The NFL got back to the playing field this past week for its first preseason games since the players and owners agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement. But the scene at NFL training camps is a bit different this year.
New rules now limit the amount of full-contact practice that players can participate in. Gone are the grueling summer two-a-days.
In some ways John Mackey became the Lou Gehrig of football, a legend defined by his demise... No player so vividly advertised the growing problem of early-onset dementia among veterans of his era, or so unknowingly spurred the N.F.L. to recognize it.
New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/sports/football/john-mackey-was-defined-by-greatness-and-illness.html?_r=3&ref=sports
A study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics examined the National Registry of Sudden Death in Young Athletes (a database maintained by the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation) focuses on deaths from blunt trauma among players 21 and younger.
A key finding was the worrisome number of prep football players who died of head and neck blows after they had already sustained concussions a few days or up to a month beforehand.
The chairman of the Council on Sports, Medicine and Fitness of the American Academy of Pediatrics said the study "gives credence to everything we've been trying to do to make it safer for young athletes out there with proper treatment of concussions.
Pediatrics abstract:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/06/16/peds.2010-2743.abstract
News article:
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011106220383
When former Chicago Bears safety David Duerson committed suicide in February, he left behind a note requesting that his brain be studied for evidence of an incurable degenerative disease - Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Autopsy results released on May 2nd found "moderately advanced" evidence of CTE, which is linked to memory loss, depression and dementia.
The repeated concussions and head trauma suffered by professional football players, boxers and other athletes may lead to the development of the disease.
Read more:
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/05/02/duerson.brain.exam.results/?hpt=Sbin
New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/sports/football/03duerson.html?scp=1&sq...
