OT: Age of first exposure to football and later-life cognitive impairment in former NFL players
There is an association between participation in tackle football prior to age 12 and greater later-life cognitive impairment measured using objective neuropsychological tests. These findings suggest that incurring repeated head impacts during a critical neurodevelopmental period may increase the risk of later-life cognitive impairment.
NYT write ups...
Study of Retirees Links Youth Football to Brain Problems
To Allay Fears, N.F.L. Huddles With Mothers
The hits keep coming. Having played pop warner ball I have to wonder about my own precocious senior moments. This goes beyond NFL players.
The CTE story is the stake in the heart of the game that is slowly being twisted deeper with every study despite NFL huddling with mothers and settlements with players.
Do players sign releases in college? It's getting to that point. Michigan's exposure is already played out in past stories with first hand accounts from Michigan players. In my heart I think it is time to find another past time. Baseball anyone?
January 29th, 2015 at 10:00 AM ^
were legal and permitted in modern society, there would be no shortage of men lining up to enter the ring.
January 29th, 2015 at 8:20 AM ^
about the topic, the possible causation and ways to mitigate the danger. there was a study out on this topic though that said soccer players are as likely to be concussed as football players, so i'd be curious if they're tracking those guys. i think there are a number of factors to control for to make the conclusions sound. it does seem like common sense though that for guys that play pro ball, with the development of size and speed we have now, that the dangers would be much more likely to effect them.
i do think safe tackling training at young ages is very important. i like the 'no targeting' rules (no surprise, as a former TE). anecdotally, i played football until is was 42 and now 10 years later i have none of these issues [insert old guy joke here]. they could develop, but so far the coast is apparently clear.
January 29th, 2015 at 9:06 AM ^
This study isn't anything to hang people's hat on. It only has a sample size of about 42 players. You need to make a larger study to truly come to concrete conclusions. This will take another decade imo.
But yes I believe that playing full contact football before middle school and high school is detrimental to one's mental health.
January 29th, 2015 at 9:52 AM ^
We know a lot more about concussions now and focus a lot more on teaching appropriate technique and safety than we did once upon a time. This study isn't indicative of what kids playing tackle football now will see by the time they are older, but of a small sample size of players that played before a lot of the safety aspects were implemented into the game.
January 29th, 2015 at 9:57 AM ^
But, it doesn't mean we shouldn't use it as a guideline to continue to improve our safety methods in the mean time.
January 29th, 2015 at 10:16 AM ^
It's not only concussions we have to worry about. In fact, a lot of times it's not the KOing hits that hurt players the most. It's the subthreshold grade contact that kills neurons in the CNS over time. Those are the problems that won't go away simply by fixing the way people learn how to tackle or respond to dizzying concussive effects.
Olineman/Dlineman are at more risk due to the constant colliding of the helmets with one another in the trenches resulting in subthreshold contact. You can't take the trenches out of the game of football without completely altering the sport.
The more we learn about these neuronal problems, the more the game of football will change as a consequence from what we have grown to love over the years.
January 29th, 2015 at 2:51 PM ^
One of the worst things that has happened to the debate over football and head trauma is that it's become all about concussions. Concussions are not the issue. Repetitive head impacts are the issue. The word "concussion" shouldn't even come up.
January 29th, 2015 at 9:47 AM ^
January 29th, 2015 at 9:58 AM ^
No no no. Yours is enormous and omnipotent and actually quite attractive.
January 29th, 2015 at 12:13 PM ^
Youth football is a confounding factor in cognitive impairment that is all. More study is required.
January 29th, 2015 at 9:55 AM ^
Little kids play tackle, but the kind of tackle where every play is a run either center, left, or right, and nobody on the field weighs more than 40 lbs, and half of the kids stand there watching the butterflies. Essentially football t-ball. I say it should be tackle, because it's less dangerous than roughhousing with daddy, and it makes sense to kids.
Once kids hit about 1st to 2nd grade, they need to start learning some of the strategies of the game. Proper blocking. Proper positions. ETC. But now, since they're learning the strategies of the game, how to move their bodies, etc, I think flag football makes the most sense. Kids won't benefit from getting hit at this time anyway. They need to learn NOT to associate making the play properly with pain.
Then, maybe 8th grade is time to start the kids on real tackle football training. But for one year, it's only intra-squad stuff. You spend a year learning to take the flag footballl skills you've dveloped for the past 7/8 years, and turn them into real footballl. You practice tackling and being tackled by and on team mates, without the pressure of winning a game making you break form and do something stupid.
By 9th grade, you understand the game and your best positions very, very well, and you've had an entire year of schooling in just how to play the tackle game right. Welcome to the JV.
My 2 Cents.
January 29th, 2015 at 9:56 AM ^
because thats what maize and blue winged helmets cause. i have a study on file in case anyone doubts me.