An (Unscientific) Analysis of Frontline's Concussion Data

A few days ago, I posted a link to Frontline's online NFL concussion application. If you haven't checked it out, I encourage you do to so. It allows you to sort by season, team, position, and individual player when looking at concussion data from the 2012-2015 seasons.

Click this link to visit the website: 

http://apps.frontline.org/concussion-watch/#positions_2015

I've been milling around the application data, and I noticed a few trends that I thought were interesting and strong enough to point out.

1st, it seems that defensive backs and receivers are the positions most likely to suffer concussions. Looking at the 2015 data, cornerbacks are especially susceptible, and the comparison between the corners and interior linemen (defensive tackles, offensive guards and centers) is pretty striking. Thinking about it, though, it makes a lot of sense-- although linemen may be experiencing more contact on a play-by-play basis, cornerbacks and receivers bring much more acceleration and momentum into hits. Defensive backs have a much larger space to work with than linemen do, and thus collisions will often be lined up from 10 or 15 yards away, resulting in harder hits. Additionally, again due to the large amount of space, collisions can come awkward and unexpected angles, leading to head injuries.

Graphic from 2015 Data

Another trend I noticed in the data was that quite a few players suffered multiple concussions in the course of one season. Of these 11 players, all except two of them missed more game time after their second concussion than they did after their first. I charted out the data below:

As you can see, players missed an average of 1.0 games recovering from their first concussion of the season, but missed an average of 2.7 while recovering from their second. Additionally, five of the 11 players suffered their second concussion during their first game back from their first concussion. I've highlighted these players on the chart. The two players who suffered concussions that were season-ending, Andrew Hawkins and Joe Haden, both suffered their second concussions during their first games back. 

A few obvious conclusions and lessons can be drawn from this small sample size of data. Primarily, long-term health concerns put aside, it makes no sense for a player to return to game play unless he is completely healthy. Obviously I can't speculate on how the these players, especially the ones who immediately suffered a second concussion, felt physically going into their games. I'm sure at least a few of them felt entirely normal. But clearly, there needs to be some better sort of gauge on whether a player is truly recovered before he is sent back to play. The NFL is notorious for its use of pain killers, which could be a factor in this situation.