Broadcast by: Brett Thompson; Written by: Nicole Caporaso ~
Micah Ulrich is a freshman mechanical engineering major at North Carolina State
University. He sustained his first concussion as a high school junior.
Ulrich was running down the field at full speed after a kickoff, under the bright lights of
Friday night football, when an opposing player’s helmet smashed squarely into his
forehead.
Ulrich thought he was fine. Ready to shake off the blow, he stood up. Coaches ultimately
pulled him from the game due to nausea spells and a headache, two common symptoms
of a concussion.
Ulrich sustained two more concussions within an eight-month time frame after a skiing
accident and a bad car wreck. He said the symptoms of his first two concussions were
mild, such as headaches and nausea, both of which diminished within a few days
following the incidents.
The persistent symptoms of his third concussion worried him. These symptoms lasted
three to four weeks.
“I had sensitivity to light, my pupils could not stay dilated,” he said. “I had headaches, it
was difficult to focus on some things in some light and loud noises were painful. I felt
like I was in a fog.”
Although Ulrich said he hasn’t had any recurring symptoms since the accident, the days
that followed are still unclear in his memory. Troubled about the effects a fourth
concussion would have on his brain, he decided to quit football.
Repeated blows in football still have an effect on the brain, whether those blows result in
a concussion or not.
Research by a team at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has found white matter
changes in the brains of youth football players. The team studied players between the
ages of eight and 13.
Joel Stitzel, Chair of Biomedical Engineering at Wake Forest School of Medicine, said
for several years the researchers have been putting instrumentation devices in helmets in
order to measure the hits the kids are enduring.
This August they published their findings in the journal of the Radiological Society of
North America.
Stitzel said the research team performed MRI scans pre and post season, as well as
neurocognitive testing, and found subtle changes in an important part of the brain.
“White matter is all throughout the inner part of the brain and it’s really a conduit for
different parts of the brain to communicate with one another,” Stitzel said. “We found
subtle changes when we look at the post season scan versus the pre season scan. We find
that there’s a relationship between some of those changes and the impact exposure over
the course of the season.”
Stitzel said the researchers are currently unsure whether these changes persist over time.
He says change is needed in order to make the game safer for three and a half million
youth football players.
“I think looking at the neurocognitive test results is important,” he said. “I think trying to
find ways to study folks season to season or longitudinally is important, trying to look at
how we can mitigate exposure is really important.”
Ultimately, Stitzel said the research shouldn’t discourage parents from allowing their
children to play contact sports, as researchers have not associated the white matter
changes with change in cognition.
“To me, there’s so many benefits to organized sport for kids, but for the physical and
mental and social development, I feel like those benefits far outweigh the risks right
now,” Stitzel said. “Given that the changes we’re seeing are subtle, I think they deserve
further study. I would be the last one to draw the conclusion that kids shouldn’t play.”
With the NFL’s September decision to donate $100 million to medical research and
engineering advancements to make the game safer, on top of the $100 million the NFL
previously dedicated to neuroscience research, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell isn’t
the only one with a stake in the game.
After increased information about Chronic Traumatic Encephalopthy, CTE, a
degenerative brain disease found in former athletes who suffered brain traumas, it hasn’t
been uncommon for parents, fans and players to shy away from football.
Due to the attention concussions have garnered, Kevin Guskiewicz, concussion
researcher at the University of North Carolina, said he wouldn’t be surprised to see a day
when America’s favorite pastime is banned.
“Some would argue or question whether it’s (the game) going to exist 15 years from
now,” Guskiewicz said.
Despite football’s problems, Guskiewicz argues the game is safer today than it has ever
been.
“Well, I think it’s well understood that there is a black cloud over the sport of football
right now,” he said. “There are data to show how rules changes, even though there are
many more rules today than there were even 10 or 15 years ago, have in fact improved
safety in the sport of football.”
Guskiewicz cited 2010-2011’s NFL rule change that minimized the running start of
receivers in kickoffs as a change that reduced the risk of concussions by 50 percent.
However, he still believes it’s the most dangerous play of the game. He thinks more
change must come in the form of additional rule adjustments, as opposed to equipment
alteration.
“I think the equipment is top notch in terms of doing what it’s designed to do to prevent
real serious brain injuries, such as skull fractures and brain bleeds,” Guskiewicz said.
Guskiewicz believes there are benefits to participating in sports, such as learning
character building and leadership, which is why he let his sons play football.
“I have three sons and a daughter,” he said. “All of my boys have played at the local
recreational league and Pop Warner and two of them in middle school, one in high
school.”
John Skipper, president of ESPN and father to two sons, said his children never played
football, but it wasn’t something he discouraged.
“My sons played soccer, basketball and lacrosse, and it was their choice. We never had
the family choice,” Skipper said. “I played football for a bit when I was a kid and I do not
believe I would have discouraged by kids from playing at some level, either.”
Skipper has more than a parental interest in football. ESPN renewed a contract with the
NFL in 2011 to keep the rights to Monday Night Football through 2021 for $15.2 billion.
According to Forbes, the first month of this year’s NFL season saw a 17 percent
viewership decline on ESPN, while NBC’s Sunday Night Football programming was
down 13 percent and CBS’ Thursday games were down 15 percent.
“Football programming is critical for us. The NFL is the highest-rated programming we
have,” Skipper said. “College football is an ascendant sport for us. We’re committed to
carrying football and all the shoulder program around it. ESPN without football is pretty
unthinkable.”
Skipper said he thinks the future of football is robust.
“I think the National Football League is working very hard to try to make changes in the
rules, in practice, in the play on the field and how they call the games,” he said. “I think
the equipment will get better. I think football is going to continue to thrive.”
Television ratings aren’t the only numbers regarding football that are decreasing.
According to the Public Religion Research Institute, in a January survey of 1,009
Americans, about one-third said they wouldn’t allow their children to play football. This
number is up from 2015 data, in which only 22 percent of Americans said the same.
Kevin Jones is an assistant coach of a Cary Chargers Pop Warner football team. Cary Pop
Warner has teams for children ages five through 12.
“You know there’s definitely always a concern with football,” Jones said. “You know
you take a risk. But right now, it feels like the velocity, at this point the speed and
velocity of kids, there’s not enough to really sustain any major injuries at this point.”
Jones said the league has implemented a new approach to tackling in order to improve
player safety. Cary Pop Warner also requires coaches to complete USA Football Heads
Up certification.
“The approach has been to tackle with your heads up,” Jones said. “To teach kids and
coaches about not getting excited about big hits and not to overemphasize big hits and
just tackling and laying down versus trying to go for that big hit and not seeing what you
tackle.”
It isn’t only at the beginning levels of football that safer techniques are getting attention.
Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll has been praised for implementing rugby style
tackling in his team’s practices.
Rugby, another contact sport, doesn’t involve helmets. The Seahawks have mimicked
rugby’s tackles without helmets in order to teach players about the vulnerability of the
head.
Guskiewicz said he’s a supporter of Carroll teaching players better ways to tackle,
however, he wouldn’t find it plausible for players to not wear helmets come game time.
“I think it’s practicing these techniques that will keep the head out of danger’s way,” he
said. “They have to put their chest and arms out first, rotate and roll their head to the side
to tackle.”
Despite the research Guskiewicz has conducted on the risks of concussions, he insists
he’s still a huge fan of football. However, Guskiewicz is certain the game he loves will be
dramatically different in the future.
Until that point comes, he remains committed to keeping players safe.
“My goal with all of our research is to keep them physically active, but to keep them out
on the playing field, whether the sport is football, lacrosse, soccer.”
