Final Presentation Script Continuation
"I pose a simple question: would you let your 8 or 9 year old son experience what you have just watched?
Legislation is the backbone to ensure that future generations of children will continue to play the sport of football. Therefore, legislative changes are of the utmost importance.
What I am set to propose is a classic case of “easier said than done” and that is strict standardization.
What do I mean by strict standardization? Basically, I’m calling for a complete overhaul of current state concussion laws in favor of one more stringent federal law. Concussion legislation varies far too greatly between states, emphasizing a neglect for children’s safety. How come only Michigan requires baseline cognitive testing at the beginning of the school year? Do the other 49 states and Washington D.C. not care about their students safety? In my proposal, I’ve detailed the eight core legislative elements found in concussion legislation and under my proposed federal legislation, all eight of those elements become 100% mandatory for every state. Also, I’ve detailed my other main legislative change: placing age restrictions on football. Up until the age of 12, only flag football should be played, reducing brain strain greatly on adolescent. From 12-13 a transitionary period of wrap-up football is played, allowing athletes to learn proper tackling techniques which I will cover later on in my presentation. Lastly, from 14 onward proper tackle football can be played, allowing for a smooth transition from junior high to high school football.
Moving on through LETRR, the next topic of interest for the betterment of concussion management in the game of football centers around equipment."
Over the spring break, I have been working hard on my thesis presentation which is quickly approaching (April 6th). Copied below is the work I have done on Legislation, the first letter in my LETRR acronym. I am in the final stages of this part of my project. I am finalizing any last changes I have before I move on to Equipment management then Technology.
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-08/helmet-wars-and-new-helmet-could-protect-us-all
^just posting the above link for reference purposes
Legislation
Why is legislation so crucial? A young athlete’s brain is still developing, thus the effects of a concussion are amplified and produce more detrimental damage compared to a head injury in an older player. Young athletes’ lives are at stake, thus legislation is of the utmost importance. What I propose is called “Strict Standardization” - the complete overhaul of existing state concussion laws in favor of one federal law with strict and stringent rules. The biggest problem with existing legislation is that it differs vastly between states, emphasizing neglect that many states exhibit in their concussion laws. On the following pages, I have provided a data table from The Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics Volume 42:3 that showcases the alarming differences in just the content of concussion information that is provided to youth football players. Variation in legislation does not just stop there. The amount of material in the bills themselves is greatly varied. Mississippi, the last state to pass concussion legislation, “boasts” a mere three page law, while Texas’s law is fairly detailed with nine pages. However, I see the greatest problem with the core legislative elements in concussion legislation. There are eight core legislative elements. Every state (including Washington D.C.) requires medical clearance prior to return to play and requires distribution of educational materials to either students, parents, or legal guardians. Every state, except Wyoming, requires removal from play if an athlete sustains a concussion (and it is appalling that Wyoming does not follow such a fundamental rule). However, the other five core legislative elements lag behind in implementation. Only one state (Michigan) requires baseline testing of student athletes, twenty-six states require coaches to be trained in concussion management, twelve states have concussions laws that extend beyond school football and into youth-sport organizations, three states require concussion data collection, and only four states require classroom accommodations for concussed students (return to learn). Why skip out on the safety of America’s future? Take concussion data collection for example. Collecting data and making the information readily available can help determine the best methodology for distribution of educational material, the need for mandatory coaches training, the benefit of baseline testing, the best accommodations needed at school, practice, and home, and the number of athletic trainers or other properly concussion trained medical personnel who respond to sports-related injuries at the practices and games. Importantly, data can also be used as the foundation to not only establish the extent of the concussion problem in youth athletics, but to help elucidate the mechanisms of injury and the effectiveness of preventative interventions. Instead of letting each state set its own guidelines, one federal law that makes the eight core legislative elements mandatory will do wonders in keeping the game far more safer than it has been in previous decades. Along with this change, age restrictions should be in placed. What is the point of letting eight and nine year old children tackle, like as seen on Friday Night Tykes? Instead, I propose flag football until the age of twelve years, allowing much less brain strain on young adolescents. Then a transitionary phase takes place from ages twelve to thirteen in which athletes play wrap-up football, while at the same time learning the proper tackling techniques that I will cover later in this proposal. From age fourteen onward, tackle football can be played, allowing a smooth transition from the last year of junior high to high school. Setting laws on one of America’s most famous pastimes will be no easy feat. However, in order to stop the growing epidemic of concussions in football drastic measures must be taken - drastic measures that will save youth athletes from drastic consequences.
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