NYTimes has just done a piece on Don Horton being diagnosed with CTE. Heavy topic but there were some interesting points to be made:
- Don Horton, while a football lifer was not a highly touted player who made it at the top levels - "He had played for Wittenberg University, a Division III power in Ohio"
- He was definitely from the era of 'tough guy football', I wonder if that 15 number is even a bit low. - ""He would say: 'We didn't call them concussions. We called them getting your bell rung,'" Maura Horton said. "And I'd ask him how often that happened, and he said: 'Probably like 15 times. We just played through them.'"
- I wonder how many more cases of this we will start to see and how low it will go, high school? - "People read the C.T.E. stories on the N.F.L. level because it's been so highly publicized, but I don't think people see it as something the average person gets," Maura Horton said. "But there are more people who are going to be affected who played in the N.C.A.A. than played in the N.F.L. That's what I told our girls: It's going to be average guys like your dad."
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I bet that is really really common. I mean, we had an O-line coach for years that acted like he had had brain injuries.
Curt Newsome reference?
This has always kind of been my thoughts on the matter. I think its great that everyone (hopefully) is now more aware of the risks that come along with playing the game. That being said, most activities that are fun in life have risks that come along with them. Shit, my dad was concussed by a golf ball last summer. I'd still lace them up if I could. I do think that once you start having to wear special helmets it's probably time to hang em up... talking to you Welker.
I'd like to see more research about youth football and how that impacts the brain later in life. My (completely uneducated) theory is that these hits are more damaging when kids are younger, since the brain is not fully developed. I wouldn't be surprised to see CTE occur more frequently based on the age at which they started playing football.
I hear the "not fully developed" term thrown around a lot. Is there an accepted point when someones brain is fully developed?
Since "fully developed" is not a quantifiable term, I would bet not. I have read some articles say the brain is still developing into your early 20s to 25 years old.
That was kind of what I was getting at. I've heard some argue your brain is never finished developing
A professor at VT (Dr. Berg) would frequently say not to drink until you're 25 because that's when your brain stops developing. He never cited a source but I'm sure he had read something on the topic.
MIT agrees:
http://hrweb.mit.edu/worklife/youngadult/brain.html
Oregon Health Sciences University points out some interesting information about the adolescent brain:
http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/health/services/brain/in-community/brain-awarenes...
I think this is probably why there is such concern about brain damage in adolescents and young adults. The frontal lobe is responsible for a whole host of things, including motor function, problem solving, memory, language, judgment, and more. A serious injury there (or multiple) could have an irreversible and terrible effect on someone's life.
Note: there is probably a lot more information out there. This is just what I pulled from some quick Googling and reputable sites that confirmed a few things I have also heard/been taught over the years. Not my area of expertise.
Dr Berg said a lot of crazy stuff
Also has to do with tackling technique at younger ages. Just simply isn't enough practice time to learn.
I'm sure there is enough evidence now that football is incredibly bad for your brain. These guys will never be the same. Probably kids also. Our culture has celebrated it and we love it and it will be impossible or extremely difficult to stop watching at this point. It would take an act of Congress to ban it from tv like cigarette ads, to stop the momentum. It's so easy to sit and watch without feeling the repurcussions of the hits.
Supposedly ol' King Henry VIII was a real reasonable king till he suffered a brain injury while jousting.
I stopped following him when he dissed VT for Florida State.
I think everybody who's played any a significant amount of football (at a minimum rec league and high school levels) has had what is termed blackouts or had had their "bell rung", regardless of proper blocking/tackling techniques or not. I know my rec league coaches taught us all the fundamentals, which were based on proper blocking/tackling techniques. What I think happens is as we get to higher competition levels, coaches are less interested in their players using proper techniques, and more interested in competing and winning at all costs, even if that involves knocking out opposing players. I played offensive and defensive line in rec league, and don't recall ever having a blackout of "bell rung" situation. But in high school, playing corner, safety, and 'monster' back, I had a couple instances of blackouts, and although some of that may have been related to the higher speed impacts from playing further off the ball, it also seemed players used their helmets more in high school than at the rec level, and were not discouraged from doing so.
I'm not advocating the use of the helmet in tackling, but even when employing proper tackling techniques, quite often the head is involved or can't help but be in the area of impact. My question is have there been any significant advancements in helmet protection in the last 25+ years? I remember the special helmet Bills safety Mark Kelso wore because of his repeated concussions, which I'm assuming helped and allowed him to continue his NFL career, and often wondered why all players were not wearing that kind of head gear.
Virginia Tech has been a leader for many years in studying helmet impacts and rating helmet technology.
http://www.beam.vt.edu/helmet/index.php
Late to the thread, but wanted to directly answer your last question with hard numbers. The answer is unequivocally yes. Switching from the VSR-4 Helmet (Developed in 1980s) to the Revolution helmet (introduced in 2002) reduced concussion risk by 53.9% in collegiate football. There are even better helmets out there now.
Study by VT Biomedical Engineering