Concussions

Interesting article on concussions in high school sports. Skimming the article it would be easy to come away with the conclusion that girls' soccer (8.19 per 10,000 athlete exposures) is almost as dangerous as boy's football (10.4 per 10,000 athlete exposures).

Surprising - right?

My issue with the study stems from their very definition of a concussion which according to the article is "defined as occurring as a result of practice or competition, requiring medical attention and being diagnosed as a concussion." [Bold emphasis added.]

I suffered a concussion my senior year during practice. I was the starting tight end (and defensive end) and the play called for me to run a crossing route and then...

All I remember is getting up and everyone (coaches included) cheering and laughing about the big hit I just took. I simply walked back to the huddle for the next play. Teammates clapping me on the back at how stoically I was shaking off the big hit. Truth is I was in a fog. I had no idea what people were talking about. I was briefly knocked out.

That concussion did not require medical attention and was not diagnosed as a concussion. I have to wonder how many other similar boy's football situations may have gotten missed by this study. I also have to think that any head injuries in girls soccer are much more likely to get noticed and get medical attention.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

So Floyd Money Mayweather and Conor McGregor are trading insults on Twitter. My guess are those are the first shots in a potential re-match marketing campaign... If low-calorie beers were called "skim" beers instead of "light" beers - would they be less popular? Michelob Ultra should definitely be called a skim beer... Putin soften pension reform in face of public anger. I have long speculated that the Russian economy is much weaker and fragile than most people appreciate... Proctodeal Trophollaxis is such a cool way to say "ass-licking". The MSM did a lot of proctodeal trophollaxis of the Obama Administration...  Canada's Trudeau says NAFTA deal possible as early as Friday. This is interesting to watch. Trudeau is facing a lot of pressure to make the deal but my guess is Trump will accept nothing less than a victory for the US... Metabolic Cascades of Dysfunction would be a good name for a fantasy football team. It's also the medical term for "concussions"... For the record I was not invited to the McCain funeral either. I haven't felt this snubbed since Maggie Thatcher's funeral...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Congratulations to the Philadelphia Eagles and all their fans. Very deserved victory Sunday night. Yes I'm disappointed the Patriots didn't win but you cannot take away from the game the Eagles played. They were the better team... I want this door knocker... When people ask "how are you?" Or "how you doing?" I'm going to answer "I'm aggressively happy" and leave them wondering just what the hell that means... Who knew? Cycling causes more concussions than football... In modern dollars the ransoms paid to release England's King Richard the Lionhearted would have cost over $2 billion (34 tons of gold)...  Heh heh - funny because it's true!... February 14th could easily now be renamed National Shave Your Legs and Pubics Day sponsored by Lady Gillette instead of Valentine's Day and there would be more truth in advertising...

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Where do we find men such as Edward Byers Jr?

- The sad tale of what concussions have cost a 41-year old ex-hockey goon.

- How Gawker tricked Donald Trump

- The palace built by a postman - using stones he found on his route. Cool Idea. I'd like to buy a plot of land and do this some day.

- Cool - winners of the 2016 World Press Photo Contest

- 12 tales of accidental brilliance in science

The NFL and the Concussion Protocols

So the NFL wants to fine teams that don't follow the concussion protocols. If I were the NFLPA I wouldn't fall for this. Just another power grab by Roger Goodell.

I have a better suggestion. If a team obviously doesn't follow the concussion protocols (like with what happened to Case Keenum earlier in the season) and a three doctor panel agrees - then the affected player gets his entire contract guaranteed. If a team suddenly feels like there could be salary cap implications in treating a player's health like a disposable commodity - then you would suddenly see a sharp change in how things are handled. Teams would be instantly erring on the side of caution (as they should anyway).

So let it be written so let it be done.

Future of Football

Like many football fans - I had not heard of Chris Borland until he announced his retirement after just one-year in the NFL. [As an aside can you actually retire from a job you've only had one year? Changing professions, quitting, moving on, etc. all seem more appropriate than "retiring". "Chris what are you going to do now that you're retired?" "Get a job of course." How does that equal retirement?]

Here's an interesting post from this morning where the take-away is that agent Leigh Steinberg basically predicted behavior like this.

The article got me thinking of the golden days of boxing where it was the immigrants on the bottom socio-economic rung of society that were willing to put their bodies at risk in order to gain "a way out". The Irish, the Jews, the Italians all had great champions back in the day when they were the newcomers. Then came the great black fighters along with the Latino and other minorities. Then boxing started dying out because nobody participated in the sport for recreation and there weren't many, if any, boxers society at large could identify with.

Is the NFL now staring at a similar cycle? Could be. It wouldn't be surprising to see major college programs start scouting overseas for athletes that could be taught the game because the pool of suburban kids willing to play starts drying up. It also wouldn't be strange to see a resurgence of baseball as parents begin the appreciate the minimal contact aspect of the sport.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Billy Joel screws up lyrics to We Didn't Start The Fire and handles it great

- Speaking of screwed up lyrics - Pearl Jam's Yellow Ledbetter by Misheard Lyrics

- Interesting - Biomarkers could tell doctors when concussed athletes are OK to return to sports

- Africa is a really big place

- Carlton Fisk's historic HR ball up for sale

The NFL Should Study the Rams

I was watching a National Geographic special on mountains and they showed some Rocky Mountain rams head-butting. My immediate thought was that the NFL should study how these rams can get up to speeds of 20 MPH prior to collision and basically do this all day without any apparent brain damage. The rams have a second layer of skull to help absorb the impact - but in essence isn't a football helmet just another layer of skull too? (That I'm thinking of the NFL in June also tells you about my hopes for a long successful Red Sox season.)

I mentioned this thought on Twitter (@ALargeRegular if you haven't followed me yet) and Chris Lindsay (@ChrisLindsay9) was nice enough to reply that a study had been done on woodpeckers.

The key finding from that study seems to be that woodpeckers keep their "pecking" to straight linear strikes whereas football head injuries aren't just linear but also the result of too much torque where the head rotates or twists. Getting back to the rams - their head-butting is pretty much linear as well. So maybe the key is getting rid of the torque?

This got me thinking that the future of the NFL may involve helmets like the one worn by the comic book villain (is he really a villain - because I always liked him) Juggernaut. He was impervious when wearing his helmet.

Or along the same idea - the new NFL helmet may make players look like the Sontaran warriors from Doctor Who.

This really could be the future look of the NFL.