Why do we love football so much? Maybe it’s the weekly displays of superhuman strength, speed, and athleticism in a sport rooted in strategy, brute force, and combat. Or maybe a lot of us still have some animal left in us from our days in the jungle. Football players are like modern day gladiators in stadiums that reflect the blood-loving and bone-crushing sentiments of Roman Coliseums. Thousands upon thousands fill arenas to the brim while millions more congregate in their homes to watch the hard-hitting, hear the gridiron clamoring, and possibly feel the aftershock of an earth-shattering tackle in this spectacle for the sadistic senses. How could something that sounds so wrong, feel so incredibly right? I love watching someone getting the chocolate knocked out of them as much the next guy, but as someone who studies science as much as sport, evidence now shows the impact those hits to the helmet that make fans go “oooo” have on players. If it hurts to watch, some of these “lights-out” blows may not be as short lived as our attention spans.
Football has come a long way in terms of the health of players. In the 60’s, it was common for football players to die after a head injury. Improved helmet designs that better absorbed the impact of hits greatly lowered the risk of serious brain injuries and facial fractures. However, the injury rates began to increase a decade later as players started feeling bulletproof in their new helmets and started tackling players by charging at them with the top of their helmets (spear tackling). It is actually a rule that players are supposed to tackle with their heads up. Spear tackling can increase already Goliath energy and mass (increases your mass by 67%!) by enabling the guy tackling to use his whole body in the impact by aligning his head, neck and torso into an explosion of force toward the head of another player. BOOM!
Typically, concussions are not seen in striking players, however this style of tackling greatly increases forces on the neck, which can increase the risk of concussions as well as compression fractures in the spinal column. Take a look at what happened last Sunday to Steelers’ safety defending Defense Player of the Year, Troy Polamalu.
After decades of studying these head injuries, researchers around the world have come to a consensus that concussions should not be graded as they once were. Either you have a concussion or you don’t. There is no such thing as a mild concussion vs. a severe concussion anymore. Although Polamalu denies having “the C word” and the Steelers shadily reported only “concussion-like symptoms,” the dude unquestionably had a concussion last week.
Athletes commonly tend to hide symptoms to keep playing, which makes accurate diagnosis even more difficult. There is no blood test or imaging study that can diagnose these injuries yet. The NFL now has independent medical observers in the stadium to make sure the proper medical action is taken to protect players from…well themselves. Reporting “concussion-like symptoms” is probably just a new manifestation of teams getting around time consuming medical examination by independent doctors, which the league mandates for concussed players. As teams and players get more creative to hide these serious injuries, we need some rogue investigators to bust open these “head cases” in the underworld of professional football (cue that Law & Order theme song).
Players don’t only take hits during games, but endure thousands of hits to the head during practice and have been doing so throughout their careers from high school all the way to the NFL. Repeated impact can have variable long-term effects of athletes, with an estimated 3-fold risk of depression and five-fold risk of dementia as compared with the normal population. Overall, football players have a life expectancy of about 20 years less than the average male, with average life expectancy of an NFL players being 53-59 (average life expectancy of a normal US male is 75). On average, most NFL players only play 3.5 seasons and lose 2-3 years of life expectancy for every year played. Talk about every hit like being 4th down and 1 on your life homie!
No stranger to head injuries, Troy Polamalu has been known for sustaining concussions since High School. Talk about being the unsafe safety (just go with it). In a recent interview, Polamalu addressed the potential long-term damage that his aggressive style of play may have on his life:
“That’s the fear, I think, that any player faces, and that’s the fear that anybody, any individual faces — overcoming any certain fears of being a coward, you know, or letting your teammates down or turning down a hit. That’s the beautiful thing about sports, is these fears are right in your face and it’s pretty obvious if you turn them down or not. I have the fear. No question about it. But I’m willing to fight it, for sure.“
Call him a soldier or call him stupid, the fact remains that Troy Polamalu literally puts his life on the line when he goes to work. They say hindsight is 20/20, but that’s only if you have a brain functional enough to give you hindsight. If only Troy could be as proactive about preventing concussions as he is about preventing dandruff…
There’s still time.
Injury Duty wishes Troy Polamalu a safe rest of the season!
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