Total concussions in the NFL in '18, including preseason, were at their lowest level in four yearsgetty images
Reported player concussions during the '18 NFL regular season were down 29% from the previous year, and NFL Exec VP/Health & Safety Jeff Miller called it a "significant decrease, and one that we're pleased with," according to Lorenzo Reyes of USA TODAY. The league said that there were 135 "documented concussions in that span, down from 190" in '17. Including the preseason, concussions fell from 281 to 214, a 23.8% decrease. That total was the lowest since '14, when 206 concussions were reported. The figures "included the number of incidents in both games and practices." Miller said that there is "'no question' the tweak that requires the kicking team during kickoff returns to be stationary until the ball is kicked and a rule that prohibits any player -- offensive or defensive -- from initiating contact with their helmets significantly impacted the incidence of brain injuries" (USA TODAY, 1/25). NFL Chief Medical Officer Allen Sills ascribed the reduction in part to better performing helmets and rules changes, though the league has not conducted all the analysis around the new figure. In '17, 41% of players wore highly rated helmets, and that number jumped to 74% in '18, Sills said. The league expects to have fuller data by the NFL Combine next month, including types of plays that led to concussions. The NFL also disclosed it would begin experimenting with impact sensors next season (Daniel Kaplan, THE DAILY).
MANY FACTORS TO CONSIDER: In Toronto, John Kryk writes the up-and-down totals of concussions from year to year "aren't a result of wavering earnestness, honesty or diligence in this joint mission between the league and its players' union." It is that "important factors change annually, and substantially -- thus rendering fruitless any attempts to draw scientific inferences" within this '12-18 timeframe in which the NFL and NFLPA has kept track and released such findings. Kryk: "Are the latest safety measures working? Probably that has something to do with it." A year ago at this time, some of the NFL's leaders were "so alarmed at the 15% year-over-year rise in concussion diagnoses, they launched a three-prong plan to get the numbers down" in '18. Surely those efforts "played at least a small role in Thursday's reported drops." But it might well be "impossible, and wrong, for anyone ever to draw any sweeping conclusions from these tabulations," as there is a "pronounced sense of randomness to all of it" (TORONTO SUN, 1/25).
NOT A COMPLETE PICTURE? In S.F., Eric Branch notes there are those who "believe that data the NFL presents regarding concussions is seriously flawed." For example, it "doesn't account for sub-concussive hits, smaller but more frequent impacts, often absorbed by linemen, that have been linked to head trauma" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 1/25).
