Risk and dangers of concussions in football

Saddleback College football helmet design’s for current games. Robert Ramirez/Lariat

Deck: Concussions in football have been growing in the past years in football.

Concussions in football have been known to be a growing concern for sports. There have been many efforts with changing equipment and even adjusting rules to try to protect players on the field. 

Tua Tagovailoa, starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins suffered a concussion on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. Tagovailoa has now suffered three major concussions throughout his career in the NFL. This injury has the world of football concerned about the safety of their athletes. 

There has been much discussion about changing rules and equipment to provide safety for current and future athletes. The NFL this year has provided a protective cap for athletes helmets this year. The cap is meant to soften the impact of a tackle and provide more protection for athletes. 

“Now that we have technology, it has played a huge rule, especially with doctors being involved and creating helmets…and everything that goes into protecting a player,” said Willie McGinst, Hall of Famer and three-time Super Bowl champion.“With doctors and medical staff running tests and doing everything in their power to improve player’s safety on the field.”

Concussions are known to be one of the most dangerous injuries on the football field. Concussions can physically impact someone’s life by causing them harm in the future. Many athletes have suffered this tragic injury, the impact of concussion can lead a player to have headaches,fogginess in vision , loss of consciousness and memory loss.

“We do a baseline testing at the beginning of the season to do balance and reaction testing,” said Kerry Crabb, Saddleback football’s head coach. “When [they] do get a concussion they can compare their data now to their baseline testing to confirm if the kid is eligible to come back to play or not.”

Due to the concern of concussion many NFL players have tackled or played in a safer way knowing the outcome of injuries. Examples of this would be players sliding when they catch a ball or running with the ball, knowing that once they slide they can’t be touched or tackled by ruling.

“I didn’t really experience a lot of concussions because I’m a tall player and I never got that low to bent my head, I mostly used my shoulders and arms to tackle,”Willie McGinst said . “I can’t really speak towards the long term effect since it affects everyone, especially for me I don’t like roller coasters or amusement parks, not because I have suffered a concussion and the movement doesn’t go well with my body.”

Coaches play a huge role now with concussions by providing practice and scrimmages to prevent these incidents. Coaches have been teaching players to tackle properly to avoid any injuries.

“Well, [focus] is that you don’t want helmet to helmet on tackling,” Kerry Crabb said. “We try to teach tackling without leading with the helmet which is an old school way of tackling. We do spend a lot of time practicing safe tackling techniques and then it comes to the medical staff since they are in charge of the concussion protocol.”

Football has also shown that players are also responsible  for protecting their own safety with protecting themselves on offense and defense. Players must know when to put their head down before getting tackled or even when to give up on a play. Defensive players need to know how to tackle, protecting the opponent and themselves. 

“With younger players they need to learn to keep the crown of the helmet safe and have coaching clinics and other professionals to show how one should tackle and protect themselves,”McGinest said . “Showing kids how to tackle it would be natural for them and that they don’t need to learn how to break old habits and tell them short term and long term effects if one tackles improperly. With most kids going through training the future of football and the NFL will be in good hands.” 

With the world of football learning and the dangers of the game, players are now learning and improving their safety and protocol of the game. As McGinst said, “The future of football is in good hands.”

Author note: author’s relation to McGinst is cousin-in-law.

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