Today, the New York Times released a bombshell exposé article by N.F.L.-Backed Youth Program Says It Reduced Concussions. The Data Disagrees.
The article demonstrates conclusively that the claims made by the NFL-funded youth football organization, USA Football, about the impact of its ‘Heads Up’ tackling program on reducing the incidence of concussions in football were false and unsupported:
“As increasing numbers of parents keep their children from playing tackle football for safety reasons, the National Football League and other groups have sought to reassure them that the game is becoming less dangerous.
No initiative has received more backing and attention than Heads Up Football, a series of in-person and online courses for coaches to learn better safety procedures and proper tackling drills. The N.F.L. funds and heavily promotes the program. The league and U.S.A. Football, youth football’s governing body, which oversees the program, have sold Heads Up Football to thousands of leagues and parents as having been proved effective — telling them that an independent study showed the program reducing injuries by 76 percent and concussions by about 30 percent.
That study, published in July 2015, showed no such thing, a review by The New York Times has found. The research and interviews with people involved with it indicate, rather, that Heads Up Football showed no demonstrable effect on concussions during the study, and significantly less effect on injuries over all, than U.S.A. Football and the league have claimed in settings ranging from online materials to congressional testimony.”
This exposé should send ripples through the football universe. Not just in the NFL, but throughout the ranks of youth football at all levels.
And yet still we hear now-common refrains by football advocates, fans, friends and family members:
“What’s the point?!”
“Who cares?!”
“They accept the risk.”
“They get paid a lot of money.”
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So as a public service, we are providing some suggested answers to some common questions:
“Sure the study is misleading, but don’t players inherently know that they are subjecting themselves to bodily injury due to nature of the sport? And, if the player consents to that on his own volition, isn’t that OK?”
No and no.
That is not how informed consent works. You can’t accept a risk unless you know what that risk is.
Take this example. A player is told that if they adopt a particular tackling technique, it decreases their chances of getting concussions by 70%. They accept the risk of playing based on that. Then they later find out there is no basis for that claim and in fact, that technique does not reduce chances of getting a concussion at all. Their quality of life at age 50 is terrible, because—based on concussions sustained while playing—they often have no memory of who they are and what it is they were doing.
Is that OK with you?
That’s not OK with me.
That’s outrageous.
Have they accepted the risk? I do not think so.
Here is another example. A player is told that there is no link between football and a degenerative disease called CTE, which has hallmarks of Alzheimers and leads to dementia and depression when you are in your 40s. They only know about concussions and accept the risk of playing based on the likelihood of getting a concussion and what is then known about how to treat concussions. They believe that if you sit out for a few games and then are medically cleared to play, there is no real further risk to them. Later they find out that CTE is in fact caused by repeated sub-concussive hits over a lifetime of playing football, that began when they were 8 years old and continued through high school and college and—in a rare subset of people—into the pros. Their friends start committing suicide and losing their minds and have abrupt mood swings when they are 40 years old. They end up shooting their wife and kids and then themselves at the age of 43.
Is that OK with you?
That’s not OK with me.
That’s outrageous.
Have they accepted the risk? I do not think so.
♦◊♦
“I guess it’s OK to be an advocate for better practices but aren’t athletes exploited for society’s entertainment in every sport? When there’s a lot of money on the line, people are willing to accept risk, like playing in the NFL”
The particular insidiousness of this story is that THESE ARE NOT NFL ATHLETES; THEY ARE CHILDREN.
‘Heads Up’ Football is being pushed in Youth Football nationwide. We should be more concerned about the millions of kids who play Pop Warner and High School Football than the 1500 who play in the NFL.
That’s the point.
One final thought. And this applies here, but also goes beyond football. Have we really reached a point where lies don’t matter? Where we just shrug them off? Is that where we want to be? Everyone knows that there is a reason that people lie or attempt to mislead. They believe that they can get away with it, and if they do they will be better off. But in lies, someone wins and someone loses. I choose to care about the lives of the men and boys being fed misinformation, instead of making excuses to protect those that profit from lies.
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Related: The NFL and Painkillers: Still a Problem (This updated post includes a list of related articles.)
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Photo credit: Flickr/Erik Drost
I had an interesting conversation today with the individual that handles all our real-estate transactions. Her 12 year old son was with her, so as per usual, I struck up a conversation with him about life and such (the little guys are amazing to talk to). The conversation turned to sports and that he was thinking about playing football. Overstepped my bounds a bit when I looked up at his mom and said, almost viscerally, “no way”. It was a relief when she said, “thank you”, and from there we went on to talk about injuries, including the one that… Read more »
The game is becoming safer, but that’s like saying that a drunk traveling at 45 miles per hour is safer than one traveling at 85 miles per hour. Can argue that as a truism if one chose to direct away from the fact that it’s not the speed but the drink. Even more effective when the reader wants to believe in that it’s the speed. We are moving in that direction, but fork tongue studies claimed to be by “independent researchers” are just that, and they have always been that. Tobacco companies used to do it. Beer and alcohol manufactures… Read more »
Fantastic article. Keen practical advice on having conversation with football fanatics and those who care about the health of children in general and boys in particular. Great commentary on lying in social discourse. Has there ever been an instance in professional support where a referee ruled in favor of a player, with the player immediately protesting that he was indeed guilty of a rule infraction, with the audience rising to applaud the player’s honesty? Kinda rare I imagine. Sport tends to reinforce big time the ethic of supporting falsehood for the good of the team and to keep doing it… Read more »
Thank you David. I really appreciate the comment. This piece was actually generated based on an actual conversation over email that I had with a family member over email about the NYT article, with him pressing the viewpoint that it just didn’t matter. These are my actual responses. 🙂
And that is a great point about how much competition encourages cheating or lying or pushing the boundaries of fairness. That would be a great article!