The Future of Football: NYTimes Links Big Tobacco with NFL Concussion Study

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I’m a little surprised that a number of wrestlers were impacted. Doesn’t seem like the sort of thing where you’d get repeated concussions.
I'm not. Same reason why linemen have the highest rates of CTE in football, it's from the repeated sub-concussive impacts and the accumulated damage, not the highlight reel hits that get all the attention. Same reason rugby and its "safer" tackling techniques still have CTE rates of like 70%. It's still humans colliding and jarring their brains around their skulls.
 
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luckiestman

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I’m a little surprised that a number of wrestlers were impacted. Doesn’t seem like the sort of thing where you’d get repeated concussions.
You get hit a lot. Maybe not known concussions. These reports always make me wonder if my brain is fucked up. I have caught a ton of head shots in my life(elbows, knees, other heads). It’s not like boxing, but you can get popped.

For the youth athlete, weight cutting may make this worse .
 

Oil Can Dan

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This is cool. It's probably 5 or so years away but one day we'll have sideline concussion tests in the NFL:

A bedside blood concussion test, with Pitt research, finds FDA approval

Dr. David Okonkwo, director of the Neurotrauma Clinical Trials Center, and his team’s efforts have resulted in the first lab-quality test capable of detecting concussions rapidly and accessibly, right at patients’ bedsides and, someday, on the sidelines of sporting events.
 

mauf

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I hope that some good can come from this tragedy in the form of future health and lives saved.

https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/42680658/alabama-lb-medrick-burnett-jr-dies-head-injury
This sent me on an Internet dive.

The injury happened on a kickoff return. Reports said that Burnett collided head to head with a blocker. I was able to find a video (not surprisingly, most outlets have taken it down), but it’s unclear what happened — it’s a gang tackle, several players go to the ground, and apparently everyone but Burnett got up. Burnett was on the field for several minutes, and players were gathered in prayer, but he gave a “thumbs up” sign from the backboard as he was wheeled off the field and the game went on. One report I saw from immediately after the game mentioned the injury in passing; other reports didn’t mention it at all. It sounds like Burnett’s condition took a turn for the worse a day or two after the injury; by Thursday (five days after the game), it was clear that his condition was grave.

It’s tempting to say that this is another data point in favor of abolishing the kickoff, but from the footage I saw it appears that the injury could’ve happened on any short-yardage play — it was a gang tackle, and Burnett was one of the tacklers.
 

Groovenstein

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This sent me on an Internet dive.

The injury happened on a kickoff return. Reports said that Burnett collided head to head with a blocker. I was able to find a video (not surprisingly, most outlets have taken it down), but it’s unclear what happened — it’s a gang tackle, several players go to the ground, and apparently everyone but Burnett got up. Burnett was on the field for several minutes, and players were gathered in prayer, but he gave a “thumbs up” sign from the backboard as he was wheeled off the field and the game went on. One report I saw from immediately after the game mentioned the injury in passing; other reports didn’t mention it at all. It sounds like Burnett’s condition took a turn for the worse a day or two after the injury; by Thursday (five days after the game), it was clear that his condition was grave.

It’s tempting to say that this is another data point in favor of abolishing the kickoff, but from the footage I saw it appears that the injury could’ve happened on any short-yardage play — it was a gang tackle, and Burnett was one of the tacklers.
Thanks for the exploration. I was hesitant to look further because awful.