Three years ago congressional pressure all but forced the NFL to revamp its concussion program.
It was found that there was virtually no consensus on how to assess or manage the injury, with shocking reports from players and team staff including players sent back into games after multiple concussions, pressure to return-to-play by ownership, and long-term issues that include depression, early onset dementia, and suicide.
Given the vast resources of the NFL and pressure to reform, it would be reasonable to assume that after 3 years great strides would have been taken to combat the policies and practices of the past - so much for assumptions.
An analysis by ESPN "Outside The Lines", and PBS "Frontline" found that the current NFL system of tracking and managing head injuries falls far short of what would be considered adequate.
They uncovered regular inconsistencies in how the head injuries were tracked, how they were managed, and protocol for return-to-play.
Included in their findings were several incidents of players being returned to the game following obvious head injury and concussion symptoms.
Concussion Watch, a third-party database created to track head injuries in the NFL, captured some very interesting information that is at times at odds with what is being reported by NFL teams.
Analysis shows that players listed with a concussion are on pace to increase more than 9 percent from 2011, with an average of 9 per week (up from 5.
4 per week in 2009).
While this trend suggests greater care in diagnosis and reporting, team data shows inconsistencies in the categorization of concussion, which may be skewing the numbers.
Specifically, it was found that both "concussion" and "head" were used to categorize concussions.
Also, it was found that team data did not include concussions sustained in the pre-season or during practice, negating the claim made by the NFL that the incidence of concussion was on the decline.
What this data ultimately shows is that the NFL, a mega-money-making machine with what amounts to unlimited resources to build a world-leading program for player safety, falls short.
Many argue that it is this money machine that is forcing team staff and players to downplay head injury and return players to the game before they are medically ready, and I don't argue with that.
If history is any guide, continuing to ask a league of teams with the primary goal of winning games and making money to regulate player safety in an unbiased manner will not work.
All we need to do is look to the corporate world where virtually every example of companies policing themselves has resulted in rampant abuse and corruption.
All we can hope for is continued progress in making the game a little safer for our players - time will tell.
It was found that there was virtually no consensus on how to assess or manage the injury, with shocking reports from players and team staff including players sent back into games after multiple concussions, pressure to return-to-play by ownership, and long-term issues that include depression, early onset dementia, and suicide.
Given the vast resources of the NFL and pressure to reform, it would be reasonable to assume that after 3 years great strides would have been taken to combat the policies and practices of the past - so much for assumptions.
An analysis by ESPN "Outside The Lines", and PBS "Frontline" found that the current NFL system of tracking and managing head injuries falls far short of what would be considered adequate.
They uncovered regular inconsistencies in how the head injuries were tracked, how they were managed, and protocol for return-to-play.
Included in their findings were several incidents of players being returned to the game following obvious head injury and concussion symptoms.
Concussion Watch, a third-party database created to track head injuries in the NFL, captured some very interesting information that is at times at odds with what is being reported by NFL teams.
Analysis shows that players listed with a concussion are on pace to increase more than 9 percent from 2011, with an average of 9 per week (up from 5.
4 per week in 2009).
While this trend suggests greater care in diagnosis and reporting, team data shows inconsistencies in the categorization of concussion, which may be skewing the numbers.
Specifically, it was found that both "concussion" and "head" were used to categorize concussions.
Also, it was found that team data did not include concussions sustained in the pre-season or during practice, negating the claim made by the NFL that the incidence of concussion was on the decline.
What this data ultimately shows is that the NFL, a mega-money-making machine with what amounts to unlimited resources to build a world-leading program for player safety, falls short.
Many argue that it is this money machine that is forcing team staff and players to downplay head injury and return players to the game before they are medically ready, and I don't argue with that.
If history is any guide, continuing to ask a league of teams with the primary goal of winning games and making money to regulate player safety in an unbiased manner will not work.
All we need to do is look to the corporate world where virtually every example of companies policing themselves has resulted in rampant abuse and corruption.
All we can hope for is continued progress in making the game a little safer for our players - time will tell.