Injuries in football - a 100 year crisis (1 Viewer)

[LittlePhatty]

Concussions are the current problem being investigated, but 100 years ago there was another topic of debate that was far more immediate: death.

Around the turn of the century there were typically a handful of deaths at every level of football and this was the main reason why the NCAA was formed (originally called the IAAUS). The crisis came to a head in 1909 when a total of 10 collegiate players were killed in a single season. If you include the totals from high-school and semi-pro levels, 26 players died that year.

The rules and equipment changes made since then have obviously lowered the number of immediate deaths in the sport. But what about early deaths due to football-sustained injuries like concussions? It's a much harder topic to grasp because of the time span involved between the injury and the result.

There is a growing mound of evidence that suggests ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) can actually be brought on by concussions. As a younger kid I remember thinking of Lou Gehrig's story as such an unlucky tragedy, that such a great pro sports player could be "randomly" stricken with a rare disease that results in loss of motor control and degeneration of muscle tissue.

But really, is there any way at all to prevent concussions in sports? They happen in baseball, soccer and rugby too. Even helmets with extra padding won't prevent all concussions, they can only reduce them. And at the professional level how much protection do you make manditory vs. letting a player choose his own fate? Before the Eagles game yesterday the announcers were discussing a special helmet that DeSean Jackson was going to wear with extra padding in it. They mentioned that there was yet another type of helmet that he could have chosen to wear that offered even more protection, but he chose not to because helmet was too big on the outside and he didn't like the way it looked on him.

 

[sartre]

This will sound silly, and will probably never happen, but I think if there was padding on the outside of the helmet (not just inside) we would see far fewer concussions resulting from helmet-to-helmet collisions. Even just a quarter inch of some shock-absorbant material could go a long way.

Think about it, if you hit a steel pole with an aluminum bat, you can feel the reverberations through your body. Now if the pole and the bat had even a slight bit of padding on them, you would certainly feel the impact but the resulting shock would be far less.

 

[NatronIsMean]

Thanks for sharing. Interesting to read the cause of deaths. Not to make light of them, but to understand. Much of it seems to be clearly due to lack of helmets and lack of overall medical care at the time.

Worst of all of these must be:

"Moore, Samuel, Camden, NJ - Moore died suddenly as the result of being kicked in the groin in a game on Thanksgiving Day."

Never knew you could DIE from that...

Most deaths seem to be dying later from internal damage/blood poison/injuries sustained. Several fractured heads and broken necks.

 

[NatronIsMean]

This will sound silly, and will probably never happen, but I think if there was padding on the outside of the helmet (not just inside) we would see far fewer concussions resulting from helmet-to-helmet collisions. Even just a quarter inch of some shock-absorbant material could go a long way.

Think about it, if you hit a steel pole with an aluminum bat, you can feel the reverberations through your body. Now if the pole and the bat had even a slight bit of padding on them, you would certainly feel the impact but the resulting shock would be far less.

Your analogy makes sense actually. I'm guessing this has been thought of, but it passes the "sniff" test for me. Any way to add levels of shock absorption would be good.

 

[thatguythere]

I was discussing this when Collie was down too.

What did they do back in the day...? A couple big linemen would come over and stand the guy up, and then carry him arm in arm with his toes dragging, to the bench where they would have set him down genty to sit and have a rest.

Not discounting anyone's injuries, but I'm pretty sure guys were getting knocked out for some time now.

 

[two_dollars]

Before the Eagles game yesterday the announcers were discussing a special helmet that DeSean Jackson was going to wear with extra padding in it. They mentioned that there was yet another type of helmet that he could have chosen to wear that offered even more protection, but he chose not to because helmet was too big on the outside and he didn't like the way it looked on him.

"You'd rather look good and lose than look bad and win." A lot of truth in that.. thus we'd have trouble implementing more safety unless it was mandatory equipment.

 

[thatguythere]

Thanks for sharing. Interesting to read the cause of deaths. Not to make light of them, but to understand. Much of it seems to be clearly due to lack of helmets and lack of overall medical care at the time.Worst of all of these must be:"Moore, Samuel, Camden, NJ - Moore died suddenly as the result of being kicked in the groin in a game on Thanksgiving Day."Never knew you could DIE from that... Most deaths seem to be dying later from internal damage/blood poison/injuries sustained. Several fractured heads and broken necks.

Now we know why Mama didn't want Bobby to play foosball.

 

[habsfan]

This will sound silly, and will probably never happen, but I think if there was padding on the outside of the helmet (not just inside) we would see far fewer concussions resulting from helmet-to-helmet collisions. Even just a quarter inch of some shock-absorbant material could go a long way.

Think about it, if you hit a steel pole with an aluminum bat, you can feel the reverberations through your body. Now if the pole and the bat had even a slight bit of padding on them, you would certainly feel the impact but the resulting shock would be far less.

Your analogy makes sense actually. I'm guessing this has been thought of, but it passes the "sniff" test for me. Any way to add levels of shock absorption would be good.

The wrench in the theory is that smooth, hard helmets do a great deal to facilitate glancing blows rather than direct hits when they come in contact with one another.

 

[Sammy Traveller]

This will sound silly, and will probably never happen, but I think if there was padding on the outside of the helmet (not just inside) we would see far fewer concussions resulting from helmet-to-helmet collisions. Even just a quarter inch of some shock-absorbant material could go a long way.

Think about it, if you hit a steel pole with an aluminum bat, you can feel the reverberations through your body. Now if the pole and the bat had even a slight bit of padding on them, you would certainly feel the impact but the resulting shock would be far less.

Your analogy makes sense actually. I'm guessing this has been thought of, but it passes the "sniff" test for me. Any way to add levels of shock absorption would be good.

The wrench in the theory is that smooth, hard helmets do a great deal to facilitate glancing blows rather than direct hits when they come in contact with one another.

also don't forget that in the days of leather helmets, defenders usually tackled by wrapping their arms around the runner with the ball, instead of slamming into him.

 

[LittlePhatty]

I was discussing this when Collie was down too. What did they do back in the day...? A couple big linemen would come over and stand the guy up, and then carry him arm in arm with his toes dragging, to the bench where they would have set him down genty to sit and have a rest.

Good point. We know a lot more today about the proper way to handle injuries.Going back to Lou Gehrig, I remember a recent episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel where they were talking about the connection between ALS and concussions. One of the people they interviewed said that after one particular concussion, Gehrig tried to put his helmet on to go up to bat and it barely fit because his head was so swollen. That could be an exaggeration of course, but it was absolutely standard procedure back then to simply go back in the game and play as soon as you regained your wits. Hell, that was standard procedure up until just a few years ago actually. We now know that a lot of the damage can be prevented by resting after a concussion.

 

[az_prof]

This will sound silly, and will probably never happen, but I think if there was padding on the outside of the helmet (not just inside) we would see far fewer concussions resulting from helmet-to-helmet collisions. Even just a quarter inch of some shock-absorbant material could go a long way.

Think about it, if you hit a steel pole with an aluminum bat, you can feel the reverberations through your body. Now if the pole and the bat had even a slight bit of padding on them, you would certainly feel the impact but the resulting shock would be far less.

Your analogy makes sense actually. I'm guessing this has been thought of, but it passes the "sniff" test for me. Any way to add levels of shock absorption would be good.

The wrench in the theory is that smooth, hard helmets do a great deal to facilitate glancing blows rather than direct hits when they come in contact with one another.

That's the claim, but I have never seen any scientific studies to prove this or to prove that the value of these "deflected" hits outweighs the value of the impact absorption provided by some cushion material on the outside.

 

[Jackstraw]

This will sound silly, and will probably never happen, but I think if there was padding on the outside of the helmet (not just inside) we would see far fewer concussions resulting from helmet-to-helmet collisions. Even just a quarter inch of some shock-absorbant material could go a long way.

Think about it, if you hit a steel pole with an aluminum bat, you can feel the reverberations through your body. Now if the pole and the bat had even a slight bit of padding on them, you would certainly feel the impact but the resulting shock would be far less.

Your analogy makes sense actually. I'm guessing this has been thought of, but it passes the "sniff" test for me. Any way to add levels of shock absorption would be good.

The wrench in the theory is that smooth, hard helmets do a great deal to facilitate glancing blows rather than direct hits when they come in contact with one another.

That's the claim, but I have never seen any scientific studies to prove this or to prove that the value of these "deflected" hits outweighs the value of the impact absorption provided by some cushion material on the outside.

Seems like you would trade off more neck/spine injuries for less concussion injuries.

 

[LittlePhatty]

Worst of all of these must be:"Moore, Samuel, Camden, NJ - Moore died suddenly as the result of being kicked in the groin in a game on Thanksgiving Day."Never knew you could DIE from that...

The way they wrote it does conjure up an odd picture, and funny in a morbid way.I suppose it is possible that his femoral artery was ruptured by the blow.