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Player Safety


GP1

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The Chris Henry story this week has opened up a lot of discussion about player safety in the NFL. If you read this story closely, you see he had head injuries as far back as college while playing at WVU. UofA probably has some players playing right now who have experienced the same type of injury and may be in the same condition as Chris Henry was at WVU.

Player safety should be a the front of all discussions about college football and you almost never read about it. Instead, we get mostly talk about realignment (realignment is an important issue). The NCAA cares more about money than the NFL does. This article points out two very important changes the NFL should enact. First, no three point stances. Second, weight limits on players need to be a must. There are already rules about hitting with your head so they just need to enforce those rules. The problem is, I don't know how these needed changes would have helped Chris Henry. He played a position that "little" people play. Speed is part of the force equation so it isn't like he was hit by a huge player after catching a pass. He gets hit by extremely fast people. He also never played out of a three point stance.

What I do think would happen with the above changes is an even reduced focus on the running game and as a percent of plays. The spread offense would be a permanent fixture in college and NFL. Man-to-man defenses would be forced to be played and the player getting clocked over the middle by a safety would be reduced to next to nothing. We already see football moving in this direction.

Any thoughts on player safety?

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I think the equipment in use is partly to blame. The helmet "protects" players pretty well, so in turn, they feel invincible. It leads to more injuries long term, even if they're not apparent directly when they occur. Hitting with the head, near the head & neck .. whether intentional or not, is serious bananas and should be dealt with seriously.

There ought to be a rule, from the NFL on down to Pop Warner or PeeWee that if you lead with the head, if you hit someone with your helmet, or if you hit them in the helmet .. it's an immediate ejection. First offense is ejection just for the current game. Second offense generates an additional one game suspension, and third offense you sit for the rest of the season.

I think it may need to be phased in, but it HAS to start at the lower levels. Anyone who ever played football is ingrained at a young age certain rules about offsides, motion .. etc. This needs to be one of them. Only by making it really serious at all levels will this be addressed adequately. This won't solve hitting your head on the ground or another player as you're tackled, but it may help the problem. The head is not, and should not be, a weapon. The faster that gets solved the better the players will be, and additionally in my opinion, the better the game will be.

I write this as my son is at (flag) football camp this week. But I can promise you that I'd rather him play rugby than football. The equipment makes the players feel empowered to play with reckless abandon.

Go Zips!

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The Chris Henry story this week has opened up a lot of discussion about player safety in the NFL. If you read this story closely, you see he had head injuries as far back as college while playing at WVU. UofA probably has some players playing right now who have experienced the same type of injury and may be in the same condition as Chris Henry was at WVU.

Player safety should be a the front of all discussions about college football and you almost never read about it. Instead, we get mostly talk about realignment (realignment is an important issue). The NCAA cares more about money than the NFL does. This article points out two very important changes the NFL should enact. First, no three point stances. Second, weight limits on players need to be a must. There are already rules about hitting with your head so they just need to enforce those rules. The problem is, I don't know how these needed changes would have helped Chris Henry. He played a position that "little" people play. Speed is part of the force equation so it isn't like he was hit by a huge player after catching a pass. He gets hit by extremely fast people. He also never played out of a three point stance.

What I do think would happen with the above changes is an even reduced focus on the running game and as a percent of plays. The spread offense would be a permanent fixture in college and NFL. Man-to-man defenses would be forced to be played and the player getting clocked over the middle by a safety would be reduced to next to nothing. We already see football moving in this direction.

Any thoughts on player safety?

This adds to my overall thought that these kids are COLLEGE STUDENTS who participate in athletics. The STUDENT part should always be the primary objective. And their safety while participating in their sport should always be a big part of regarding them as students first.

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Only 25% of the NFL wore the Revolution helmet last year. Creepy-Ben is going to wear it this year after rejecting it upon team request for three years.

It's probably too late for Ben, but the more kids seeing superstars wearing it, the more they will want to wear it.

GYI0060208468_team.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

OK CK...............I actually did play in a helmet with a one bar cage (see Billy Kilmer or was it Sonny Jurgenson?), so you got me.

GP's right (like he is most of the time I reluctantly add), the damn NCAA should be attending to the issue.

I think GP can speak to this better than I can, but a high percentage (maybe in the 90s) of guys on the field this fall for UA will have already had MULTIPLE concussions, and many already have serious concussion syndrome which is the tendency to get them easier and easier as each additional incremental one occurs.

I think I can safely say a BUNCH of guys coming out of college football careers bail on taking the next step because they are already "limited out" on concussions, not to mention bulging disks and scoped out knees.

Good topic GP...............for a slow time especially....................maybe we can get some real stories going,

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ZW............couple observations.

I was around a TON of youth football.....................and other youth sports for both boys and girls. The way our programs were run, with weight restrictions and excellent supervision, I NEVER saw a serious injury in YFB. I'm talking about players in 3rd and 4th grade for Flag, 5th and 6th for "B Football" equipped, and 7th and 8th for "A Football". I was closely involved with it for 8 or 9 years and knew what was happening in an entire league.

The little guys (and once in a while gals) in the "B" league were great. They were so heavily equipped, and the rules (including weight restrictions) were so well set up and observed that it was really hard to imagine someone getting seriously injured including concussion (slow speed, low impact).

I do know of a couple concussions happening in youth soccer as high speed (relatively high for 5th and 6th graders) head collisions took place. I also know of pretty serious injuries in baseball for kids of the same age bracket.

So what I am trying to say I guess, is don't sweat the youth football if you find it to be well run and supervised. You can ratchet up your concern as Little Watcher moves on to "A" and HS FB.

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Hey Padre!

Thanks for the comment & info. Good to hear from someone who's been through it.

My concern isn't as much that injuries will happen at the YF level .. but moreso that if the leagues aren't controlling things tightly enough, that bad habits would develop. These bad habits regarding helmet hits might not create injuries at the pee wee level .. but would translate to injuries in HS & college. Perhaps I'm concerned for nothing.

We all have instincts in hoops about dribbling when walking with the ball .. FB players need to have those same instincts when it comes to hitting.

Little Watcher is more coordinated @ 5 than I was when I was 20 .. mother's genes. And he loves FB .. so I'm sure I'll have to navigate this eventually.

Go Zips!

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Z-P nailed it. My son is just about to start his 5th year of youth football. The most serious injuries if have seen were caused by large piles and limbs being twisted and fallen on. The equipment and the rules prevent almost any highspeed collisions. His helmets fit his head like a glove and the shoulder pads really do work to prevent injuries.

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I think GP can speak to this better than I can, but a high percentage (maybe in the 90s) of guys on the field this fall for UA will have already had MULTIPLE concussions, and many already have serious concussion syndrome which is the tendency to get them easier and easier as each additional incremental one occurs.

I would agree with the 90%. The concussion could go as far back as JR high school, but at some point there were signs and the signs went unreported.

What I remember the most was the first day of full contact almost immediately getting a low grade headache. I remember this as far back as high school. It wouldn't even take a hit to the head. Sometimes it just took a jarring hit for it to set in. They were never diagnosed as concussions as I never told anyone, but everyone got them. After a couple of days I would stop getting them for the remainder of they season. I don't know what it all means, but I know it happened to a lot of people.

We had a coach that always said, "We want the big guys (interior linemen) blocking the big guys, the medium size guys (RBs, TEs, LBs) blocking the medium size guys and the little guys (WRs, DBs) blocking the little guys. I think there should be a study of former NFL players placed in these groups to test for concussion issues after NFL retirement. My guess is the medium size guys would show the most damage. Interior linemen, while big, don't get up much of a head of steam when they hit. The little guys don't get hit that often. The medium size guys get hit all the time and get a running start at each other. The size and speed of the medium sized guys creates an enormous force.

This is a very serious issue.

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Worse yet, guys get them and don't take themselves out of the game.................I heard a story about this once ;)

At Purdue, I know a certain player who's number was called to receive a center screen near the end of the first half. It was a two back set with misdirection...............and the other back (BP) missed his assignment on the back side OLB who planted his helmet in the receiving backs earhole. The earholed player got up and only saw a "tunnel"...............in otherwords all his vision was black except for a small tunnel in the middle of his view. Next play? Screen pass to the earholed back (who wsas having a big half)...............it took all the concentration he could muster to watch the ball into his hands, which he caught and headed up field wide open! it was off to the races................but wihout vision he never saw a DB coming from the side and the unseen hit caused a fumble.................fortunately that time no harm done as the half soon came to an end. But at the half, they hid the concussed guys helmet and shoulder pads so he couldn't return to the field for the second half

True story.

The pace of the game is so fast with a 40 second clock ticking that that kind of stuff probably happens all the time.

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  • 3 years later...

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