The goal of the initiative is “to drive progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of head injuries, enhance medical protocols and further improve the way the game is taught and played”.
Advertisement
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell today announced the launch of Play Smart. The NFL and NFL Players Association work jointly in addressing in-game incidents where players suffer head injuries. “We can and will do better”. The league will devote $60 million to technological development, and $40 million toward funding medical research into the effects of head injuries, according to a press release.
CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and its relationship to football-related concussions will be studied as part of the initiative as well.
Noting the increase in reported cases of concussion in 2015 – partly due to new regulations, expanded protocols and technologies, Goodell believes that “more testing, self-reports and data will bring preventive measures more reliable”.
Does it seem like window dressing, only six days after the league engaged in minimal dressing down of Denver players who treated the season-opening game as if it was open season on Cam Newton, of officials who failed to keep it from happening, and of anyone involved in the failure to get Newton off the field for a concussion evaluation?
“We’ve seen it in 90 out of 94 National Football League players whose brains we’ve examined”, said McKee “We’ve found it in 45 out of 55 college players and six out of 26 high school players”.
He also noted that they’ve made 42 rules changes since 2002 to protect their players, and will continue to make changes as they study preventing injuries. The NFL has transformed the sideline, staffing each game with 29 medical professionals. Although Stewart’s hit left Newton motionless on the ground, he wasn’t checked for a concussion until after the game. We think there’s still further changes that we can make. “But I know we’ll continue to work to make it better”.
The Dallas Cowboys are the most valuable NFL team for a 10th consecutive year, almost double the league average, according to an annual survey by business magazine Forbes on Wednesday. But I think everyone would acknowledge that we’re still in the early stages of that research.
You are reading news and information on LongIsland.com, Long Island’s Most Popular Website, Since 1996. “We’re going to do our best to accelerate that”.
Advertisement
“I know our players”, Goodell said defiantly.
