CONCUSSIONS IN YOUTH FOOTBALL – ARE WE THINKING CLEARLY?

By Rey Hernandez

Former Head Coach, LaJolla High School (CA)

The current legislative proposals seeking to limit full contact in high school practices raise some tort liability issues that to date have not made it into the national concussion safety debate. One may safely conclude that teaching your athletes how to tackle is important from both an execution and safety standpoint. But in light of the recent legislative proposals to limit full contact sessions one must ask the question, when is a coach exposing himself to tort liability for not sufficiently practicing live tackling during the practice week and then asking the players to tackle in a live full contact setting on game day?

Tackling a ball carrier involves much more than just making contact, shooting the arms to secure the ball carrier, driving your feet and keeping the head out of the contact. The dynamics of tacking involve teaching all 11 players to work as a unit to effectively stop the ball carrier. This involves containing the runner, pursuit angles, identifying the free hitter, knowing where your help is coming from as well as using the sideline as an additional defender. These aspects of tackling cannot be effectively taught in a one-on- one tackling drill that is executed in a limited space marked off by cones or bags. This, of course, is a controversial proposal but putting players on the field with insufficient or no live tacking practice could possibly give rise to an increase in future litigation grounded in negligence for not exercising that degree of skill and learning commonly possessed by members in good standing of their profession. 

It is our responsibility to analyze both scientific and game related data as well as legal implications to implement policy that will make meaningful changes to the sport and effectively reduce concussive head trauma. Perhaps conducting less controlled type contact sessions in favor of shorter full contact 11-on-11 sessions is the best way to teach proper fundamentals and lessen the cumulative effect of long term head trauma to the participants. There are no easy answers to some of these questions and the fact that Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is now being discovered in the brains of a small number of teenagers requires that one explore all possible sources of the problem.

There are many questions that need answers and it may be years before investigators will be able to accumulate the type of data that would help one to clearly understand what needs to be done to make the game safer for youth level participants. A critical concern now becomes the number of years these players have been playing tackle football. Many youth level participants begin playing tackle football long before they reach high school and this too must be factored into the CTE and head trauma discussion. It is not uncommon for many children to start playing youth soccer at a very early age. Does the long term heading of a soccer ball as a youth level player have any role in the development of CTE in youth level participants who then opt to play high school football?

As the national concussion debate is beginning to gravitate to a discussion based on more scientific findings, it is important to keep an open mind and not allow knee-jerk reactions to drive the policy and rule changes needed to ensure the safety of the participants on the youth level. As high school coaches one must look closely at the ways the game has changed over the decades. One must look at key dates in the evolution of the game on both sides of the ball. One must also collect data and analyze if certain offensive and defensive schemes have created a greater risk of concussive type injuries?

Has the proliferation of the passing game had a negative impact on player safety on both sides of the line of scrimmage? How have the changes in protective equipment affected the game from a traumatic brain injury standpoint? High school coaches should consider working with their alumni associations in an effort to contact as many former players dating back as far as possible to ascertain how many football lettermen are now suffering from CTE related dementia disease? Coaches should also attempt to contact former coaching colleagues as well as their own former youth level coaches to ascertain their current medical health.

The inventory should include information regarding their participation in tackle football prior to entering high school and their participation in organized tackle football thereafter. My curiosity in this regard has led me to conduct an informal investigation on this matter as it pertains to my past thirty-five years in coaching. To date, I have yet to discover one case of CTE related dementia disease. Perhaps I have just been lucky but these informal inquiries might also reveal that the game of high school football is not anywhere as dangerous as many would have the public believe. Right now it is our responsibility to always keep the best interests of our players in mind. Teach safe tackling techniques and eliminate antiquated hitting drills that have very little if any player development benefit. Keep a record of all your practice schedules and if possible a video record of your tackling instruction and related drills. Schedule baseline concussion testing at the start of fall practice and leave all medical decisions to the qualified medical professionals and trainers. If your school does not provide qualified trainers, drop all other fund raising efforts and raise funds for this important position first. There is no piece of football equipment, uniform, video and communication device or team related meal that is more important than a qualified trainer. 

One must also explore the possibility that the central nervous system is often incapable of reacting quickly enough to avoid all helmet to helmet contact. In formulating playing rules one must always factor in the fact that human performance is limited in a number of ways and a break down in one mechanism can lead to poor performance and unintended results. This leads to an important principle of motor performance: that observing the end result of a motor act is insufficient for determining the reasons for successful or unsuccessful performance (Information Processing in Motor Skills Ronald G. Marteniuk Holt, Rinehart and Winston 1976). It is imperative for high school coaches to be more proactive in the national concussion debate and be advocates for player safety modifications that will make the game safer for the players. Coaches should not allow the player safety debate to be driven primarily by medical professionals, politicians and adults who in many cases have never played or coached the game.

The game of high school football is at a crossroads. From strictly a legal standpoint it is not farfetched to argue that the game as it is known now will in the near future no longer be a part of the public school offering of athletic teams. The specter of future litigation grounded in tort liability for injuries resulting from traumatic brain injuries, CTE related dementia disease, spinal cord and neck related injuries grounded in negligence arising from a lack of tackling practice in live 11-on-11 transitional movement settings and a failure to follow concussion assessment and treatment protocols will cause districts to reconsider if offering tackle football is a viable option from a financial and tort liability perspective. If such a scenario were to develop, high school football will probably become a club sport run by club coaches that will seek only the best talent. The game will then become a sport that will be available only to those who can afford it or those who are good enough to receive scholarships from these clubs. Unfortunately, it will probably exclude the average student-athlete who has no aspirations of playing beyond high school and simply wanted to be a part of a game they enjoy playing.

Even if the game continues to be a part of the athletic offerings in the future, one final consideration needs to be addressed.  What will happen to the pool of available participants in light of the fear that is now being spread on a national level among parents with school age children? With many professional athletes as well as the president of the United States going on record that they would have to reconsider if they would even allow their sons to play the game on the high school level, it is safe to conclude that the participant pool might possibly drop in significant numbers.