Back to my research:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sports/nfl-sees-a-drop-in-concussions-but-problems-linger/
"Through the first 13 weeks of the season, a total of 96* concussions have been disclosed on team injury reports, down from 115 at the same point last season and 128 in 2012. At the current pace, teams are on track to report at least 122 concussions, a drop of nearly 20 percent from a year ago."For once, good news is appearing. Concussion rates are actually down at the most competitive football level, something to be very happy about.
Dr. Cardenas, one of the doctors who sits on the head of the NFL's Neck and Spine committee, stated:
“In large part [drop in concussion rates] because of some of the intervention targeting of another athlete with the head is illegal,” Cardenas said. “The number of contact practices during the season has been reduced.”
Cardenas's quote is evidence that the widespread, stringent regulation placed in 2010 to make the game safer has been doing its job. I believe that even more can be done to reduce the concussion rate, the basis of my thesis project.
Cardenas has also commented on the player's pulling themselves out of games more than ever before:
“I’m really witnessing a culture shift where the athletes are taking better care of themselves"
Some problems are still lingering however:
"But despite the progress, the league continues to struggle with instances of players remaining on the field after a concussion. The NFL’s concussion protocol requires teams to sideline any player suspected of having a concussion, keeping them off the field for the rest of the game. According to the protocol, players must then pass a series of medical tests before they can return to play."
I've already talked about Jahleel Addae and how he returned to a game after suffering a concussion early on in the first quarter. One thing I have yet to talk about is concussion baseline testing. At the beginning of the year, players are made to take a baseline test to measure, if they ever have a concussion, there cognitive abilities. However, one huge issue with this is that many players a purposely doing poorly on there baseline tests that way they could pass concussion protocol easier.
Another alarming and lingering problem is that the full story about concussing are almost never told. One-third of all concussions are left out of the injury report. When roughly one-third of head injuries are left off the list, there can be no check on who the missing names are, how quickly they’re returning to play, or whether the injury marks a repeat concussion for the player.
Here is the reasoning why this occurs: "Much of the gap can be explained by the way injuries are publicly reported. For example, teams don’t release injury reports until Week 1 of the regular season, meaning most concussions from training camp are left off the list. Likewise, it’s unclear how many concussions go unreported when an injured player’s team has a bye week and the player recovers before his next game. In that case, the player would not go on the injury report.Teams also stop releasing injury reports after their final game of the year. That means there is no public record of any injuries from the final regular-season game for the 20 teams that don’t make the playoffs. The same is true for playoff teams as they’re eliminated from postseason play"http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_27243298/nfl-concussion-protocol-hit-players-safety
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sports/concussion-watch/what-weve-learned-from-two-years-of-tracking-nfl-concussions/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/concussion-watch/#players_2014
http://kjzz.org/content/31693/white-house-concussion-summit-hits-home-arizona
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969996114003325
http://hub.jhu.edu/2015/01/26/nfl-players-concussion-research
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