A Thought About Concussions

As a society with what I think is an excessive interest in "violent sports," we are finally getting around to confronting the issue of the effects of violence on the brains of the participants...not just at the professional levels but all the way down to school boy football and hockey (among others).

Evidence continues to accumulate that there is more damage to brains than we might ever have thought, and just this week the NFL emerged from its dark cave to assess fines and suspensions against some perfectly terrifying hits in the weekend's games.

The long term impact of the mayhem emerges in depression, forgetfulness, and early onset dementia, among other problems. Lives are shortened, families impacted, and at the pro level, insurance does not apparently support the darkling end of live's journey.

There are those who contend that violence is "part of the game," "why people go to the games," and that mayhem has a long and noble history in our country. Cynically, one might say that those who take that point of view probably played too much football, baseball, rugby, soccer, and hockey themselves.

On the constructive side, we're seeing some improvements in the technology of protection, a more generous view towards those who have been hurt and who are very slowly returning to normal (Justin Morneau of the Minnesota Twins is one recent and local example), and stricter rules governing what is acceptable contact.

A sportswriter recently observed that the way to reduce violence in football is to take away the helmets (think rugby here, friends, with some ear protection and nothing else). Think about it...perhaps we have provided too much protection for athletes and so they take too many risks thinking that it's the other athlete who will be injured.

I have a simpler idea. Let's stop using the word "concussion" and start using the phrase "brain injury." Concussion sounds too benign, but "brain injury" tends to get one's attention.

About a decade ago, I slipped on winter ice and fell backwards on my head. I was probably out for a few seconds, but when I came to I couldn't get up, so I crawled into the building and made it down the hall to the tea room where I found some help - but only after they realized that I was not trying to be amusing on a Friday morning

I called my doctor who asked me lots of questions, then told me to go home and to take the weekend off and - especially - not to make any important decisions until the following Monday. I was a bit surprised by that, but he explained that I would be "goofy," to use his word, for several days.

He was absolutely correct about the goofy part, and I resolved to make every effort to avoid a similar event in future and now try to fall on my butt and not my head.

When I imagine athletes getting smacked in the head a couple of hundred times a season (at any level of competition), I wonder why the hell it's taken us so long to get a grip on the problem of voluntary brain injury. And please don't get me started on those who suffer similar difficulties in places like, oh, Afghanistan and Iraq.

This dreadful harvest of brain injury will be with us for decades unless we work quickly to find better solutions.