PLYMOUTH – Just as “Friday Night Lights” is about to start on high school fields across the country, the headlines have been full of the subject of a different kind of famous football film — “Concussion.”
Will Smith starred in the movie of that title about Dr. Bennet Omalu, a forensic pathologist that is credited with doing a groundbreaking study on NFL football players highlighting the horrors of chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The study led to a flurry of actions designed to lower the risk of brain damage incurred over time by military veterans as well as the damage done by years of contact sports, in particular NFL football.
Unfortunately, CTE can only be positively diagnosed with an autopsy. A study published Tuesday in the medical journal JAMA outlined the results of a study by experts at Boston University’s CTE Center that showed the disease in 110 of the 111 brains donated by former NFL athletes. The study went further finding CTE in 48 of 53 brains donated by college players and three of 14 high school players.
While the headlines from the study’s release focused on the findings from NFL players, the same study also looked at more than 3,000 former high school football players now in their 60s, and found no statistical or clinically significant association between playing high school football and increased cognitive impairment or depression later in life.
Since the release of the study some top neurologists have expressed great concern over the findings but some have also urged parents of younger players to have caution over preventing their children from participation in contact sports such as football because of it.
Dr. Uzma Samadani, an associate professor in the department of neurosurgery at the University of Minnesota, is one of those.
“I think if your child wants to play football, you should let them play,” she was quoted as saying in a story published in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “It’s a risk/benefit situation, and the risks are far lower than the benefits. My kid wanted to play, so I had to check it out. Anybody would do that for their kid.”
Samadani believes the impression is that professional and high school athletes fall in the same level of risk and that is not necessarily the case.
“Professional teams and high school teams are on completely different levels,” she said in the Star-Tribune story. “A pro player will sacrifice himself to reach certain goals. High school players, most of them don’t want to get hurt. They’re very reasonable.”
“Players today are definitely bigger, stronger and faster than the days when I played,” said Plymouth High School head football coach John Barron. “But even so, there is no comparison between the speed of the game in high school and at the different levels as you go up. I don’t think a lot of parents get that in perspective until their son moves on and attempts to play football at Division III or Division II or higher. The size and speed and the force those players can generate is in another realm, especially at places like Notre Dame, Purdue or IU.
“Yes we do occasionally play some Division I athletes in the course of our season, but at most one, maybe two on the field at a time, not 22 of them.”
Education is the key once again as most football coaches at all levels must pass tests on concussions, heat acclimation and fitting of helmets and shoulder pads before they ever work on a play. In Plymouth, they must also pass the NFL’s “Head’s Up” tackling protocol before they can be a part of the program.
“They pass those tests or they don’t coach, even down to our junior league,” said Barron. “The ‘Head’s Up’ program is key because it isn’t just about tackling. It teaches a player how to take on collisions, how to avoid that injury. I think the idea of levels of contact is essential for players health.”
Many local schools like Plymouth adopted protocols revolving around concussions and contact and several years ago the state of Indiana got involved and made such programs mandatory.
“There is no such thing as two-a-days anymore,” said Barron. “Practices are specifically organized. You can’t put on full pads until day four of your practices once the school year starts. You cannot take a player to the ground, except for specified days. You can only have one day of full contact and then you have to have at least a 24 hour break in between. During the season it’s the same. You are only allowed two days a week when you can take a player to the ground and you have to have the 24 hour break between each of those days.”
If a concussion is suspected during a game, the coaching staff has no say in the determination on the status of the player.
“Ryan Carroll, our head trainer, is there on the sideline and he is the sole person who makes that determination,” said Barron. “No coach is involved with that process. He is the one who makes that call.”
Carroll is helped by other members of the PHS training staff on the sideline each game, which includes a medical doctor and orthopedic specialist.
“I completely get if if a parent wants to hold their child out of football. I totally understand not wanting to take that risk,” said Barron. “I’m obviously going to be an advocate for the game. I just want parents and players to have all the information they can have and know that everything we do puts the safety of our players first.”
