This is my contention all along. There has always been a PF for unnecessary roughness. Going head to head, whether it is an offensive or defensive player - and as often as not it is an offensive player - should be called every time, IMPO.
It was an article I read in a medical journal while waiting for my wife at Duke med. I will try to find it but those things can be pay walled.
my.clevelandclinic.org
I think the issue is co-morbid issues with combat sports are really high. Wrestling is often the sport of choice for people that become powerlifters and you take a ton of hits to the head in that.
I saw/heard commentary about this on ESPN a while back. One of the conferences (the B1G, IIRC) tried to clamp down on roughness on tackling plays and it didn't change the data. The Targeting penalty came about, partly, as a result of those experiments in enforcement. Having to miss PT has been much more effective at curbing violent helment initiated collisions. I don't believe the Targeting rule is perfect, but I don't fault the NCAA and conferences for trying to make the game safer.
The article suggests a reduction in concussions, not elimination.
Most of the people you reference who can choose, are too young to have fully developed brains yet. Take for example the 20% of college students who believe the Holocaust was a hoax. And no, it's not just ignorance.
I am not discounting the oxygen demand theory, but for the group of “people who participate in road/concrete based activities like cycling, rollerblading, skateboarding, etc.”, I am sure CTE in that group would also be correlated to/caused by head injuries. I am a “retired” middle distance runner turned avid, amateur cyclist, and I can tell you that concussions are fairly common among amateur mountain bikers and road cyclists alike, due to crashes. I would imagine the numbers are probably worse for rollerblading and probably very high for skateboarding.
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE): Symptoms & Treatment
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated head impacts. Prevention and risk reduction are the focus with this condition.
Not the article. But notice how they have a segement in there for
The study i read did link this to marathon runners and such basically suggesting it was also the reason for it to manifest in light contact sports like soccer etc suggesting that Impacts can hurt but so can just massive excessive physical activity to generate the symptoms.
- People who participate in road/concrete-based activities like cycling, rollerblading, skateboarding, etc
This.
You seem to be familiar with Cross Keys...and the demographics of the neighborhoods it serves.
The article above is interesting, I think the big issue is that you can't diagnose CTE until you perform an autopsy. I imagine that this biases all of the research, to some extent. The number of people even having an autopsy is biased towards those in higher profile careers or where this research if focused, and people who die by other causes (e.g. heart attack) would have this overlooked. It's probably very hard to get a definitive answer; however, having spent the last 15 years in a stats-heavy discipline, I usually live by the axiom: "The simplest explanation is usually the best explanation." Ramming your head into things at full speed causes brain damage is not a leap of faith, IMO.
Nor do I. IIRC, the helmet-to-helmet call is an unnecessary roughness call, but the offense that leads to ejection is the intentionality defined by certain criteria resulting in the penalty we know as targeting. You can get a PF for unnecessary roughness involving the helmet and not get a targeting ejection. I think both of these are good. However, as long as helmets keep being made "safer," we'll continue to see head injuries and, sadly, CTE.
Yes. This is a major part of the problem. When radar collision detectors were put on tankers after Prodhoe Bay there were more collisions. The watch on the ships quit looking for other vessels or obstacles; "Hey, dude, the radar will catch it."
Try telling 16-18 year olds what to do and see how far you get with that, Tell them not to smoke pot, or cigarettes, or drive cars too fast or get tattoos etc etc. Different societies decide differently at what age young people can make adult decisions. The age of consent for sex varies but is often 16 (or even younger in some places). I don't necessarily disagree with you, but society today has clearly moved past that point of view.
I played rugby at Tech for like a year and a half and loved it. When people bring up the football injuries I always bring up rugby. To me the pads are actually a part of the problem. When you have pads on it makes the player feel like they can throw their body around more carelessly since the "pads will protect them". When playing rugby there are no pads so when you go to hit you are more aware of how you tackle to protect yourself. I mean there are still a lot of concussions and major injuries in rugby but I feel like it promotes proper techniques when playing. There is probably a balance between minimal padding that will reduce damage from the impacts but still encourage awareness of technique.
Yes, and the songs at the after game parties are great!!
And there are leading indicators of possible CTE long before death and autopsy. It’s similar to where we were a few years ago with Alzheimer’s, where autopsy was the only definitive proof but the behavior changes were well documented.