Photo © Lawrence Weslowski Jr | Dreamstime.com
The NFL recently reported a record-low number of concussions — 182 during the 2024 season, which is the fewest since the league began tracking the injury in 2015, according to Front Office Sports.
It’s also a 17% reduction compared to the 2023 season, NFL officials said. This decrease builds on a record preseason, which had the fewest number of concussions in practices and games since 2015 and comes as the league continues to aggressively identify and evaluate concussions. Guardian Caps — padded headgear worn over helmets designed to protect against brain injuries — are required during training camp on all players except quarterbacks and specialists. Other important factors, the NFL noted, include the largest safety improvement in helmets worn on field since 2021, enforcement of safety rules and broader efforts to continue fostering a culture of safety.
“Aside from Guardian Caps, NFL chief medical officer Allen Sills said 35% of players upgraded their helmet quality in 2024 based on rankings published by the league and the NFL Players Association,” Front Office Sports reported.
Rule changes implemented this past season included the Dynamic Kickoff rule, which altered how teams line up and move during kickoffs. Returns increased 57% in the regular season and seven kickoffs were returned for touchdowns, the most since 2021, according to the league. The new rule also slowed the average player speeds, as intended, which led to a lower concussion rate (down 43% vs. 2021 to 2023) and the fewest lower extremity strains on kickoffs since at least 2018.
That’s not enough, say scientists and researchers at Boston University’s renowned Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center.
“Years of research at BU [have] revealed that CTE, a degenerative brain disease diagnosed in hundreds of former contact sports athletes, is not caused by isolated incidents of concussions, but rather by smaller repetitive blows to the head that accumulate over months and years,” The Brink, which covers research news at Boston University, reported in October. “Second, BU research has also shown that players who start playing tackle football at a young age, sustaining more of those smaller head blows in their teenage years, are more likely to suffer from CTE and the long-term, lingering effects that accompany the disease. … While the NFL’s rule changes aim to help its multimillion dollar professional players, teams at the college, high school, and youth football levels continue to use the older, riskier kickoff format, and less protective helmets. And it’s those younger athletes — who the NFL sees as its next generation of fans and players — who need to be protected against CTE developing later in life.”
Boys’ tackle football is the sport with the highest concussion rates in youth and high school sports, according to CDC Heads Up, with tackling responsible for 64% of concussions at the high school level.
The National Federation of State High School Associations estimates more than 300,000 high school student-athletes in the United States suffer a concussion every year. Concussions occur most frequently in football but also are common in ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer and basketball.
“In 2020-21, concussion injury rates were lower than in previous years,” according to a summary report from the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study (commonly known as High School RIO™), released in August 2024. “Multiple factors may have affected concussion rates including characteristics of schools playing sports, athletes who were able to/chose to compete during the pandemic, other injuries sustained during the sport season, athletic trainers’ ability to participate in High School RIO given other responsibilities, changes in practice-related activities, and the national sample in terms of sport cancellation/modified seasons. Concussion injury rates increased after the 2020-21 academic year but continue to be generally lower than pre-pandemic concussion rates. We will continue to monitor concussion rates in 2024-25 and in future academic years.”
Last August, two teenage football players, ages 13 and 16, died from brain trauma or head injuries on the same day in West Virginia and Alabama, respectively.
And in 2023, three young football players died of head injuries and 10 players died of other causes, such as heat stroke, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. That’s “typical” in a year, Dr. Robert Cantu, the organization’s medical director, told the Associated Press.
“So I would not be particularly alarmed about two deaths in a week. But I would be very alarmed if we had two deaths per week for four or five weeks in a row. Because we’ve never had that before,” he said, adding that “no hits to the head are good.”
Two college football quarterbacks — North Carolina State’s Grayson McCall and the University of Michigan’s Jack Tuttle — both took too many hits to the head and retired from the game last fall, shining a fresh spotlight on the concussion discussion.
“We don’t yet know how many concussions are too many or for whom,” Dr. Munro Cullum, a concussion expert and neuropsychologist at UT Southwestern’s O’Donnell Brain Institute, told ABC News. “It’s what’s unique about one individual versus another. There can’t really be a blanket prescription that’s right for everybody. One size doesn’t fit all.”
Perhaps the increasing use of Guardian Caps at the youth, high school and college levels will have both short- and long-term impacts. But, as Guardian Caps CEO and founder Erin Hanson told SDM in October, youth programs are the most hesitant to allow their usage.
“Unfortunately, the organizations that are working with kids — the very ones with developing brains that we set out to help — they’re the ones who are telling parents and coaches that they can’t use Guardian Caps because of concerns about what the helmet companies will think and do,” she said. “We see a lot of confusing language from people [who refuse to sanction Guardian Caps for practice or play]. Sometimes they will say that using the caps will void the warranty of helmets, but I’m not sure why they’re saying that. The warranty covers the shell cracking. There’s no way a soft cover can cause a hard-shell helmet to crack.”
It’s no surprise that a CDC study published in Sports Health in 2021 found that youth tackle football players ages 6 to 14 sustained 15 times more head impacts during a practice or game than flag football players.
“We want people to fall in love with football, and tackle football can present a lot of challenges,” Izell Reese, the former NFL player who now is president and CEO of RCX Sports, which works with organizations like NFL FLAG, told CNN.com in 2023. “Flag football is easier and safer, but it’s still football, and that’s what matters. We want kids to have fun, and people to enjoy the game.”
About the Author
