Although recently in the news, there has been talk of a lock out, a strike and god-forbid no NFL in 2011, but that is not the only thing going on in the NFL. The NFL has created the NFL Sidelines Concussion exam, a group of tests used to evaluate balance, basic thinking skills and concentration. Along with the creation of the exam, each team will be required to use this neurologic test to determine whether a player sustained injury to his brain. The test must be given 6-8 minutes from the time the player suffered the injury. Taking these steps the NFL is trying to create a uniform standard across the board in order to assess concussions. In the past ten years, a substantial amount of data has been published, showing that traumatic brain injuries have impacted the lives of the players for years after they have left the league.
To implement this into the NFL, every player in the league will be given a test at the beginning of the season to create a baseline specific to each player. This baseline test will then be compared to the test given on the sideline to determine whether or not the player has in fact suffered a brain injury. If his performance on the sideline test is dramatically different from the baseline test, the player will be removed from the game.
When 160 NFL players were surveyed, almost half of them admitted they had a severe head injury and hid it from their team. University of Michigan’s Institute of Social Research unveiled that 6.1 percent of players that responded were suffering some form of memory disorder–Alzheimer’s or dementia. That statistic is five times the average for men their age.
Although the NFL is implementing this to track concussions, it is also clearly a preventative measure for future exposure for brain injury litigation stemming from multiple concussions in a season or a career.
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