Luke Kuechly

Some folks might remember the picture that went viral around national media sources back in August of a Syrian boy injured by an airstrike in Aleppo. The shocking image really served as symbol of all the atrocities happening in Syria, evoking much stronger emotions and attention with one face than would 1,000 news articles and reports.


On November 18th, America received a similar image.


Luke Kuechly, middle linebacker for the Panthers and arguably the best defensive player in the entire NFL right now, was shown tearing up while being carted off the field after suffering a concussion.

This image is what football's concussion crisis is. It's not numbers. It's not statistics. It's not fantasy points. It's scary, inconvenient reality that was shoved in the face of a national audience during that game.

If you watch the hit that Kuechly takes from Saints running back Tim Hightower when he went down, you'd probably never guess that Kuechly suffered a concussion on the play. He was hit at the bottom of his facemask, not directly on the shell of his helmet, and the hit didn't seemed to be abnormally forceful or unexpected. While the replay was showing, the announcers speculated that he may have suffered a knee or leg injury. Even I, knowing his concussion history, thought that his injury was most likely an ACL tear. It wasn't until after Kuechly was carted off the field and examined in the locker room that the announcers found out and reported that he'd suffered a concussion.

Seeing an elite and well-respected player and person like Luke Kuechly crying after suffering a concussion is heart breaking. He missed around a month recovering from a concussion last year, if and when he steps on the field again, he's putting himself at an enormous risk.

I don't know what else to say except that I hope he gets well soon and I hope that this image makes more people aware of the impact that concussions have. I think we're at the point that anyone who watches football, even very casual fans, is aware that concussions in football exist. The next step is making people aware of the gravity of concussions.

Steelers Establish TBI Research Foundation

Earlier today, the Pittsburgh Steelers President Art Rooney II announced the creating of the Chuck Noll Foundation for Brain Injury Research. The foundation is named after sports brain injury advocate Chuck Noll, Steelers head coach from 1969-1991, and administrator for the team for two decades after that. The Steelers are supporting the foundation with an initial contribution of $1 million, and the Foundation's Board of Director will include Merrill Hoge, current ESPN commentator and former Steelers running back who retired over concerns about football-related concussions. The medical advisory panel will include Dr. Julian Bailes, Dr. Regis Haid, and Dr. Joseph Maroon. These are names are all familiar if you've read League of Denial, by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru (review on that book coming soon), one of the most popular books on the NFL and TBI.

It goes without saying that it's great to see people within the NFL making major efforts to help alleviate the concussion crisis overtaking the sport of football. The foundation's creation comes at an especially apt time, as Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made some statements yesterday (in addition to other past statements) denying the link between football and brain trauma. I'm going on a tangent here, but it honestly blows my mind that there are still people within high places in the NFL who deny that CTE exists or that it is caused by football. Of course, there are debates within the field about how prevalent CTE is and what its underlying causes are, but those discourses are lead by medical doctors, not wealthy businessmen who clearly have vested interests that override the science. At the risk of alienating people politically, it's a lot like the global warming "debate."

Anyway, this move is an applaudable move by the Steelers and a great example of how the NFL, a multi-billion dollar industry, can start investing more of its own money to fund research on TBI.

About Concussions

Concussions are often called an invisible injury, and this assessment is true in more ways than one. Obviously concussions as injuries are often overshadowed by tears and fractures in training rooms and doctor's offices, but a large part of this categorization is that many concussions occur without a loss of consciousness or with symptoms that manifest hours or days later. So what is a concussion?

To put it simply and unscientifically, the brain sits inside the not completely snuggly, but is rather floating in cerebrospinal fluid, which provides a barrier between the interior wall of the skull and the surface of the brain. When a strong amount of force, such as a blow to the head, impacts the skull, the brain will essentially slosh around within the skull before resettling. This movement causes the brain to make contact with the surface of the skull and suffer swelling, axonal damage, and metabolic disruption. This damage can cause a whole host of symptoms.

Here are some common symptoms of concussion:

• Headache
• Blurry Vision
• Nausea or Vomiting
• Dizziness
• Lethargy
• Balance problems
• Sensitivity to light
• Sensitivity to noise
• Depression
• Mental fog
• Anxiety
• Confusion
• Irritability
• Difficulty thinking clearly
• Difficulty concentrating
• Difficulty recognizing play calls
• Aphasia
• Disruption in normal sleep patterns
• Loss of Consciousness

(Source: CDC)

As an athlete, it's important to know the signs and symptoms of concussion not only to know when to remove yourself from play and get proper rest/treatment, but also to recognize symptoms that may arise in a teammate who is attempting to hide them, doesn't recognize them, or is simply too disoriented to remove himself from play.

Will every concussed person experience every symptom on this (non-exhaustive) list? Most likely not. But I wanted to put the whole myriad of symptoms together in one list to show how many ways a concussion can impact a person's life, and how many different ways there are of recognizing if a person has suffered a concussion. It's unfortunate, but every brain injury is different. Every last one.

A Farewell to Punting?

David Romer, an economist at UC Berkeley, published a study in 2005 titled "Do Firms Maximize? Evidence From Professional Football," which analyzes how effective punting is as a strategy in football. Now, obviously this study is around 11 years old as I'm writing this, but punting is still a strong part of the game, and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere, so it might be worth revisiting.

Ray Guy, the sole Punter in the Pro Football Hall of Fame

Rommer studied NFL data of punts from 1998 to 2004, To summarize the main conclusion of the study, teams should never punt if they are within four yards of the first down markers, regardless of what yard line they are on. Without getting into the economic and statistical analysis of punting vs going for it (which I don't claim to understand), I still think there are obviously situations where punting is vital; if you're backed up in your own red zone and it's fourth down, your primary concern is booting the ball as far away from your endzone as possible, not failing to convert and having your opponent get the ball 30 feet away from the goal line. But more importantly, special teams is widely understood to be one of the most dangerous aspects of football, and eventually it might be worth removing it entirely from the game, especially at lower levels.

The NFL may agree to an extent, at least on kickoffs. This year, the NFL changed the staring point after a touchback from the 20 yard line to the 25, (theoretically) encouraging more kick returners to let balls bounce out of the endzone for a touchback, rather than attempting to make a return and risking injury for themselves or the other 21 players on the fields. Of course, this rule change backfired, because while returners may be more likely to settle for a touchback if they get an extra 5 yards out of it, NFL coaches and kickers are not so keen.

PDF of Dr. Romer's study:
http://eml.berkeley.edu/~dromer/papers/PAPER_NFL_JULY05_FORWEB_CORRECTED.pdf