-rodgers-concussions/565543/4 "2010-12-28T01:24:53Z")
I think it’s time to take the helmets off. It would actually be safer. the guys are over-protected and that leads to a feeling of invincability where you can throw your body around and use your helmet as a weapon. works for rugby and aussie rules. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aaron-rodgers-concussions/565543/5 "2010-12-28T02:33:41Z")
> [@Raskolnikov](#): > > I think it’s time to take the helmets off. It would actually be safer. [No, it absolutely would not.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_American_football#Rules_standardization_.281873.E2.80.931880.29) > [@](#): > > From its earliest days as a mob game, football was a violent sport. […] One of the major problems was the popularity of mass-formations like the flying wedge, in which a large number of offensive players charged as a unit against a similarly arranged defense. The resultant collisions often led to serious injuries and sometimes even death. > > The situation came to a head in 1905 when there were 19 fatalities nationwide. This is also referenced in the New Yorker article I linked to earlier. I agree that the players are likely to take more risks if they believe they can’t get hurt, but the helmets do work. Today, players are bigger, stronger, and faster, and passes and the spread offense have become a major part of the game. I expect the kickoff returns are also bigger, and those are the most dangerous plays. If you did all that without helmets, people would get killed. It’s not just that the players launch themselves at each other to make hits like they’re mashing the square button in Madden, although that IS an issue. Plenty of the high-profile concussions we have seen this year were not caused by players diving at each other. ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aaron-rodgers-concussions/565543/6 "2010-12-28T17:31:29Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Plenty of the high-profile concussions we have seen this year were not caused by players diving at each other. Great points, Marley. A sizable percentage of concussions are caused by the head hitting the ground. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aaron-rodgers-concussions/565543/7 "2010-12-28T18:18:47Z")
> [@anson2995](#): > > Great points, Marley. A sizable percentage of concussions are caused by the head hitting the ground. Thanks. Rodgers’ latest concussion is an example of that, and so is Brett Favre’s. ---
**Author:** ![Raskolnikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac8455/32.png) [@Raskolnikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raskolnikov)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aaron-rodgers-concussions/565543/8 "2010-12-29T01:36:22Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > [No, it absolutely would not.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_American_football#Rules_standardization_.281873.E2.80.931880.29) > > This is also referenced in the New Yorker article I linked to earlier. I agree that the players are likely to take more risks if they believe they can’t get hurt, but the helmets do work. Today, players are bigger, stronger, and faster, and passes and the spread offense have become a major part of the game. I expect the kickoff returns are also bigger, and those are the most dangerous plays. If you did all that without helmets, people would get killed. It’s not just that the players launch themselves at each other to make hits like they’re mashing the square button in Madden, although that IS an issue. Plenty of the high-profile concussions we have seen this year were not caused by players diving at each other. you’re comparing 1905 with 2010? the game is way different nowadays. they used to be able to clothsline someone back then. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aaron-rodgers-concussions/565543/9 "2010-12-29T02:52:43Z")
> [@Raskolnikov](#): > > you’re comparing 1905 with 2010? the game is way different nowadays. they used to be able to clothsline someone back then. Yes, because after 1905 _they changed the rules because people people were getting killed_. Why do you think that wouldn’t happen today if for some incomprehensible reason the helmets were eliminated? And why are you assuming there are more concussions now than there were back then, when this was not being studied and the technology to do so didn’t exist? These days the players train year-round (Albert Haynesworth excepted), almost all the linemen weigh more than 300 pounds, and everybody is much bigger, quicker, and more skilled than they were 100 years ago. And yet you don’t hear about anybody dying on the field. You do see concussion and neck injuries, which is sad, but it’s the result of a couple of things. One is that players sometimes launch themselves at each other, and another is that this is a game played at high speed by very strong guys who are crashing into each other. Concussions are a problem today. _Deaths_ were a problem before helmets and safety gear. It does not stand to reason that if you eliminated helmets, you would see fewer concussions and no deaths. The problem wasn’t solved with helmets alone; they also changed the rules of the game to give the players more space. You could argue the pendulum has swung the other way now, since the players are so spread out and can build up a lot of speed. But football used to be more dangerous, not less. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aaron-rodgers-concussions/565543/10 "2010-12-29T03:18:27Z")
> [@Raskolnikov](#): > > you’re comparing 1905 with 2010? the game is way different nowadays. they used to be able to clothsline someone back then. And now players are making so many helmet to helmet hits, it’s carrying personal fouls for unnecessary roughness, and in some cases, fines. Yeah, trade in the helmets for caskets.