I had no idea. Is there any medical studies about this phenomenon, or is MMA too new (or too small) to have been extensively examined?
Hey, now, that’s an idea. Mechwarrior football! They already have that animated robot mascot…
No cite, but I recall reading a book 30+ years ago asking the same sorts of questions. One solution I recall was to put air filled padding on the outside of the helmets.
Questions about football safety were also raised after Darryl Stingley was permanently injured during a game in 1978. He was left a quadriplegic. So it’s not a new question.
Two things:
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If anyone thinks football players aren’t doing something that renders the current NFL testing regime a joke, go compare the number of 300 lb. plus guys in the NFL now to number 20 years ago.
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I’ve said this several times now, but the head injury problem is being caused by the very implement that is supposed to be protecting players’ heads - the helmet. Current helmets have a rock-hard exterior that allows players to use their heads as battering rams. Every time a player takes a helmet to helmet shot (and for linemen, that’s pretty much every play), it’s the equivalent to getting bashed with a rock.
I guess they’ll keep tinkering with the off-side law.
About:
- the terrible brain injuries suffered by linebackers-when these guys are autopsied, the pathologist finds their brains turned to mush
- the shocking truth about NFL retirees (no, not the quaterbacks)-many of these guys are crippled and in constant pain from internal injuries
- the crappy way the NFL treats retired, injured players
Read all about it in October GQ Magazine. The medical examiner who discovered the brain damage was attacked by the NFL!
I think being an NFL start is like selling your soul to the deil-you get 5-10 years of fame and fortune-and a bad end afterwards.
Wouldn’t increasing the distance increase the problem? It would give the rushers more time to build up momentum, rather than just lunging from the set position. If anything, make the lines closer so when the ball is hiked the lines push rather than crash.
Anyway, do rugby players have problems like this? Maybe more padding isn’t the solution.
There are stories every year about players at the high school, college, and even pro level dying of heat exhaustion from being denied water while in practice. There’s no need for more scientific study on this. Lots of excercise + excessive heat + no access to water = fainting or death. Everyone knows it, there’s a really simple fix, and yet it continues to happen.
So no, I don’t see major changes happening based upon the possibility of a long term brain injury.
Football should change, IMHO. They should start scheduling games so every team plays nearly every day. Here’s why:
I can’t be bothered to wait a frikkin’ week to see my favorite team play.
I also can’t be bothered to have more than one team to follow.
So, there’s the deal, NFL-boys. You wants the old kaylasdaddio in your corner, you’ll do whatever it takes to make a baseball-like season feasible.
For many veteran players, it takes them nearly the entire week for their bodies to stop being sore. I know Mike Tomlin of the Steelers lets some of his vets skip Wednesday practices to reduce the wear and tear. Of all the possible changes, reducing practice time and intensity is probably the most obvious and practical. I remember in high school having 2 full contact practices a week (Tuesday and Wednesday, with games on Friday) because the coaches wanted us to stay aggressive (or whatever silly motivational reasons they had for it). I doubt my experience was unique.
If the main cause of head injures in American football is because players lead with their head, that doesn’t happen in rugby league. Whilst occasionally someone will catch a knee because of a poorly executed tackle, but generally your head stays out of it.
Other accidental head clashes happen of course, and head high tackles too. The latter being heavily policed nowadays, so also not a major source of head injuries.
Naked Jello Wrestling?
They don’t have to play so rough, then.
I always told my coach that we should just calmly bargain over who gets to be the winner, then end the game with a group hug, but he seemed to think that my running laps was the better solution.
What a maroon (the coach)! Of COURSE your way would have been better. I gould get behind watching my favorite team every night play the game that way!
ETA: It’s like the way I feel whenever I walk past a television where UFC activities are going on. I want to run into the ring and shame those guys for acting like such hooligans – how would their mothers feel to see them spitting on the values they tried to teach them?
Average career is 3.5 years, but getting there requires about 15 years of kid, high school and college ball.
You don’t need steroids to explain it.
Nutritional science and techniques have advanced since then. We know how to build muscle. Strength training and endurance techniques have improved. Teams have full time staffs of trainers, doctors, therapists, nutritionists, etc. The players full time jobs all year around are to stay in tip top shape. This has spread to the lower levels too - college and high school programs are more likely to have very aggressive strength training programs. And for that matter scouting programs to find the best natural athletes who can compete at this size.
Olympic records get shattered regularly in part because of similar factors - do you think the olympics are compromised thoroughly too?
Not in recent years. Rules in rugby union changed so the packs are closer together at engage (they brought in a set of three moves the props have to do before engagement: crouch, touch, pause then engage). This has drastically reduced the number of quadriplegics and players with serious spinal injuries whilst still having a competitive scrum (though there’s still a large risk from scrum collapse). Further, the rules about who can play in the front row are very regimented: every player playing there has to be a specialist, even in the amateur game, and if they get injured, either another specialist come on, or the scrum is made non-competitive. There’s still calls for scrums to be made non-competitive, though, every now and again, including a high-profile British consultant spinal surgeon, this year.
Rugby league has had non-competitive scrums for ages (not sure when they were brought in?).
AFAIA, leading with the head is illegal (and also pretty stupid, I remember a guy nearly snapping his neck by getting his head in the wrong place at school). There’s also the fact that a valid rugby tackle (in both codes, IIRC) has to have the tackler wrap his arms around the guy being tackled.
Actually I am considering MMA as a dissertation topic and there is some scholarship on your very question. John Hopkins did a study in 2006 and published it in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine. They concluded in part
“The injury rate in MMA competitions is compatible with other combat sports involving striking. The lower knockout rates in MMA compared to boxing may help prevent brain injury in MMA events.”
Of all the suggestions I have read in this thread, two seem to make much sense. First force the linemen to stand up, rather than crouch. That way, the scrimmage doesn’t start by banging heads. Second, pad the outside of the helmet. The second one maybe even has aa chance of being adopted. Another thing might be to reduce the size of the line from 7 to 3 players. Since they would have their main job be protection of the QB, they would likely begin each scrimmage by pulling back, rather than clashing with the defense.
Incidentally Canadian football has a yard separation between the lines, but it seems to me to mean they just hit harder when they clash. No play is permitted to start inside the 1, so even if you are stopped 1" from the goal, the next play starts at the 1. The twelfth player on the field is an extra back.