Can Playing Football (Hockey, etc.) as Kids Lead to Homelessness?

[Phantom Warrior]

http://news.yahoo.com/study--nearly-half-of-all-homeless-men-suffered-brain-injury-before-losing-homes-203628194.html

Frightening stats in this article. Makes me wonder about the effects of concussions suffered by kids who play "collision sports"?

[IWB]

There are more concussions in soccer than football, but you will never see an article about soccer players ending up homeless.

[Phantom Warrior]

IWB,

Got this off the Internet from a recent study.

Concussion rates are increasing in high school sports.

The current rates per 100,000 athletic exposures (an AE is one athlete participating in one organized high school athletic practice or competition, regardless of the amount of time played), according to the two most recent studies [8,10] are as follows:
•Football: 64 -76.8
•Boys' ice hockey: 54
•Girl's soccer: 33
•Boys' lacrosse: 40 - 46.6
•Girls' lacrosse: 31 - 35
•Boys' soccer: 19 - 19.2
•Boys' wrestling: 22 - 23.9
•Girls' basketball: 18.6 - 21
•Girls' softball: 16 - 16.3
•Boys' basketball: 16 - 21.2
•Girls' field hockey: 22 - 24.9
•Cheerleading: 11.5 to 14
•Girls' volleyball: 6 - 8.6
•Boys' baseball: Between 4.6 - 5
•Girls' gymnastics: 7
•Girls' swim/dive: 2
•Girls' track/field: 2
•Boys' track/field: 2
•Boys' swim/dive: 1

Football players most at risk
•High school football is consistently shown in studies to be the sport with the greatest proportion of concussions (47.1% [8] to 56.8% [7]) and the highest concussion rate (6.4 to 7.6 concussions per 10,000 athletic exposures)* [8,10].
•There are approximately 67,000 diagnosed concussions in high school football every year. [9]
•Anecdotal evidence from athletic trainers suggests that only about 5% of high school players report suffering a concussion each season [21], but numerous formal studies over the period 2004 to 2013 suggests that the number is much higher, with close to 50% saying they have experienced concussion symptoms [22] and fully one-third reporting two or more concussions in a single season.
•Between 1931 and 2011, 678 high school football players died, two-thirds from helmet-to-helmet contact. [23]
•According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research, [23] there were no direct fatalities in high school, college or youth football in 2012. It was the first year with no fatalities in high school football since 1990. According to unofficial newspaper reports, there have been at least 6 football fatalities from helmet-to-helmet contact (as of October 18, 2013) during the 2013 football season (including spring practice).
•According to a 2007 study: [13] ◦Football players suffer the most brain injuries of any sport;
◦An unacceptably high percentage (39%) of high school and collegiate football players suffering catastrophic head injuries (death, nonfatal but causing permanent neurologic functional disability, and serious injury but leaving no permanent functional disability) during the period 1989 to 2002 were still playing with neurologic symptoms at the time of the catastrophic event.

[IWB]

Sorry Phantom, all of these studies have holes in them.

Yes, there are more in football overall, but that is because a typical high school football team has 50 kids on it. No other sport comes close to that.
In football, there is contact by approximately 14 kids on every play. Contact occurs in soccer a few times per game.

Add boys and girls soccer together. A lower number than football, but far fewer players and far fewer incidents, so you could easily say the concussions per incident in soccer are way higher.

Now look at their lists....
*Yes, high per 10,000 exposures
Low when you consider the actual amount of contact.

*67,000 diagnosed concussions per year in high school football per year.

Yep - and 50 times as many kids playing that sport.
*Here are our numbers, and they don't look bad but other studies suggest it is worse.

Sorry, that is a poor attempt at making football look bad.
*631 kids have died....since 1931?

Sure, let's include decades where there weren't any helmets.
*6 deaths

Sad that anyone dies playing any sport, but "unconfirmed newspaper reports"? Seriously?
*According to a 2007 study, football players suffer the most brain injuries.

Wow. 2007? What study? "A" study?
*39% of players suffering death/permanent disability etc etc had previous symptoms.

Let's scare everyone with the 39% number, but 39% of what? 10 guys? 20 guys? They try to make it sound as if 39% of kids suffer serious injuries.

Sorry Phantom, these people play the numbers, use play on words etc. I have been coaching youth football for a few years now. I have not had a single concussion on my team, nor has there been a concussion in our entire program in the years that I have been coaching.

To suggest that playing football might eventually lead to homelessness is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever read.

[farmerdoc]

I agree with IWB here. This is junk science at it's worst. Bear in mind that the diagnostic criteria for concussion is more loose today than every before, thus inflating the number of injuries substantially. Not surprisingly, we now have "concussion clinics" popping up to help treat this epidemic.

I do believe that this will spell the end for football at some time in the future. The liability will be too great for school districts to tolerate.

The NFL better start funding some pretty substantial research in prevention and prognosis, or some day, there won't be anyone left to play the game.

[mutpm]

Football has the highest chance of concussion according to that study. Normalizing it to 10,000 exposures negates the difference in participation. Even if you add boys and girls soccer together, you only get 5.2 per 20,000 or 2.6 per 10,000. That's still far fewer than the 6.4 per 10,000 exposures in football and 5.4 per 10,000 in hockey. The reason for the high total number of concussions for football is that there are more exposures at a time than a sport like basketball or hockey.

Participation in sports is starting to even out. In 2012-13, there were 1,086,627 kids playing football. If you combine boys and girls, there were 971,796 that played basketball and 782,514 that played soccer.

One of the scariest parts to concussions that I heard was from Dave Leigh (former head athletic trainer at MU). He said the the chances for a 2nd concussion go down significantly if a player sits out 9 days instead of 7. I asked him why most rules only have a player sit out for 7 days and he said it was because of the pressure from football coaches for players not to miss the next week's game if they suffer a concussion during a game.

[DCwarrior]

I played high school football and love watching the NFL. However, my 6-year old boy will not play youth football or high school football...it's just not worth the potential risk in my mind. I'd rather be part of the "Wussification of America", then have to deal with the potential injuries/concussions that football players go through. Judging by the large decreases in youth football participation around the country the last decade, many more parents are starting to feel the same way.

[Goose85]

Football has the highest chance of concussion according to that study. Normalizing it to 10,000 exposures negates the difference in participation. Even if you add boys and girls soccer together, you only get 5.2 per 20,000 or 2.6 per 10,000. That's still far fewer than the 6.4 per 10,000 exposures in football and 5.4 per 10,000 in hockey. The reason for the high total number of concussions for football is that there are more exposures at a time than a sport like basketball or hockey.

Participation in sports is starting to even out. In 2012-13, there were 1,086,627 kids playing football. If you combine boys and girls, there were 971,796 that played basketball and 782,514 that played soccer.

One of the scariest parts to concussions that I heard was from Dave Leigh (former head athletic trainer at MU). He said the the chances for a 2nd concussion go down significantly if a player sits out 9 days instead of 7. I asked him why most rules only have a player sit out for 7 days and he said it was because of the pressure from football coaches for players not to miss the next week's game if they suffer a concussion during a game.

I think the rule now is that you automatically have to sit out the next game after a concussion, so I'm sure kids are sitting out the 9 days now.

The football equipment now is far better than it was when most parents played. Coaching is different too. There is far less hitting in practice at every level as well (grade school through college), so I’m sure these numbers that include anything from older than 10 years ago will be significantly better.

I also know kids playing soccer and basketball that have suffered concussions as well, one kid had to quit playing basketball in grade school due to concussions. There was a recent report that indicated a professional soccer player that had died very young had the same brain issue as Seau.

Football is a contact sport, so in this day and age coaches and those involved in football are very aware of concussions, and kids are often checked after big hits, etc, and that is a very good thing. It is not at the front of someone’s thought in other sports, so I wonder if kids are checked less in those sports. In soccer, does every kid that heads a ball get checked out at a break in the action?

I have been around all types of youth sports, and have seen concussions in everyone one of them. Part of me wonders if some kids / people are just more susceptible to concussions or the brain issues that Seau had, as well as other type injuries.

[MUMac]

I think the rule now is that you automatically have to sit out the next game after a concussion, so I'm sure kids are sitting out the 9 days now.

The football equipment now is far better than it was when most parents played. Coaching is different too. There is far less hitting in practice at every level as well (grade school through college), so I’m sure these numbers that include anything from older than 10 years ago will be significantly better.

I also know kids playing soccer and basketball that have suffered concussions as well, one kid had to quit playing basketball in grade school due to concussions. There was a recent report that indicated a professional soccer player that had died very young had the same brain issue as Seau.

Football is a contact sport, so in this day and age coaches and those involved in football are very aware of concussions, and kids are often checked after big hits, etc, and that is a very good thing. It is not at the front of someone’s thought in other sports, so I wonder if kids are checked less in those sports. In soccer, does every kid that heads a ball get checked out at a break in the action?

I have been around all types of youth sports, and have seen concussions in everyone one of them. Part of me wonders if some kids / people are just more susceptible to concussions or the brain issues that Seau had, as well as other type injuries.

That is not the rule. It may be a district rule, but not goverened by the WIAA. You could play the next game, if you are symptom free and have clearance from your medical provider.

[Goose85]

Thanks for the correction. I just recall when my son was playing a kid that had a concussion had to sit out the next week. Maybe he just hadn't received clearance.

[mutpm]

The rules vary. At CMH you sit 7 days on your first. If you get a 2nd, you're out for the season. If you get a 3rd, you're done for your career. That's on the extreme side. Most other rules I know are after a doctor clears you, which is typically 7 days.

There are concussions in every sport, no doubt about it. They just happen more often in football and then hockey. Does this lead to homelessness, of course not.

[Gato78]

Greatest concussion story of all time, please forgive me if I posted this before. I was a sophomore in high school, on varsity football team. One of the guys on our team was a center, also a sophomore. He went on to become an English professor at Marquette and is now at Notre Dame. He is a world renowned scholar in Old English and some other obscure stuff I don't care to remember. At practice one day this guy gets double teamed by two seniors and gets absolutely leveled. He was obviously seeing stars and he comes over to the sidelines where I was standing, looks at me and says "I can tell by the apparel we are wearing this is some sort of athletic contest". The coach called him to come back in and I told him what the guy said to me and my friend was done for about four weeks.