Neck Exercises May Prove To Be The Ounce Of Prevention For Football Concussions

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Posted on 24th May 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Here’s a pro-active approach to dealing with potential brain injuries in sports: Prevent them by doing neck-strengthening exercises. http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2010/05/24/concussions-fought-neck/

 Mike Gittleson, who was the University of Michigan’s football strength and conditioning coach for 30 years, believes young athletes should be doing neck-strengthening exercises to protect themselves from brain injuries. In fact, I agree with him that such exercise should be mandatory, in both high school, college and even the NFL. 

Gittleson retired from Michigan in 2008, but his work for a sports-clothing company since then has taken him to more than 250 colleges. From what he’s witnessed, few schools are promoting neck exercise. Essentially, we are training all parts of the body except the one that can help steady and protect one of our most valuable organs, the brain.

 Gittleson wants to change that. He recently addressed the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches annual Convention in Orlando, Fla., about the issue. He is asking that the group make knowledge of neck anatomy a part of  its certification and argues that neck-strengthening exercises must be taught to athletes.

Physicians who study concussions agree that stronger necks can lessen, or diffuse, the impact of blows that cause concussions. So says Dr. Robert Cantu, who is a co-director of Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy.

Cantu and Dr. Dawn Comstock are almost done with research on how neck length, diameter and strength factor into head trauma.    

 Another researcher, Ralph Cornwell, is conducting a study of 24 college-aged women and men who haven’t done neck exercises.  He will do tests where these people will be moving, as if a car, but then suddenly be stopped. Cornwell will measure how much their heads jerked by watching film of the test participants and digital mapping. 

He will then have the 24 participants do neck exercises for a period of time, and retest them to see if there is any change in their range of motion when their movement is suddenly stopped.

At least one former Michigan player, Steelers linebacker LaMarr Woodley, credits Gittleson’s neck training with  helping  him play college and pro football without suffering any concussions.  That’s pretty good proof in favor of neck-strengthening.

NCAA Tweaks Football, Wrestling Rules To Protect Athletes Against Concussions

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Posted on 16th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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The National Collegiate Athletic Association is making changes to its rules for college football and wrestling to better protect student athletes from concussions.

The NCAA considers preventing or reducing the number of concussions important enough that it is making these football and wrestling rule changes in an off-year of the usual two-year process. Rules changes related to health and safety are permitted in off-years.

In the case of college football, wedge blocks will be barred this fall. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gbHbzEBOEXVznRpzE1YuMBCaj9eQD9F3Q5NG0

The NCAA’s Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved that change Thursday.

The NCAA is following in the footsteps of the National Football League, which a year ago prohibited wedge blocking on kickoffs because of safety concerns. The NCAA now says that when the team receiving a kickoff has more than two players standing within two yards of one another, shoulder to shoulder, it will be assessed a 15-yard penalty — even if there is no contact between the teams, according to the Associated Press.

This change is being instituted because NCAA studies have found that 20 percent of all injuries occurring on kickoffs result in concussions.

And the NCAA Wrestling Committee is recommending a change to an injury rule to better protect competitors who show signs of a concussion, the organization said Friday. http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal/ncaahome?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/ncaa/ncaa/ncaa+news/ncaa+news+online/2010/association-wide/wrestling+rules+panel+recommends+rule+to+add+concussion+protection_04_16_10_ncaa_news

The proposed change is to Rule 6.2, which was suggested to read: “If a contestant is rendered unconscious, or shows signs of a concussion or spinal injury, that wrestler shall not be permitted to continue in the match or return to competition without approval of a physician or certified athletic trainer.”

In essence, the change adds concussion symptoms to the list of injuries that require medical attention and positions athletic trainers and physicians as the authorities for that oversight.

The Football Rules Committee and Soccer Rules Committee took similar actions earlier this year.

 “Committee members thought it would be prudent to limit the decision-making responsibility for whether a student-athlete may continue wrestling after showing signs of a concussion to a physician or certified athletic trainer,” committee chair Brad Traviolia, who is also the deputy commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, said in a statement.

The Playing Rules Oversight Panel (PROP), which will meet via conference call June 2, must approve the change.

In January, PROP endorsed efforts by the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports to manage concussion issues more effectively. PROP instructed each rules committee to thoroughly review its policies in the areas of stopping play for injuries and to consider instituting rules that may further prevent head injuries.

Detroit Lions Tight End FitzSimmons Retires Due To Concussions

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Posted on 14th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Another pro athlete has gotten the message about brain injury.

Detroit Lions tight end Casey FitzSimmons, who has sustained several concussions, Wednesday announced that he is retiring from the National Football League.  http://www.detnews.com/article/20100414/SPORTS0101/4140414/1361/Concussions-force-Lions-TE-FitzSimmons-to-retire

FitzSimmons, who has been playing in the NFL for seven years, cited his concerns about his “several documented concussions,” which included one he suffered in a Dec. 6 game against Cincinnati.

“This has been a very difficult decision,” FitzSimmons said in a statement. “I feel like 2009 was one of the best seasons of my career, because I was so consistent, and was able to contribute in a variety of ways.”

But FitzSimmons is concerned about his health.

“If it wasn’t for the concussions, I would not be retiring,” he said. “It’s frustrating because the rest of my body is still capable of playing at a high level in the NFL. However, given the seriousness of the risk associated with continuing to play, I have to listen to the advice the team has given me.”

California May Be Forum For Deciding Whether The NFL Can Be Held Liable For Retired Players Developing Alzheimer’s Disease

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Posted on 8th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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A case in California is shaping up as a test of whether the National Football League is liable for the dementia that is striking retired players who sustained head injuries during their careers.

 The details of the case are carefully spelled out in a lengthy Page One story in The New York Times by sports writer Alan Schwartz, whose aggressive coverage of the NFL-concussion issue has been submitted for a Pulitzer Prize. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/sports/football/06worker.html?ref=todayspaper

 The detailed story centers of the case of Ralph Wenzel, who was a NFL lineman from 1966 to 1973. He was diagnosed with dementia when he was 67.

 His wife, Dr. Eleanor Peretta, filed a workman’s compensation claim on her husband’s behalf in California. Apparently, retired pro athletes from across the country file claims in California for injuries they sustained decades ago.

 That’s because under California law, any pro athlete who played even one game in the state “is eligible to receive lifetime medical care for their injuries from the teams and their insurance carriers,” according to The Times.

 In fact, right now some 700 former NFL players have filed claims in California, and they can expect to get settlements of anywhere from $100,000 to $200,000. 

 Those lump sums have been for injuries such as injured shoulders and knees. But Wenzel’s case is significantly different, and could be precedent-setting. That’s because it is blaming Wenzel’s former employment as a football player for his devastating onset of dementia.

 The case could be worth over $1 million for Wenzel and his wife, and could also result in the NFL being held liable for similar awards from retired players who have developed Alzheimer’s disease, on the hook for $100 million or even more, according to The Times.

 The looming issue scared the Arena Football League, which just resumed operations, enough that it decided not to have a franchise in California. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/sports/football/06arena.html

 Schwartz has a follow-up story on the NFL-workman’s compensation issue Tuesday. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/sports/football/07bengals.html?hpw

In that piece, he describes how NFL teams now starting to contest the workman’s comp claims filed by former players in California. And some teams, to avoid the problem in the first place, are including clauses on their contracts that say players can only file for workman’s compensation in the state where their team plays.

For example, the Cincinnati Bengals now have a clause in player contracts that says they can only file for workman’s compensation in Ohio, according to The Times.