Sweeping changes needed to reduce football concussions

The prevention and treatment of football-related concussions continues to be a hot button issue in sports circles around the country, with the need to protect our youth from the effects of prolonged exposure to brain trauma the number one concern for parents, coaches and athletic trainers.
Over the last decade, important concussion protocols have been put in place at all levels that have helped diagnose symptoms and safeguard athletes after suffering head trauma, including stringent testing and a required period of inactivity before players are allowed to return to the field.
More recently, the diagnosis of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, has been cited in retired professional athletes with a history of repetitive brain trauma as the chief cause of progressive degenerative diseases including memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, impulse control problems, aggression, depression and eventually, progressive dementia. These changes in the brain can begin months, years or even decades after the last brain trauma suffered in athletic involvement.
With all the knowledge that concussion research has uncovered, the wheels of progress have been slow to adapt, particularly when it comes to the cumulative effects of repeated head trauma in youth football.
The long-standing practice of allowing athletes to play on both offense and defense continues to put kids at risk. Most youth football teams, from pee wee to high school, routinely allow players to “go both ways,” playing both offense and defense and exposing them to twice as much contact in a typical game.
Football is a collision sport, with players subject to a level of contact on virtually every play. A running back can be exposed to at least 50 collisions of varying intensity per game, any number of which can cause some degree of head trauma.  Often the running back will also play linebacker, doubling the amount of contact absorbed in a game. It’s even worse for linemen.
Fatigue is also a major injury factor in players going both ways. When a player is tired, technique is diminished, causing a breakdown in leg strength and proper footwork. When injuries occur a player is typically out of position to either make a tackle or absorb a hit.
Compounding the problem is the disparity in the size of competing teams, particularly in the Sonoma County League. The problem is even worse for teams in the North Coast Section playoffs, where small schools are pitted against powerful private schools. By any definition, the situation places one team at increased risk.
Most coaches would point to a small roster size as the chief reason for players pulling double duty. But if teams were required to suit up a minimum amount of athletes for each game – perhaps 30 – it would allow kids to play on either offense or defense, not both, reducing their exposure to head trauma exponentially.
A mandate for expanded high school varsity rosters would cause many teams to pull more kids up from the JV level to meet the 30-man criteria. If a school is unable to meet the roster requirement, an alternative could be to join an eight-man football league, with schools competing against similar sized programs.
Aside from a reduced injury risk, another obvious benefit of expanded rosters and offensive/defensive designations for athletes is that by necessity, more kids would see playing time.
If adopted, these rules would not be optional; they would be administered by coaches and monitored by league officials at all levels.
This is certainly not meant as an indictment of coaches; they’re among the most  respected members of the community who play by the rules and are genuinely concerned with player safety, but should be viewed as a talking point that places focus on the causes of injuries rather than their treatment.
Football has a religious following in this country for players and spectators alike. It’s a sport deeply rooted in tradition and community, and one that’s not going away any time soon. We must acknowledge that football will always have an inherent risk associated with it and can never be made completely safe, but perhaps by striking a balance we’ll do everything possible to insure better long-term health for our kids while preserving the integrity of the game.
— Greg Clementi is the Healdsburg Tribune Sports Editor