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New "devastating" hit rule: Obviously tied to collective (1 Viewer)

Someone explain to me what difference this rule will make to the incidence of concussions. We know it will bring the Pro Bowl to fans on a weekly basis and make them less likely to watch, as well as make the game seem less violent. Apart from detracting from the game and improving perceptions it will do very little.

 
What agenda are you claiming that those experts are pursuing here?
Funding for research? Published papers? Career advancement? Awards? Credibility?
Flinging accusations about possible agendas doesn't prove anything. I'm guessing all of these experts had plenty of things to research before they became involved in studying the effects of concussions on the brains of NFL players.
Claiming all trauma to an NFL player's brain is from playing in the NFL is irresponsible and assumptive.
Except those experts didn't claim that ALL trauma to an NFL player's brain comes from playing in the NFL. They claimed that after studying Chris Henry's brain and his life history, they concluded that the trauma he sustained while playing football played a key role in the erratic behavior that prompted him to commit suicide.
Prompted who to commit suicide? Can you link me to where Chris Henry's death was rules a suicide by medical examiners?
 
All I know is I had a concussion ONCE in high school football and I quit the next day.F that.
Had my first big one in high school too. Went to the wrong sideline when I got up. Didn't know where I was, didn't recognize I should have been back in playing safety when the D went back out. Ended up losing consciousness at halftime. Woke up to smelling salts. Sucked it up and played the 2nd half.
 
Someone explain to me what difference this rule will make to the incidence of concussions. We know it will bring the Pro Bowl to fans on a weekly basis and make them less likely to watch, as well as make the game seem less violent. Apart from detracting from the game and improving perceptions it will do very little.
You may be right. The recent changes are probably "too little, too late." But that isn't an argument against these changes. It's an argument for doing even more.
 
Someone explain to me what difference this rule will make to the incidence of concussions. We know it will bring the Pro Bowl to fans on a weekly basis and make them less likely to watch, as well as make the game seem less violent. Apart from detracting from the game and improving perceptions it will do very little.
You may be right. The recent changes are probably "too little, too late." But that isn't an argument against these changes. It's an argument for doing even more.
Like what? Banning tackling and line play?
 
Prompted who to commit suicide? Can you link me to where Chris Henry's death was rules a suicide by medical examiners?
I'll look for that right after you provide some evidence for your claim that the experts who examined Chris Henry were merely pursuing a selfish agenda.
 
Steelfan7 said:
NinerFan49 said:
Sammy Traveller said:
I can't remember the NFL announcing any sort of rule change during a season, much less one as reactionary and rushed as this. I don't believe the competition committee was even consulted. Then I remembered the collective bargaining agreement and the league's desire for an 18-game schedule. All of a sudden it became obvious to me that the league and owners saw big problems with their leveraging power in negotiations for an 18-game schedule if concussions keep up at the current rate. So they preemptively try to cut off the that argument by enacting this rushed and seemingly shortly contemplated rule change. Only explanation I can come up with for the unorthodox manner that this change came about. Just thought this was an interesting angle to view things from and wanted it in a separate thread.

when the health and the lives of players are at issue, then I have no problem with this being rushed.

so I was a little bit too direct and implied that Chris Henry died from playing football. Apologies. But as many of you know, an autopsy revealed multiple traumas to his brain, some of them from before the NFL, that may explain some of his behavior during his last years. So it was more an issue of health than about someone's life. But it's a valid point to be made that when it comes to the health of a player, it has a potential impact on the quality of life and thus life expectancy.

so I have no problem with rushing through something mid-season, i.e. ejections and suspensions whereas earlier it would have been fines.
The article below strongly supports your point about Chris Henry's death, Sammy. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/sports/f...ll/29henry.html

Former Bengal Henry Found to Have Had Brain Damage

By ALAN SCHWARZ

Published: June 28, 2010

Chris Henry, the Cincinnati Bengals receiver who died during a domestic dispute last December, has been identified by experts as the first player to have died with trauma-induced brain damage while still active in the N.F.L.

Dr. Julian Bailes and Dr. Bennet Omalu of the Brain Injury Research Institute at West Virginia University announced on Monday that Henry, 26, had developed chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the progressive brain disease whose recent discovery in some retired N.F.L. players has raised questions of football’s long-term safety risks.

The 22nd professional football player to be given a diagnosis of C.T.E., Henry is the first to have died with the disease while active after 2007, when prior C.T.E. findings prompted the N.F.L. to begin strengthening rules regarding concussion management. The fact that he developed the condition by his mid-20s — the youngest previous C.T.E. case was the lineman Justin Strzelczyk, 36, who had been retired from the Pittsburgh Steelers for five years before his death in 2004 — raises questions of how many current N.F.L. players might have the condition without knowing it.

“As we got the results, my emotion was sad — it’s so profound,” said Bailes, the chairman of the department of neurosurgery at West Virginia and a former team physician for the Steelers. “I was surprised in a way because of his age and because he was not known as a concussion sufferer or a big hitter. Is there some lower threshold when you become at risk for this disease? I’m struggling to see if something can come out positive out of this.”

In a statement, a co-chairman of the league’s head, neck and spine medical committee, Dr. Hunt Batjer, said, “Our committee has and will continue to address all issues relative to head injuries in current players.”

A message for the union spokesman George Atallah was not returned.

Caused exclusively by brain trauma, C.T.E. cannot be diagnosed in a living person; only microscopic examinations of brain tissue can identify the protein deposits and other abnormalities that mark the disease. So active players who might react to the Henry finding by seeking a test before continuing their careers must make do with unknowns.

“It’s very emotional to hear — it rattles me,” said Sean Morey, a special-teams player now with the Seattle Seahawks, who is a co-chairman of the union’s brain-injury committee. “The fact that this has been found that guys played against last year, an active player, I think it’s sobering. You have to ask yourself how many are playing the game today that have this and don’t even know about it.”

Like many of the other players found to have had C.T.E. after their deaths, Henry had behavioral problems in his final years that might have been at least partly a result of the disease, which is linked to depression, poor decision-making and substance abuse.

He was arrested five times in a 28-month stretch for incidents involving assault, driving under the influence of alcohol and marijuana possession. The league suspended him several times for violating its personal-conduct policy.

Henry caught 12 passes for 236 yards in the Bengals’ first eight games last season before he broke his arm and was put on injured reserve.

Henry died in Charlotte, N.C., on Dec. 17 after falling out or jumping out of the back of a pickup truck driven by his fiancée, Loleini Tonga. The head injuries that killed Henry were not related to the C.T.E. finding because the proteins and other changes that mark C.T.E. develop only over time, Bailes said.

Bailes said that he had not found evidence in news reports that Henry had sustained any diagnosed concussions during his N.F.L. career, and that he would soon make a request for related information from the Bengals. Bailes said he did know that Henry had not reported any concussions during his two seasons at West Virginia, because Bailes also serves as a Mountaineers team physician and had access to those records.

Bailes said he planned to speak with Henry’s family members to learn if he had sustained any notable hits or head injuries at Belle Chasse High School just outside New Orleans.

“I don’t want to imply that this is an N.F.L.-only phenomenon,” said Bailes, who wondered if problems are set up “while the brain is young and vulnerable, and it sustains an injury.”

He added: “Players spend 17 years banging heads in the pros on every play and you think it’s exposure based. Now with Chris Henry being so young, we have to rethink that.”

Near the end of last season, the N.F.L. strengthened several rules regarding concussion management, including the requirement that players with brain injuries not return to the same game or practice, and that they be cleared by independent experts, rather than team doctors. The three leaders of the league’s concussion committee resigned and were replaced by two neurosurgeons who vowed to chart a new course for research.

The N.F.L. is working with the union and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on an information brochure on concussions that is worded far more strongly than the one given to the players since 2007.

“We have to educate the players,” Morey said. “The players have to have the ability to have informed consent.”
Chris Henry acted like a knuckle head way before he ever wore the NFL shield on his jersey.
He played football before the NFL. Figure that in, FWIW.
 
Someone explain to me what difference this rule will make to the incidence of concussions. We know it will bring the Pro Bowl to fans on a weekly basis and make them less likely to watch, as well as make the game seem less violent. Apart from detracting from the game and improving perceptions it will do very little.
You may be right. The recent changes are probably "too little, too late." But that isn't an argument against these changes. It's an argument for doing even more.
Like what? Banning tackling and line play?
Good question. I may hazard an answer later. Right now I'm still gathering information.
 
How common is early-onset Alzheimer's?

Of all the people with Alzheimer's disease, only 5 to 10 percent develop symptoms before age 65. So if 4 million Americans have Alzheimer's, at least 200,000 people have the early-onset form of the disease. Early-onset Alzheimer's has been known to develop between ages 30 and 40, but that's very uncommon. It is more common to see someone in his or her 50s who has the disease.

Conclusion: is it that unusual for someone from the nfl to have early signs of alzheimer's?
http://deadspin.com/5614801/concussions-ki...ing-nfl-playersConcussions Killed Lou Gehrig, Killing NFL Players

The drumbeat to address concussions in football just grew a little louder, with a new study that links brain trauma to a very ALS-like disease. Lou Gehrig himself may have contracted his namesake disease that very way.

The study, being published tomorrow in the Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology comes from a team of Boston researchers including former WWE wrestler and crusader for concussion safety Chris Nowinski. Their findings, announced tonight on HBO's Real Sports, stem from a curious statistic: NFL players are eight times more likely to contract ALS than the average person.

Similar rates are found among CFL players, boxers and Italian soccer players.

The link: repeated head trauma, which produces toxic proteins that migrate to the spinal cord. The result: a disease that for all the world looks like ALS.



The damage is made worse when players don't rest after receiving a concussion. So it's intriguing that Real Sports discovered six different instance of Gehrig himself being concussed or knocked unconscious during a game. Of course, he never took a day off.

The NFL, which rarely moves swiftly on anything, has reacted admirably on this. Confronted with the new study, they've agreed to add ex-players suffering from ALS to their 88 Plan, which pays the costs of care for former players with dementia or other conditions that resulted from brain trauma during their careers.

But the players themselves need to understand the risks. A poster in the locker room isn't going to cut it.

Just this weekend, Packers RB Ryan Grant regretted that he collapsed on his way back to the sidelines after a big hit, forcing doctors to check him out. Diagnosed with a concussion, he was removed from the game until he could be checked out by a neurologist. Grant says he wishes he had kept it a secret, so he could have continued playing.

That's a preseason game.

Maybe things will change? Maybe players will see former Raider Steve Smith wasting away from the disease, his muscles shutting down one by one. Maybe they'll see the widow of Wally Hilgenberg, who passed away two years ago.

Maybe not. Athletes are stubborn, and young men in general think they're indestructible. But maybe they'll realize that concussions can lead to something worse than dizziness, something worse than even dementia or Alzheimer's.

Maybe.

 
Someone explain to me what difference this rule will make to the incidence of concussions. We know it will bring the Pro Bowl to fans on a weekly basis and make them less likely to watch, as well as make the game seem less violent. Apart from detracting from the game and improving perceptions it will do very little.
You may be right. The recent changes are probably "too little, too late." But that isn't an argument against these changes. It's an argument for doing even more.
Like what? Banning tackling and line play?
Here's one thing that may help:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paula-duffy/...t_b_351212.html

The NFL Can Help Prevent Concussions Right Now

Paula Duffy

National Sports Examiner at Examiner.com

Posted: November 11, 2009 01:21 PM

More than a year ago I wrote a piece about a simple mouth guard which prevented concussions when worn by athletes. I asked why the NFL wasn't all over it, testing it, buying it and making it part of their equipment.

The mouth guard was developed and is sold by a dentist named Gerald Maher who for many years has been the dentist for the New England Patriots. As Patriots players got the hang of the device they raved about it, (testimonials on Maher's company's website) especially players who had already suffered heard trauma.

As those Patriots players like Matt Cassel and Mike Vrabel moved about the league they brought their mouth guards with them and members of their new teams were introduced to the device. But this was mere anecdotal evidence and the NFL said it needed peer reviewed studies, in which it never seemed to be interested enough to put into motion.



The Maher mouth guard doesn't prevent all concussions. It works specifically with the lower jaw but its success rate, until recently all anecdotal, is eyebrow raising if not astounding.

And then a few weeks ago, a study was published on Dr. Maher's device. Its study subjects were high school age football players and according to a statement filed with the House Judiciary Committee by Maher's company, Mahercor Laboratories, LLC it validates the company's methods of examining a player's jaw and fitting a device to help prevent concussion from direct blows.

Two weeks ago, that same committee, chaired by Representative John Conyers, (D-MI) heard testimony from NFL executives, former players, wives of former players and medical professionals. The topic was what the league will do with recent study results that found its retired players are 19 times more likely than the average person who never played football to be diagnosed with a memory disorder.

The league now has data it can't ignore any longer. But since the study didn't prove a direct causal link between concussions on the field of play and the condition of the brains of ex-NFL players, it doesn't want to admit anything and says it needs to study the problem in more detail.

In the meantime, concussions occur weekly on every team, some more newsworthy than others.

and time slips away. All the Judiciary Committee did was to give the league its chance to insist that it was working on the problem therefore government intervention isn't necessary.

Some conservative members of the committee used that time to talk about their disdain for poking Congress' nose into a private workplace, even if worker safety is a factor. Funny how OSHA doesn't seem to apply to football players.

Mahercor has an advocate in Senator John Kerry (D MA) as well as endorsements from the ADA, the current president of the AFL-CIO, and a board member of Blue Cross/Blue Shield. It has the study results published in the The Academy of Sports Dentistry's Referring Journal, the Journal of Dental Traumatology,

I have no relationship with Mahercor and write as a journalist and observer. In the year since I began following this story, the concussion problems for the NFL have not only continued, but data about brain damage to former players as young as their mid-thirties is very disturbing.

I think it's time to take some relief where the league can find it right now. As I said, the Mahercor mouth guard isn't a cure for all head trauma. But it's a great start and it seems odd that the league doesn't use its two-minute drill to get some relief where it exists right now.

 
Hmmm... More pretty damming evidence that the NFL has deliberately used biased studies to downplay the effects of concussions:

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=ca...Sgckh9L1ZpqKhjQ



Jan 4, 2010

Statement of Bernie Parrish, Former NFL player, author of the best selling book They Call It A

Game and a new book Delay and Deny due to be published in 2010.

My book, They Call It A Game, published decades ago, had the subtitle, “An indictment of the

pro football establishment: how it manipulates and protects its billion-dollar monopoly at the

expense of the players and the public.” The only change through the years has been that the

numbers are bigger.

I thank the Committee on the Judiciary, especially Chairman John Conyers, for holding this

hearing. It reminds me of the Watergate era and two of my personal heroes, Senator Sam Ervin

and Senator Phillip Hart. I was fortunate enough to met those political giants at a hearing , much like this one It focused on the NFL and abuses of anti-trust exemptions.

Here is what Senator Ervin had to say about the NFL’s arrogant, illicit operation:

The NFL's approach is to perfect its Delay and Deny program following the tobacco industry's

"Merchants of death business model". The NFL even uses the same law firm as the tobacco

industry uses, Covington & Burling, the law firm who created the "Tobacco Council" to produce

bogus studies and paid experts to testify that tobacco products does not cause cancer. It exactly

parallels the way Covington & Burling partner, Paul Tagliabue, who as Commissioner of the

NFL, created the "NFL's Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee." It functions as did the

Tobacco Council, functioning to create a smoke screen of studies and organizing experts to deny

that professional football causes concussions that lead to further complications, including early

dementia. Taglibue installed Dr. Elliot Pellman, a graduate of Guadalajara’s medical school in rheumatology. Pellman had no expertise whatsoever in brain injuries, mild or otherwise, as the MTBI Committee Chairman. The New York Times exposed Dr.. Pellman’s padded resume and he subsequently resigned as chairman of the NFL MTBI Committee. However Dr. Pellman

remains current NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's filtered conduit of information on

concussions and brain injuries from the MTBI Committee. Dr. Pellman has authored some 13

suspect studies on concussions and brain injuries and these have likely had an impact on youth

football programs with possible life-threatening effects made more dangerous because of their

tacit endorsement by the NFL.

After 50 plus years of professional football the NFL Commissioner and its players union have

suddenly awakened and decided it is time to study the problem for a few more years or buy off

those they can and try to discredit those they cannot, at least until the media heat cools off. The

NFLPA has been complicit and negligent on its own regarding player’s injuries in general but

especially about concussions and brain injuries. The NFLPA's Dr. Thom Mayer was employed

part time being paid less than $25,000 a year until I pointed out that you can't get much medical

expertise for what they were paying Dr. Mayer. That email got him a big raise and now I

understand he is the NFLPA's concussion expert, without brain injury portfolio. But the Delay

and Deny program is carried out in large part by the players Gene Upshaw appointed

representatives on the Bert Bell Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Board. They include Tom

Condon (a player's agent who also represented the late Gene Upshaw), Dave Duerson (a former

NFL player and bankrupt business man crony of the late Gene Upshaw), and Jeff Van Note (an

announcer for the Atlanta Falcons). This board made up of these three former players and three

owner’s board members plus Commissioner Roger Goodell were found by an appellant court to

have "abused their discretion" in the Mike Webster case and are responsible for the many widely

believed unjustified denials of disability claims.

Only four retired players were receiving disability for brain injuries at the time of the last

Congressional hearings that is four out of 13,000 former NFL players. Only 317 total retired

players out of 13,000 (now Goodell says 21,000 have played in the NFL so it is four and 317

out of 21,000) received disability for their football injuries but that number was moved up to 428

a couple months later when the Congressional Research Service (CRS) report was being

compiled.

Facts and figures do not stand in the way of NFL spokesmen trying to convince the public or

congress that the owners are generous to a fault. The recent NFL funded University of Michigan

study of retired player circumstances says 86% of the older retired players own their own home

and 92% have Medical insurance. There is no group in America unless it is highly selected that is

made up of people 86% of who own their own home and 92% who have medical insurance (other

than the publicly funded Medicare). Those numbers cited by the NFL are suspect as their

speaking in percentages when the numbers are pitifully low when for instance a 25% benefit

increase equals $1.63 a day.

How reliable can any of that NFL telephone study of retired players be? Talking in percentages

allows them to tout the $1.63 a day increase to our pensions as a 25% increase, but it only shows

how pitifully low the sub-poverty level actual pensions are. No announcement was made about

Gene Upshaw’s simultaneous $10,000 per day compensation increase at about the same time.

Our average pre 1982 pensions remain below poverty level. Goodell’s PR gang deliberately make

confusing statements that lead your committees and the public to believe the pre 1993 retired

players receive the same benefits as today’s players, which they should but don’t.

Chairman Conyers, I applaud you for taking on this daunting task and risking the ire of the over

privileged political contributors who own and operate the NFL. You have been a hero of mine for

many years, and that continues today. This problem is not an easy one, and it cannot easily be

separated from our Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL player Retirement Plan because the owners have

chosen to use our pension plan as their medical insurance, our/their player disability plan. When

no medical insurance company would cover their business, because football is too risky and

injuries too frequent and severe to bet against, the owners had to come up with a different

insurance plan, so they made it part of our player retirement (pension) plan. This created a

competition between retirement and disability payments. The more and higher the disability

payments the lower the amount available for pensions.

I was advised by your staff not to go into the pension and disability issues in my testimony, but

to stick to the concussion and brain injury problems. When you know the whole story that is

impossible to do.

Dealing with the NFL and NFLPA’s collusive Delay and Deny operations means battling

through their myriad of tobacco company type public relations stunts, phony expert’s denials,

purchased testimony, and illusions of representation. It means fighting their multi-million-dollar

lobbying efforts directed against retired players and the public. They want you to keep your

attention on new understanding of retired player issues, speeding up the administrative

institutional process, the 88 Plan; which is a cheap out of court settlement for brain damage

caused by playing football, retired player families are often so happy to get any help they are

reluctant to say anything that might anger the tight-fisted owners who operate these public

relations scams. Look at the shiny object I’m holding up in this hand while I pick you pockets

with process, and procedure, and studies, and investigations and already taking care of that,

talking to the NFLPA about that, talking to Dr. No (Ira Cassen) about that, that has to wait for

the next Collective Bargaining Agreement, that has to wait, to wait, to wait, to wait, wait, wait,

Delay until we can Deny...

John Updyke once said, “It is difficult to make some one understand when his salary depends on

him not understanding.” Like Roger Goodell, his staff and his bosses Covington & Burling led

legal team.

After the June 2007 Congressional hearings Miki Yaris-Davis, Director of Benefits for the

NFLPA, described seeing the retired players together is like watching a bunch of Maryland crabs

scuttling along, “They’re all injured, it’s just a matter of degree.”

The NFL's Delay and Deny program pushes the costs of concussions and NFL injury caused

early dementia on Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid amounts to medical fraud and abuse

operation that has kept billions of dollars in the NFL owner’s bank accounts that should have

been paid out by NFL owners for the medical treatment of their employees injuries sustained

playing in the NFL.

The NLRB has ruled the retired players cannot be part of the NFLPA’s bargaining unit,

therefore it is fair to say Congress has left us with no way to protect our interests except through

litigation. Congress could correct this with legislation giving retired players a vote making retired

players an equal voting part of the bargaining unit

As Gene Upshaw repeated many times retired players are not in the bargaining unit, The

NFLPA, the (union) does not represent retired NFL players. The “new” NFL Alumni Assoc is a

hoax, another illusion of representation being perpetrated on retired players by Commissioner

Roger Goodell. He is using a small group of former players, his favored courtiers to try to install

a clone of Gene Upshaw in a position to block retired players for Goodell and his masters. These

courtiers collect various personal favors while helping Goodell carry out some rather clumsy

amateurish Divide and Conquer strategies to keep from dealing with the key issues.

Congress needs to insure that:

1) There is an Increase in the NFL retirement to match that of Baseball;

2) NFL Disability plan is rewritten to deal with the unique problems of professional

football including concussions and all brain injury problems related playing NFL

football;

3) There is a one time reparations payment to the players who played under the most

dangerous helmet to helmet crack back, cut block, clothes lineing crack back, head slap

rules, suffering concussions, neck and spine injuries playing with inferior equipment who

established the NFL as America’s foremost sport, now an $8 billion a year sport’s

business.

4) That the Office of Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has jurisdiction to oversee

the operation of the NFL.

5) That the study of concussions and brain injuries in sports is overseen by the National

Institutes of Health (NIH).

Anyone who joins the Goodell-Martin NFL Alumni Association looking for representation is

being foolish.

On the morning of the 2006 midterm elections at 10:01 AM it was confirmed that the Democrats

had gained control of both the Senate and the House. At 10:30 AM I received a 32 page email

from Mr. Gerald Toner, Chief of Labor Racketeering, apologizing for holding my complaints

about the NFL and NFLPA since June 2006 then telling me I had not specifically cited the laws

violated therefore he was forwarding my complaints to Elizabeth Bond in the Department of

Labor and Toner then told me I should get a lawyer and sue the NFLPA. I did and won $28.1

million for over 2000 retired players who backed me that this two-year ordeal. Legal

maneuvering and the usual lawyer deal making, coupled with the usual NFL NFLPA type

collusion unfairly cut another 11,000 retired players out of the case in what I believe to be a

flawed trial followed by a very tainted trial settlement deal. Ms Bond has already been dancing us

around for several frustrating years on the labor violations before I complained to Mr. Toner.

I worked for months helping to draft the bill to rescind the NFL's shield behind which they hide

their misdeeds and abuse of retired players and the public. The draft bill was attached to my

October 26, 2009 statement to this Committee and includes most of my suggestions intertwined

with others ideas on how to write such a bill. The American Needle case pending before the

United States Supreme Court is the most important case to the players and the public ever. Eric

Holder defended the NFL and won this case when he was at Covington & Burling. Now the

Solicitor General is calling for it to be remanded to the lower appellant court that ruled originally

in the Holder’s old NFL client’s favor. Of course, Mr. Holder should remove himself from

asserting any influence in the American Needle v. NFL case.

For more detailed information on disability and other retired player issues go to Dave Pear.com

website it has a library of information and adds commentary from all sides to it daily.

 
How common is early-onset Alzheimer's?Of all the people with Alzheimer's disease, only 5 to 10 percent develop symptoms before age 65. So if 4 million Americans have Alzheimer's, at least 200,000 people have the early-onset form of the disease. Early-onset Alzheimer's has been known to develop between ages 30 and 40, but that's very uncommon. It is more common to see someone in his or her 50s who has the disease.Conclusion: is it that unusual for someone from the nfl to have early signs of alzheimer's?
The prevalence of Alzheimer's Disease increases dramatically with age. About 1-1.5% of 65 year olds have dementia, while as much as 25-35% of those 85 years of age age have dementia (Brookmeyer, Evans, Alz Association). About 75% of all dementia in the elderly is associated with Alzheimer's pathology. The prevalence of dementia is less than 1% among people younger than 60, and becomes more rare with younger age. So, Wenzel having cognitive impairment in his early 50's, which may have reached the theshold of dementia in his late 50's is uncommon, but it could be explained by the thousands of ex-NFL players. However, the NFL's own study showed that cognitive impairment was about 5 times more common among NFL retirees aged 50+ (6.1%) compared to US men aged 50+ (1.2%). In case you think the players were faking it, just look at their brains - studies by the U Pitt group (DeKosky, Omalu) and the Boston University group (McKee). I guess the Pitt conection explains why several Steelers' brains (Webster) were examined. The pathologists were surprised to see such a high freqency of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) among the ex-football players. I love watching NFL football, but 16 games is plenty for me.
 
Someone explain to me what difference this rule will make to the incidence of concussions. We know it will bring the Pro Bowl to fans on a weekly basis and make them less likely to watch, as well as make the game seem less violent. Apart from detracting from the game and improving perceptions it will do very little.
You may be right. The recent changes are probably "too little, too late." But that isn't an argument against these changes. It's an argument for doing even more.
Like what? Banning tackling and line play?
More things that may help:http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/04/nfl-concu...amal-lewis.html

Concussions: Inside NFL's Head Games

Monte Burke, 12.04.09

Two experts on what the next steps may be for pro players.

This week, National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell set new guidelines for the treatment of NFL players who have suffered concussions, decreeing that those who show signs of such injuries must be removed from a game or practice and not allowed to return that day.

His timing was impeccable. The concussion casualty list grows every week. In the last seven days, Cleveland Browns running back Jamal Lewis has had his season--and perhaps his career--ended by a concussion. His teammate, Brodney Pool, is out for the season because of one. And the two starting quarterback from last year's Super Bowl, Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kurt Warner of the Arizona Cardinals, both sat out games due to the recurring symptoms from concussion suffered the week prior.

Concussions have become the National Football League's ''Big Tobacco'' moment. Earlier this year, former players were found with dementia from concussions suffered--and sometimes left untreated--during their playing days. Then Goodell was forced to answer questions in an October Congressional hearing. The next month the league's self-appointed concussion experts resigned after their research was deemed biased and incomplete. A media frenzy ensued.

But unlike Big Tobacco, which in past decades knowingly withheld the damaging effects of its products on its consumers, the NFL has begun to tackle the concussion issue head-on. Goodell's guidelines were the first blow.

''I think the NFL has become the model for concussion management in this country,'' says Joseph Maroon, the neurosurgeon for the Steelers and a member of the NFL's concussion committee. ''What's being done in the NFL will hopefully flow down to the college and high school levels.''

Mark Lovell, a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sports Medicine Concussion Program and the author of three books about concussions, says: ''The league is adapting.''

Both experts believe the NFL will continue to do so, especially in the next five years. We asked Maroon and Lovell what some of those changes might be.

--Helmet design: ''You have to understand that not much has changed in helmet design in the last twenty years,'' says Lovell. ''They are basically still a polycarbonate shell with some cushioning inside.'' But change is coming, perhaps soon. Maroon says the NFL has been compiling objective data from independent laboratories on helmets, testing 23 impact measurements. That data will be made available to NFL teams as early as next year. The biggest change, according to Maroon, will most likely come in the inner lining of helmets, which acts as a shock-absorber.

Would the helmets look different? Not necessarily. ''You don't want to build a bigger helmet because it would create a larger hitting surface,'' says Lovell. ''And heavier helmets could create problems for the neck.'' What we'll probably see: lighter helmets with a new material in the inner lining material--maybe air-cushioned cells--that's better at deflecting forces away from the brain.

--Mouthguards: These are frequently brought up as a concussion preventative. But both Maroon and Lovell say more research needs to be done in this area. ''It may not hurt, but I'm not sold yet,'' says Lovell.

--Practice restrictions: One of the ideas that has been rumored to possibly take effect next season is the limiting of the number of hits players take in practice. To a certain degree, some restrictions on hitting in practice have already been enacted by individual teams. Both Lovell and Maroon say that cutting back on repetitive hitting drills would help. ''Those little hits add up and can become a problem,'' says Maroon.

--Mandatory breaks from playing: In international rugby, there is what's known as the ''three-week rule.'' If a player gets a concussion, he is forced to sit out three games. Maroon and Lovell see a few problems with this method. The first: ''Players start to hide their concussions because they want to play,'' says Lovell. The second: The system is too arbitrary. ''Every concussion is different. Every player is different,'' says Maroon. ''Individual judgment by an expert is still useful regarding concussions.'' Setting one hard and fast rule, as rugby has done, is not the answer. But setting base guidelines for time out based on severity, then judging each case individually, might be. ''We need to be more progressive in the diagnosis and more conservative when it comes to playing again,'' says Lovell.

--Accelorometers: Maroon is currently involved in researching the use of sensors that could one day be imbedded within the external ear canal of individual players. The sensors would track the force of a hit, the location of the hit on the body and the overall number of hits. ''After a practice or a game, that information could be downloaded into a computer to get a cumulative record over a number of years,'' says Maroon. He likens it to the radiation badge used by X-ray technicians. The data might one day help determine when a player has taken too many hits to the head. Maroon cautions that the technology, while promising, is still in its early stages of testing.

One of the biggest problems with concussions is that the field of study is relatively young, only a couple of decades old. Much more needs to be learned. ''We don't yet know the full picture of the incidence and prevalence of concussions or the number of impacts needed to result in a head injury,'' says Maroon. ''We also don't fully understand the genetic predispositions for concussions or if alcohol, steroids or even smoking plays a role in the severity of the effects of concussions.''

What both doctors do know is that football will still be played. ''This issue is not the denouement of the game,'' says Maroon.

Says Lovell: ''We won't ever eliminate concussions in the NFL. But we can manage them better.''

 
How common is early-onset Alzheimer's?Of all the people with Alzheimer's disease, only 5 to 10 percent develop symptoms before age 65. So if 4 million Americans have Alzheimer's, at least 200,000 people have the early-onset form of the disease. Early-onset Alzheimer's has been known to develop between ages 30 and 40, but that's very uncommon. It is more common to see someone in his or her 50s who has the disease.Conclusion: is it that unusual for someone from the nfl to have early signs of alzheimer's?
The prevalence of Alzheimer's Disease increases dramatically with age. About 1-1.5% of 65 year olds have dementia, while as much as 25-35% of those 85 years of age age have dementia (Brookmeyer, Evans, Alz Association). About 75% of all dementia in the elderly is associated with Alzheimer's pathology. The prevalence of dementia is less than 1% among people younger than 60, and becomes more rare with younger age. So, Wenzel having cognitive impairment in his early 50's, which may have reached the theshold of dementia in his late 50's is uncommon, but it could be explained by the thousands of ex-NFL players. However, the NFL's own study showed that cognitive impairment was about 5 times more common among NFL retirees aged 50+ (6.1%) compared to US men aged 50+ (1.2%). In case you think the players were faking it, just look at their brains - studies by the U Pitt group (DeKosky, Omalu) and the Boston University group (McKee). I guess the Pitt conection explains why several Steelers' brains (Webster) were examined. The pathologists were surprised to see such a high freqency of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) among the ex-football players. I love watching NFL football, but 16 games is plenty for me.
After all the articles I just read about the amount of brain damage the NFL players are subjected to, I'm inclined to agree with you. But I would be shocked if the NFL does not follow through on its desire to increase the schedule to 18 games. There's too much money at stake... So I think the best we can hope for is measures are taken to alleviate the effects of adding two more games... Things like increasing the size of rosters (and giving more rest to starters)... and the preventive measures listed in the article I quoted in my last post.
 
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65 posts and nobody mentions why concussions are on the rise?

I'm all for players safety, which is why they need to start testing for HGH. IMHO, The reason concussions are on the rise is the rampant use of HGH, especially among defensive players.

As far as if it's being used as a bargaining chip, sure, on both sides. The owners will push it like they care, which they are being forced to. The Players Association will use it to their advantage because of the owners also wanting to go to an 18 game season. those are only two of probably dozens of items on the table.

BTW - How big of a moron is Goodell for pushing the 18 game season, while there is a potential lockout? Seems to me, he should've went with this after they sorted this mess out.

 
How common is early-onset Alzheimer's?

Of all the people with Alzheimer's disease, only 5 to 10 percent develop symptoms before age 65. So if 4 million Americans have Alzheimer's, at least 200,000 people have the early-onset form of the disease. Early-onset Alzheimer's has been known to develop between ages 30 and 40, but that's very uncommon. It is more common to see someone in his or her 50s who has the disease.

Conclusion: is it that unusual for someone from the nfl to have early signs of alzheimer's?
The prevalence of Alzheimer's Disease increases dramatically with age. About 1-1.5% of 65 year olds have dementia, while as much as 25-35% of those 85 years of age age have dementia (Brookmeyer, Evans, Alz Association). About 75% of all dementia in the elderly is associated with Alzheimer's pathology. The prevalence of dementia is less than 1% among people younger than 60, and becomes more rare with younger age. So, Wenzel having cognitive impairment in his early 50's, which may have reached the theshold of dementia in his late 50's is uncommon, but it could be explained by the thousands of ex-NFL players. However, the NFL's own study showed that cognitive impairment was about 5 times more common among NFL retirees aged 50+ (6.1%) compared to US men aged 50+ (1.2%). In case you think the players were faking it, just look at their brains - studies by the U Pitt group (DeKosky, Omalu) and the Boston University group (McKee). I guess the Pitt conection explains why several Steelers' brains (Webster) were examined. The pathologists were surprised to see such a high freqency of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) among the ex-football players. I love watching NFL football, but 16 games is plenty for me.
After all the articles I just read about the amount of brain damage the NFL players are subjected to, I'm inclined to agree with you. But I would be shocked if the NFL does not follow through on its desire to increase the schedule to 18 games. There's too much money at stake... So I think the best we can hope for is measures are taken to alleviate the effects of adding two more games... Things like increasing the size of rosters (and giving more rest to starters)... and the preventive measures listed in the article I quoted in my last post.
And the decline of overall play. This is the beginning of the end for the football, imo. At least football as I knew it. As it was told to me as a small boy watching NFL films marathons every Christmas eve.Not only is the league watered down, they want to make it so teams will treat the season as a marathon, resting starters, and adding 10+ guys, per team, who have no business being in the NFL. Roughly 300 guys.

 
Another article about the seriousness of brain damage to NFL players from concussions can be found below. For those who don't want to spend a lot of time reading the entire article, I've bolded key parts.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/11/sp...ssions-20100912

NFL is taking the long-term impact of concussions seriously



As studies link higher rates of dementia and depression to former players with a history of head injuries, the league is beginning to consider the lifelong cost of such trauma.

September 11, 2010|By Sam Farmer

Kyle Turley was 6 feet 5, 309 pounds, with hydrant-thick arms covered in tattoos. He was among the meanest, toughest offensive linemen in the NFL.

And he was out cold.

He had taken a shot to the helmet when playing for the St. Louis Rams in 2003 and was briefly unconscious. He quickly came to and made his way to the sideline, yet was so disoriented that when he tried to wave to his wife to let her know he was OK, he couldn't remember where she was sitting.

"I should have remembered that," Turley said. "We bought a luxury box that cost $50,000. It was right over my left shoulder. That's where it was at and always would be, and had been all the games before that. I just kept looking around the stadium."

The truly scary part was still to come. Even though he suffered a severe concussion — one doctor said later that he should have been sidelined for a month —Turley says he was encouraged by team trainers to return to practice three days later. It was the kind of thing that many brain-injury experts now believe could have long-term effects on mental health.

"I came in and [the trainers] said, 'How do you feel now? Because you've got to practice today if you're going to play in the game,' " said Turley, who retired in 2007. "I was like, 'Well … I've got a little bit of a headache still, but it's getting better.' And they're like, 'OK, good! We'll clear you to practice today. We'll watch you.' "

That was not so much a specific indictment of the Rams' medical staff, but of the widely embraced football philosophy from the NFL on down: If you could see straight, you were good to go.

After years of denying a link between multiple concussions and long-term cognitive decline, the NFL is finally taking an aggressive approach to the problem. Various studies have shown:

• More than half of NFL players say they have had a concussion on the field, and one in four recall having at least three.

• Former players have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or similar memory-related afflictions at five times the rate of people who didn't play.

"If you look at the diseased brains, I think there's no question that we've been playing the game of football wrong," said Chris Nowinski, a former Harvard defensive lineman who has done groundbreaking research on the long-term effect of concussions. "The game has evolved into something it was never intended to be. It's evolved into intentional helmet-to-helmet hits. It's evolved into 1,000 hits a year. It's evolved into skull-fracturing forces that are protected by a thin piece of plastic, so your skull doesn't get fractured but your brain still absorbs the force.

"It's evolved from a game that used to be about moving the ball, to one that's about highlight-film hits."

There have been studies for decades that link multiple concussions and cognitive erosion. At long last, under increasing pressure from lawmakers, former players and medical experts, the NFL has begun to get proactive.

"We need to make the game safer," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. "We have more work to do, but we think we're making progress and we're changing the culture."



According to a league-commissioned study last year, Alzheimer's disease or similar memory-related afflictions seem to have been diagnosed in former NFL players at a vastly higher rate than the national population. The study, conducted by the University of Michigan's Institute for social research, reported that 6.1% of former players age 50 and older reported they had received a dementia-related diagnosis, five times higher than the cited national average of 1.2%.

The information was gathered in phone interviews with 1,063 retired players, each of whom had played at least four seasons in the NFL. A league spokesman pointed out the study did not formally diagnose dementia, and questioned the reliability of phone surveys.

Still, the emerging information about head injuries is chilling to many current and former players.

"None of this was ever told to us," Turley said. "The NFL never talked about it. The general public never talked about it. It's just because of neglect and ignorance. There could have been so much study and research done on this issue. And now we've finally got doctors who are getting their voice heard.

"They have knocked on the NFL's door many times. It's just never been opened for them before."

Congressional pressure helped spark the change. Last October, Goodell and NFL Players Assn. Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, along with doctors and former players, testified on Capitol Hill in an attempt to identify how to make football safer. Judiciary Chairman Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., said the issue warranted congressional review.

Three weeks later, Goodell approved the resignation of Dr. Ira Casson and Dr. David Viano, who had led the league's committee on concussions since 2007.

Then came more changes. In December, the NFL banned players from returning to a game or practice the same day they exhibited signs of a concussion, and ruled they must be fully asymptomatic — when at rest and active — before being cleared to come back. Also, the league said, clearance should come from a doctor not employed by the team.

Players are now asked to track and report their own head injuries, and tell on other players who might be masking symptoms.

"It almost has to be a whistleblower mentality, unfortunately," Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott Fujita said. "If you have a teammate and you see that he's kind of dinged and having some problems, you have to be a good, responsible teammate and report that. As much as a guy might not want to hear it, it's up to us to take the onus on ourselves and be responsible."

The league donated $1 million to Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy's research into the long-term effects of repetitive brain trauma in athletes, particularly in football players. The NFL was the first sports league to financially support that research at the school.

This season, for the first time, all 32 locker rooms feature posters warning about the danger of concussions.

"Use your head. Don't lead with it," the signs read, adding that "repeated brain injury can change your life and your family's life forever."

That's an abrupt departure from the position of the ousted Casson, who had been widely criticized during two House hearings for his repeated denials of any link among retired players between brain injuries sustained and heightened rates of dementia.

The new posters and brochures replace pamphlets distributed to players since 2007 that read: "Current research with professional athletes has not shown that having more than one or two concussions leads to permanent problems if each injury is treated properly," and left unanswered the question of "if there are any long-term effects of concussion in NFL athletes."

That might sound preposterous, but according to Dr. Vernon Williams, neurologist at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles, connecting the dots between concussions and long-term cognitive decline is not as simple as it sounds. He said other variables, such as chronic pain, can also contribute to cognitive decline. That makes it difficult to pinpoint concussions as the culprit.

But he added: "There are certain things that I don't think anyone would disagree with, and that is that every concussion is serious. That's actually a big step. Because at one point we said, 'Hey, if you've got a mild concussion, go ahead and play in the same game because for all we can tell, everything is resolved within 15 minutes, the brain seems to be working pretty well, there doesn't appear — or didn't at that point — to be any risk of returning to play.

"Now, everyone, the NFL included, says that's not safe."

For the first time, all 329 NFL hopefuls invited to the scouting combine were given a baseline brain activity exam, called the ImPACT test, and faced questioning from teams about their concussion histories.

Goodell replaced Casson and Viano in March with Dr. H. Hunt Batjer, the chairman of neurological surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, and Dr. Richard G. Ellenbogen, chief of neurological surgery at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. The panel was rechristened the NFL's head, neck and spine medical committee.

According to a survey of 1,090 former NFL players in 2000, more than 60% had suffered at least one concussion, and 26% had had at least three. The players who suffered more reported more problems with memory, concentration, headaches and other neurological issues than those who had not.

A concussion doesn't always result in a loss of consciousness, and often is marked by a vacant stare, confusion, delayed verbal and movement skills, memory loss, slurred speech, and overly emotional responses.

Nowinski, for one, questioned how any football player could get as far along as the NFL and not suffer a concussion along the way.

"In college, when we had two-a-days at the beginning of the year, everybody's head throbbed — everybody," he said. "By the second week, you felt like you were going to throw up every time you got into a three-point stance. It's funny how normal we thought that was. We just thought we were getting used to hitting again.

"The reality is we all probably had been concussed and we were playing through it."



In 2007, a study conducted by the University of North Carolina's Center for the Study of Retired Athletes surveyed 595 former NFL players who had sustained three or more concussions. Of those players, 20.2% said they had been found to have depression — about three times the rate of concussion-free players.

After Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chris Henry died as a result of a traffic accident last year, researchers at West Virginia University discovered he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE — a form of degenerative brain damage caused by multiple hits to the head — at the time of his death. He had never missed a game because of a concussion.

A neuropathologist from Boston University, associate professor Ann McKee, released findings earlier this month that linked traumatic brain injuries and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The significant study, which Nowinski assisted in, was chronicled on HBO's "Real Sports." Having studied the brains of a dozen deceased contact-sport athletes, the BU researchers determined all 12 showed signs of CTE.

Some experts say that most long-term harm is not caused by a single, highlight-reel concussive blow, but by years of smaller helmet thumps, sometimes called "sub-concussive" hits. One study says about 75% of concussions happen during practice as opposed to games.

"That HBO special was alarming," Fujita said. "It's scary to think that those sub-concussive hits might be the biggest problem. Think about those offensive and defensive linemen. They might not have the huge impacts like a safety or a linebacker or a running back. But every game they might have 50 or 60 taps on the helmet — bang, bang, bang — and that's alarming for everybody."

Changing football's culture is no easy task. Throughout the sport's history, concussions have been an accepted reality of the game. Unlike a more obvious wound such as a bone protruding from the skin, brain injuries are usually subjective and harder to detect. Then, there's the longstanding just-rub-some-dirt-on-it-and-get-back-out-there attitude.

"When you start talking about the concussions and things like that, there's just so much information now and it's such a new thing that I think they're still trying to discover what the heck is a concussion," said 49ers Coach Mike Singletary, a Hall of Fame Chicago Bears linebacker who says he never suffered one.

"I just think back right now, when we were playing, you would just go out there and play, and they would put smelling salts in front of you, and you would just smell that and go back out there and play if you can walk.

"You hold up two fingers and you say, 'Two-and-a-half,' and you're close enough, let's go. That's pretty much how it was."

Williams predicted that in the coming years there will be increased attention not just on concussions but sub-concussive impacts — the simple knocking of heads — and how much is too much.

"I'm interested in the impacts the brain has sustained, where the player — and the trainers — didn't notice any significant decline in their functions, but is there a threshold where those impacts increase risk of long-term neurologic decline?" he said. "Do we need to continuously monitor cognitive function? There's a ton of work to do."

Although there is no way to legislate concussions out of football, the NFL is investigating ways of reducing the risks with better equipment, possible practice restrictions, rules changes relating to how "defenseless" players can be hit, and more fines levied against violators.

In his role as special advisor to the commissioner, John Madden chairs a committee of coaches exploring ways of providing players with a safer practice environment. Among the considerations are limiting contact in practices — maybe by limiting the use of helmets — and reducing the overall amount of offseason work.

Still, football is a violent sport, and current players frequently say they simply cannot do their jobs effectively if preoccupied by the possibility of a concussion.

"You've got to be able to play the game at 100 mph with reckless abandon," Indianapolis defensive end Dwight Freeney said. "You could get out there and play half-stepping, but you're not going to be as effective and it will probably show."

Former Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner, 39, who suffered several concussions over the course of his career, finally called it quits after last season — even though he says he felt good enough to keep going. Concussions tipped the scales in that decision.

"I've got the rest of my life in front of me," he said. "I've got seven kids I have to raise. Football is a great career. But you can't jeopardize your life for this game."

Agent Leigh Steinberg, who once represented about half of the NFL's starting quarterbacks, has a vivid memory of sitting in a Dallas-area hospital room with Troy Aikman, hours after the Cowboys quarterback led his team to a victory over San Francisco in the 1993 NFC championship game.

As all of North Texas was awash in celebration, Steinberg had to repeatedly inform a bewildered Aikman that he was A) at Baylor Medical Center, and B) had just directed his team to the Super Bowl.

So disturbing was the experience, that Steinberg became an activist on the issue of concussions and began a series of player-safety conferences in the 1990s.



"It's one thing for a football player after a career of injuries not to be able to pick up his child," Steinberg said.

"It's another thing not to be able to recognize that child."

 
65 posts and nobody mentions why concussions are on the rise?I'm all for players safety, which is why they need to start testing for HGH. IMHO, The reason concussions are on the rise is the rampant use of HGH, especially among defensive players. As far as if it's being used as a bargaining chip, sure, on both sides. The owners will push it like they care, which they are being forced to. The Players Association will use it to their advantage because of the owners also wanting to go to an 18 game season. those are only two of probably dozens of items on the table.BTW - How big of a moron is Goodell for pushing the 18 game season, while there is a potential lockout? Seems to me, he should've went with this after they sorted this mess out.
HGH is one potential reasons, but I'd argue that they're getting better at diagnosing concussions now. It used to be that a player would only be considered concussed if they got knocked unconscious, now we know that a player who has had their bell rung or been hit the right way can have a concussion even if they stay awake the whole time. I saw an interview with Jim Everett where he talked about a concussion he had in the 90s where he never lost consciousness but he couldn't keep the plays straight and kept taking sacks because he was basically running at half speed (That interview popped into my head when I was watching Cutler vs. the Giants a few weeks back, btw).The more we know about the effects concussions can have on the human brain, the greater imperative there is to properly diagnose those concussions. The league as a whole is taking the matter more seriously, mandating a series of steps that must be taken if a concussion is suspected, which leads to more concussion diagnoses. As for whether or not this means the end of the NFL? Anybody who's been watching football for a long time knows that they used to teach players to tackle by keeping their heads up. The old tackling technique meant much fewer helmet-to-helmet hits. If the league mandates suspensions for these types of hits then defensive players will adapt, just as they've adapted to other rules that have protected offensive players.
 

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