NAMA : YUNITA TRISYANI
NPM : 24209995
KELAS : 3EB11
Head Injuries in Football
Updated:
Oct. 21, 2010
Head
injuries, including concussions, particularly in the game of American football,
have become a subject of deep concern, much study and even Congressional
hearings in the United States.
Concussions
Contrary to
popular belief, a concussion is not a
bruise to the brain caused by hitting a hard surface. Indeed, no
physical swelling or bleeding is usually seen on radiological scans. The injury
generally occurs when the head either accelerates rapidly and then is stopped, or is spun rapidly.
This violent
shaking causes the brain cells to become depolarized and fire all their
neurotransmitters at once in an unhealthy cascade, flooding the brain with
chemicals and deadening certain receptors linked to learning and memory. The
results often include confusion, blurred vision, memory loss, nausea and,
sometimes, unconsciousness.
Neurologists
say once a person suffers a concussion, he is as much as four times more likely
to sustain a second one. Moreover, after several concussions, it takes less of
a blow to cause the injury and requires more time to recover.
Studies on
Head Injuries
A 2000 study
surveyed 1,090 former N.F.L. players and found more than 60 percent had
suffered at least one concussion in their careers and 26 percent had had three
or more. Those who had had concussions reported more problems with memory,
concentration, speech impediments, headaches and other neurological problems
than those who had not, the survey found.
A 2007 study
conducted by the University of North Carolina's Center for the Study of Retired
Athletes found that of the 595 retired N.F.L. players who recalled sustaining
three or more concussions on the football field, 20.2 percent said they had
been found to have depression. That is three times the rate of players who have
not sustained concussions.
As scrutiny
of brain injuries in football players has escalated in the past few years, with
prominent professionals reporting cognitive problems and academic studies
supporting a link more generally, the N.F.L. and its medical committee on
concussions have steadfastly denied the existence of reliable data on the
issue.
But in
September 2009, a study commissioned by the N.F.L. reported that Alzheimer's
disease or similar memory-related
diseases appear to have been diagnosed in the league's former players
vastly more often than in the national population — including a rate of 19
times the normal rate for men ages 30 through 49.
The study, which was conducted by
the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, has not been
peer-reviewed, but the
findings fall into step with several recent independent studies regarding
N.F.L. players and the effects of their occupational head injuries.
Congressional Hearing
After the study results were
reported, Representative John Conyers Jr., a
Michigan Democrat and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, held a hearing
on the impact of head injuries sustained by N.F.L. players.
The league and Commissioner Roger
Goodell had insisted that the N.F.L.'s policies were safe and that no
third-party involvement was necessary, pointing to research by its committee on
concussions as proof. But after an embarrassing hearing on the issue before the
House Judiciary Committee in which the league was compared to the
tobacco industry, the doctors leading the league's committee resigned.
In December
2009, the league announced that it would impose its most stringent rules to
date on managing concussions, requiring players who exhibit any significant
sign of concussion to be removed from a game or practice and be barred from
returning the same day.
Several
members of Congress portrayed Mr. Goodell and the league as impeding proper
player care and obfuscating the long-term effects of concussions. The league
and a former co-chairman of its committee on brain injuries, Dr. Ira Casson,
have consistently played down studies and anecdotal evidence linking retired
N.F.L. players to brain damage commonly associated with boxers and dementia
rates several times that of the national population.
The N.F.L.
Players Association called for the removal of Dr. Casson, saying that he is too
biased to lead the research and policy group.
On Nov. 24,
2009, Dr. Casson and Dr. David Viano, co-chairmen of the committee, resigned
from the group.
In a memo to
all teams in which he outlined several measures regarding concussions,
Commissioner Goodell said that Dr. Casson and Dr. Viano would "continue to
assist the committee," but offered no details of any future relationship.
Several
doctors testified to links they have found between sports head trauma and later
cognitive degeneration. Dr. Ann McKee, who has studied the brains of football
players after death, testified that she believed the connection was clear and
called for immediate changes to the game and concussion treatment.
Changes in
N.F.L. Rules
The National
Football League on Dec. 3, 2009, announced that it would impose its most
stringent rules to date on managing concussions, requiring players who exhibit
any significant sign of concussion to be removed from a game or practice and be
barred from returning the same day.
The league's former practice of
allowing players to return when their concussion symptoms subside has been
criticized for putting its players at risk. It is widely known that symptoms of
a concussion can reappear hours or days after the injury, indicating that the
player had not healed from the initial blow.
Symptoms
that require immediate removal include amnesia, poor balance and an abnormal
neurological examination, whether or not those symptoms quickly subside. For
symptoms like dizziness and headache, however, a player can return to the field
unless they are "persistent," the statement said.
In July
2010, the N.F.L. asserted greater risks of head injury and toughened warnings
by producing a poster that bluntly alerts its players to the long-term effects
of concussions, using words like "depression" and "early onset
of dementia."
Limited
Standard for Helmets
Football helmets are made in
a largely unmonitored world.
The one helmet standard was
written by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic
Equipment, or Nocsae, a volunteer consortium that includes, and is largely
financed by, the helmet makers themselves. Nocsae accepts no role in ensuring
that helmets, either new or old, meet even its limited requirement. The
standard has not changed meaningfully since it was written in 1973, despite
rising concussion rates in youth football.
Moreover,
used helmets worn by the vast majority of young players encountered stark
lapses in the industry’s few safety procedures. Some of the businesses that
recondition helmets ignored testing rules, performed the tests incorrectly or
returned helmets that were still in poor condition. More than 100,000 children
are wearing helmets too old to provide adequate protection — and perhaps half a
million more are wearing potentially unsafe helmets that require critical
examination, according to interviews with experts and industry data.
Awareness of
head injuries in football was heightened in October 2010 when helmet-first
collisions caused the paralysis
of a Rutgers
University player, a concussion to Philadelphia
Eagles receiver DeSean Jackson and injuries to three other N.F.L. players. Although
some injuries are unavoidable results of football physics, helmet standards
have not kept up with modern football, industry insiders said.
After more than 100 high school and
college football players in the 1960s were killed by skull fractures and
acute brain
bleeding, Nocsae was formed to protect players against the extreme
forces that caused those injuries. The resulting standard, phased in by all levels of
football through the 1970s, requires helmets to withstand a 60-inch free fall
without allowing too much force to reach the skull.
This standard
has accomplished its intent: skull fractures in football have essentially
disappeared, and the three or four football-related deaths each year among
players under 18 are caused by hits following a concussion that has not
healed (known as second-impact syndrome) rather than by a single fatal blow.But as the size and speed of
players have increased since the full adoption of the Nocsae standard in 1980,
concussion rates have as well.
While
bicycle helmets are designed to withstand only one large impact before being
replaced, football helmets can encounter potentially concussive forces hundreds
of times a season. Helmets cannot get too large or heavy, so helmet designers
say they face a trade-off: make helmets stiff enough to withstand high impacts
and allow less violent forces to cause concussions, or more softly cushion
against concussive-type forces while allowing large impacts to crack the skull.
The helmet industry has essentially chosen the former.
ARTICLE 2
Rutgers Football: Are Recruits Being
Taken for a Ride or to Be Applauded?
There was no question that when Greg Schiano suddenly resigned
from coaching RU, and RU was jilted
by Mario Cristobal during negotiations to be RU's head coach, new head coach
Kyle Flood inherited a situation at a major crossroads.Not only did the Scarlet Knights face high expectations this fall, finishing a game out of a tie for first place in the Big East and returning the majority of their key players, but they were set to welcome in the best recruiting class in the history of the program.
With just days to signing day, rival coaches were set to poach RU's class, and it seemed that was an inevitability.
However, that didn't happen.
With glue and tape, Kyle Flood, with the rest of his coaching staff in a state of flux, held this impressive class together.
How did he do it?
Last month, Philadelphia columnist Mike Kern of PhillyNews.com reported that sources were telling him RU had been telling recruits it was planning on moving to the Big Ten "sooner than later."
Rutgers has yet to comment on that report.
So is RU coach Kyle Flood one hell of a salesman or is this just a baseless rumor?
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