SPORTS

NFL’s handling of concussions questioned after Tua’s injury

Published

2 years ago

October 1, 2022

The NFL’s handling of concussions has evolved dramatically from the days when players were given smelling salts on the bench and sent back into the game.

The league and the NFL Players Association have implemented extensive protocols and hired unaffiliated neurotrauma consultants (UNC) to work with team physicians at each game to diagnose concussions.

Still, football is a violent sport and injuries similar to the frightening one Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered Thursday night seem unavoidable unless the NFL bans tackling and turns the game into flag football like it did for the Pro Bowl.

That’s not happening, and the most effective means of protecting players remains enforcing strict concussion protocols, which players, fans and others are concerned didn’t happen with Tagovailoa.

It would be difficult to prevent what happened to Tagovailoa when 6-foot-3, 340-pound Bengals defensive tackle Josh Tupou slammed him backward into the turf. The main question is why he was even playing just four days after he stumbled off the field and was unable to walk following a hit to his head during a home game against Buffalo.

Tagovailoa’s hands froze up and his fingers flexed awkwardly in front of his facemask for several seconds as he laid on the turf in Cincinnati, a scary scene witnessed by millions of viewers. He remained on the ground for several minutes until he was taken away on a stretcher and sent to a hospital.

This time — unlike Sunday when he seemed to exhibit concussion symptoms but was cleared by a team physician and UNC to return — Tagovailoa was diagnosed with a concussion. He was released from the hospital and flew home with the team. Flying hours after suffering a concussion raised questions, but NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills said the hospital makes that decision.

Tagovailoa’s quick return Sunday prompted a joint review by the NFL and NFLPA. The interview process has started and results aren’t expected for at least another week. Tagovailoa and the team explained his legs were wobbly because of a back injury.

It’s unknown whether there’s any correlation between the two incidents. Concussions are common in the NFL, especially when a player is thrown to the ground by a man Tupou’s size and his head hits the turf.

Sills said “it’s impossible to know” if the injury Tagovailoa sustained Thursday was exacerbated by the hit he took Sunday.

“That’s one of the factors that we want to look at,” Sills said on NFL Network. “Every injury is one we want to prevent.”

Chris Nowinski, a founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation who played football at Harvard, is adamant Tagovailoa sustained a concussion against Buffalo and shouldn’t have played at Cincinnati.

“Tua showed five distinct signs of concussion,” Nowinski told The Associated Press. “Anybody who has any training on concussions or cares about Tua as a human is not putting him on field four days after what he showed on Sunday, so this makes it so much worse because we know that this could be career-ending or season-ending. It should be season-ending, in my opinion. And it just shows just a lack of care for him as a human being.”

The league and the NFLPA instituted concussion protocols in 2011 when Colt McCoy took a helmet-to-helmet hit in a game and returned without being tested for a concussion. The protocols have been expanded since.

There are three UNCs, who are paid jointly by the NFL and NFLPA, at each game. They work in conjunction with team physicians to diagnose whether a player has a concussion. Independent certified athletic trainers (ATC spotters) sit in a booth and monitor the players on the field to have someone removed from the game if they see an impact to the head. Team trainers, coaches or physicians, teammates, game officials, sideline UNCs or booth ATCs also can initiate the protocol.

All players who undergo any concussion evaluation on game day must have a follow-up evaluation conducted the following day by a member of the medical staff. Sills said Tagovailoa was evaluated every day leading up to the game, even though he wasn’t in concussion protocol.

Several players have spoken about passing protocol even when they had concussions. Andrew Whitworth, the former Rams offensive lineman, said on Amazon’s broadcast he once played through a concussion during a game until a teammate noticed he wasn’t right and alerted doctors.

The league has experimented with other means to mitigate head injuries. This year, offensive linemen, defensive linemen, tight ends and linebackers were required for the first time to wear Guardian Caps — a soft-shell, padded covering on top of their helmets — during practices from the start of training camp until the second preseason game.

The average number of concussions among those positions groups dropped from 23 over the previous three-year period to 11 this summer, the league said. Of those 11 concussions, six resulted from blows to the facemask, which didn’t have added protection.

Tagovailoa is under pressure to perform this season and has battled injuries in the past, so it’s natural for him to want to play regardless of injury. Former players who have criticized the decision to let him play Sunday say they want to protect players from themselves.

“We are all outraged by what we have seen the last several days and scared for the safety of one of our brothers,” NFLPA president JC Tretter wrote on Twitter. “What everyone saw both Sunday and last night were ‘no-go’ symptoms within our concussion protocols. The protocols exist to protect the player and that is why we initiated an investigation. Our job as the NFLPA is to take every possible measure to get the facts and hold those responsible accountable. We need to figure out how and why the decisions were made last Sunday to allow a player with a ‘no-go’ symptom back on the field.

“Until we have an objective and validated method of diagnosing brain injury, we have to do everything possible, including amending the protocols, to further reduce the potential of human error. A failure in medical judgment is a failure of the protocols when it comes to the well being of our players. We have come a long way over the past 15 years but the last week proves how far we have left to go.”

The decision to allow Tagovailoa to return Sunday was made by the team physician and UNC. It was determined Tagovailoa’s instability was caused by a back injury. The joint review by the league and NFLPA will examine the steps taken and a report will be issued.

“Based on everybody I’ve talked to and I know a lot of doctors who are brain injury people and sports medicine people, I don’t know anybody who thinks it’s sound medicine just based on the observation of what was seen on the field and him stumbling afterward to say it’s OK for him to play again in that game and then four days later,” said attorney Brad Sohn, who has represented hundreds of players in concussion litigation and is among the possible successors to NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said there has never been an incident where a team physician and the UNC disagreed about a concussion.

In 2017, Seattle was fined $100,000 and the coaching and medical staffs were required to attend remedial training regarding the protocol after a joint review determined the team didn’t follow the protocol when Russell Wilson was directed to the sideline for an evaluation after the referee, Walt Anderson, concluded that a medical examination was warranted.

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SPORTS

Olympic medallist calls for Nike boycott

Published

1 year ago

April 8, 2023

The San Francisco Telegraph

Sharron Davies says that the sportswear brand is showing ‘disdain’ for women

Sharron Davies, the former British Olympic swimmer and vocal critic of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, has called for a boycott of sports apparel giant Nike following its partnership with transgender TikTok personality Dylan Mulvaney.

“Nobody really seems to be listening to the general public,” Davies said on Thursday to GB News. “And that’s what seems to be incredibly frustrating. So, the only way we can actually make these companies and make governments listen is to boycott with our wallets.”

Transgender social media personality Mulvaney – who has also partnered with Bud Light – was featured in Instagram images modelling Nike’s range of sports bras this week, clothing which Davies says “doesn’t apply” to Mulvaney, who has not yet had gender-reassignment surgery.

“It’s just this total disdain with which women are being treated at the moment,” Davies added, “Particularly in the world of sport where physiology makes so much difference.”

Mulvaney has so far not yet commented on the controversy. Anheuser-Busch, which owns Bud Light, said through a spokesperson that the brand “works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of the many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics.”

IOC amends transgender guidelines

Transgender participation in sports has become a fiercely-debated issue amid a wave of legislative proposals in Republican-led states in the US which have sought to impose various restrictions on trans athletes’ abilities to participate in female sports.

Schools and colleges in the US, though, would be disallowed from imposing blanket bans on transgender athletes as part of a provision to existing gender-equity legislation proposed this week by the Biden administration.

Another former Olympic athlete, Caitlyn Jenner, who is transgender, has also joined in the chorus of backlash against Nike, whom she described as “woke” and said that “inclusivity” should not come at the expense of the majority of people.

Like Davies, Jenner has been a noted critic of transgender athletes competing in sports against biologically-born women. Jenner did note, however, that she has no issue with Mulvaney pursuing sponsorship deals, as she has done herself in the past.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the GOP presidential candidate noted for his opposition to so-called ‘wokeism,’ has also expressed his opposition to Nike’s deal with Mulvaney, calling it the “worst kind of woke capitalism.”

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IOC cannot be ‘political referee’ – president

Published

1 year ago

March 23, 2023

The San Francisco Telegraph

The International Olympic Committee has defended plans to include Russian and Belarusian athletes at the Paris 2024 Games

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) must not act as a “political referee,” according to its president, Thomas Bach. The organization has faced a backlash for its plans to reinstate Russian and Belarusian athletes to international competition ahead of the Paris Games in 2024.

Speaking at the Ruhr Political Festival in Essen, Germany on Wednesday, Bach said that the IOC must stay out of political disputes to preserve its power as a unifying force on the international stage.

“If politics decides who can take part in a competition, then sport and athletes become tools of politics,” Bach stated. “It is then impossible for sport to transfer its uniting power.”

However, he added that the IOC must be “politically neutral but not apolitical.”

The IOC imposed sporting sanctions against Russia and Belarus shortly after Moscow launched its military campaign in Ukraine last year. The measures were subsequently adopted by numerous other sporting federations across the globe, and severely restricted the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in international competitions.

UK asks Olympic sponsors to ‘pressure’ IOC – media

Despite Bach stating earlier this year that he believes sanctions should continue against the governments of both Russia and Belarus, he has appeared open to allowing athletes from both countries back to Olympic competition under certain criteria, such as participating under a neutral flag and appearing in Asian-based qualification events ahead of the Paris Games next year.

Bach claimed on Wednesday that the current situation presents his organization with a “dilemma,” noting that Ukraine has demanded “the total isolation of all Russians” from global sport. He further stated that the IOC has a responsibility towards “human rights and the Olympic Charter” – and not towards the “total isolation of people with a specific passport.”

Elsewhere, Bach has faced resistance from the likes of the British government, amid reports earlier this month that it had petitioned major Olympics sponsors to pressure the IOC to maintain its hardline stance against Russia and Belarus.

Bach’s latest comments came as “several dozen” people held a protest outside Essen’s Philharmonic Music Hall, some of whom were Ukrainian refugees, according to Reuters. Ukraine has threatened to boycott the Paris Olympics if a complete ban on Russia and Belarus is not upheld.

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Olympics chief responds to Ukraine’s boycott calls

Published

1 year ago

February 14, 2023

The San Francisco Telegraph

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach has criticized Ukraine’s calls to boycott the Paris 2024 Games if Russian athletes are allowed to take part. The role of the Olympics is to unify, not escalate and contribute to confrontation, he said.

“It’s not up to governments to decide who can take part in which sports competitions because this would be the end of international sport competitions… as we know it,” Bach told journalists on Sunday.

In late January, the IOC said it may allow athletes from Russia and Belarus who do not publicly support Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine to participate in the 2024 Summer Olympics under a neutral flag.

The announcement angered Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who called on countries to boycott the Games if this happens. Speaking on Friday, Zelensky said the presence of Russian athletes would be a “manifestation of violence” that “cannot be covered up with some pretended neutrality or a white flag.”

In comments cited by France 24, Bach stated that “history will show who is doing more for peace, the ones who try to keep lines open and communicate or the ones who want to isolate and divide.”

Our role is bringing people together.

Ukraine’s calls for a boycott of the Summer Olympics go against the “principles we stand for,” he said.

IOC president blasts Ukraine – media

Bach added that these calls are premature, saying: “we are talking about the sporting competitions to take place this year. There is no talk about Paris yet, this will come much later.”

In deciding the fate of Russian and Belarusian athletes, the IOC must address the “serious concerns” of the UN Human Rights Council that banning them “only because of their passports is a violation of their rights,” he explained.

“We have seen a Belarusian player under neutral status winning the Australian Open. So why shouldn’t it be possible in a swimming pool for instance, or in gymnastics?” the IOC chief said. He was referring to the success of tennis star Aryna Sabalenka, who won the Australian Open in Melbourne last month.

Bach added, however, that Ukrainian athletes should “know how much we share their grief, their human suffering and all the effort we’re taking to help them” as a result of the conflict.

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