Concussions can create balance problems. So, when you are administering the Functional Movement Screen and the person cannot balance in one of the seven movement patterns, it may be because of a concussion, not a pattern imbalance! Balance problems from a concussion can last for months, years, and even a lifetime! 

March 25, 2013 1:00 am  
By Natasha Nazir Bismarck Hi Herald

 

 

 

Hildestad got his first concussion before his sophomore year and during that year he was involved in multiple contact sports. His mother Krista Diede explains the process of treating and testing his injuries, and deciding to end his contact sports.

“We went to Healthways and the chiropractor was interested in trying out new ways to test Ben. It was a computer program to get screened. This was to test to see if his doctor wants him to go back to start playing,” Diede said. “His general practice doctor had referred him to an entire day of testing at St. Alexius as well and to go through psychological tests to see brain damage from injuries, but that whole day of testing was an eye-opener for Ben to realize the precautions and results of getting hurt.”

The choice to end the their seasons required serious decision making from the two athletes.

“It was tough because you put your energy to these sports your whole life and suddenly because of a few injuries you cannot play anymore,” Hildestad said. “It is hard.”

After facing the fact that health is more important than being out on the field, court or ice, safety is the factor that played the biggest role in their decisions.

“It was hard to decide not to play anymore, but I just try to look at it in a positive way,” Hellebust said. “I cheer on the girls and am always there for them.”

 

Better Balance offers team approach to treating concussions

Patrick Springer Forum News Service 3/6/2016

 

FARGO — Taylor Zetocha’s first concussion seemed like little more than a bump on the head. But by the time she suffered her third and fourth concussions, all on the basketball court, she could no longer shrug off the effects.

“The symptoms have gotten worse,” she said. They have included difficulty sleeping, dizziness, balancing problems, memory problems, nausea and irritability as well as sensitivity to light and noises.

Her struggle is an example of the serious problems concussion patients face, therapists say, and a reminder that football players aren’t the only athletes who must be aware of the risk.

Before Zetocha’s symptoms became too strong to ignore, her main concern was to keep playing basketball. She suffered her first concussion while in the eighth grade. Now 16, the Fargo Davies High School sophomore’s top concern is getting well.

With help from a team of caregivers and therapists, she is working to overcome the problems caused by her multiple concussions. After 15 months of therapy, her sense of balance has improved and she rarely feels dizzy, but continues to struggle with her memory.

“I don’t have a good memory,” she said. “I can’t remember anything.”

Before her concussions, Zetocha had an excellent memory. Her performance in school has suffered, and she is allowed accommodations, including more time to take tests.

Progress came slowly at first, which is common with brain injuries, said Skip Frappier, who runs Better Balance of North Dakota, a service to help diagnose and monitor symptoms in people with balance problems, including concussion patients. It is affiliated with ProRehab, a physical and occupational therapy clinic.

Cases vary considerably, but it takes on average two years of therapy to recover from concussive syndrome, said Lynden Kurtz, a physical therapist at ProRehab who is part of Zetocha’s care team.

 

 

It’s not uncommon for symptoms to appear long after a concussion, and the problem can go undiagnosed for years, he said.

“They stumble through the medical system and (providers) say, ‘There’s nothing I can do for you,’” Kurtz said.

One woman suffered a concussion at the age of 18 and endured her symptoms for many years before being diagnosed and referred to therapy. After six to eight months, “She’s back to her old self,” he said.

Zetocha’s case was compounded because of her multiple concussions over time, Frappier said.

“It’s not the first time that’s devastating,” he said. “It’s the second, third, fourth that is devastating, especially if the brain hasn’t had a chance to heal.”

The location of the brain trauma from a concussion is also significant in determining how severe the effects will be, he said. There really is no way to predict the extent of a patient’s recovery, or how long it will take to heal, Frappier said.

Parents have a critical role to play in helping to prevent aggravating their child’s concussion injury by continuing to play after a concussion in a game or practice. Even if the injury doesn’t at first appear to be serious, the full effects might not be clear until hours or days later, Frappier said.

“We learned the hard way,” said Steve Zetocha, Taylor’s father. Because there are no obvious physical scars for a concussion, some of his daughter’s friends and classmates have accused her of faking her injury, he said.

“As a parent, you just don’t want any kid to go through this,” he said.

 

St. Mary's High School sophomore educates peers about concussions

 

 

 

 

BISMARCK, N.D. - Concussions in soccer soared more than 1,500 percent in the last 25 years according to a study published in the medical journal pediatrics. Now one Saint Mary's High School sophomore is hoping to educate his peers on how bad a concussion can be.

Braden Benz has been suffering with a concussion for about three months now. He still has daily symptoms such as headaches and nausea. He hopes to teach his peers to take concussions seriously.

Benz was playing soccer for Saint Mary's High School in late August. While playing, he was hit in the head and suffered a concussion.

"I was like this is weird. I don't really know what I'm feeling. Thinking was really hard like in math class especially I got bunch of headaches and problems were harder than they usually are," said Benz.

Since then, Benz has had ongoing symptoms and has even passed out at times. His concussion has gotten so bad that he had to travel to the Children's Hospital in Minneapolis.

"He was also having some difficulty with the balance and dizziness, some mood changes. He was getting really irritable after because you just don't feel good," said Mary Koolmo, Children's Hospital.

Now, Benz wants to educate his peers on the dangers of concussions. One way he is doing it is by giving talks to his class mates.

"So even to just know a little bit, just to kind of watch for signs and help whoever gets the concussion and know that other people have gone through this," said Benz.

Benz's physical therapist has been working with him for almost two months now and says his condition has improved.

"He's made some progress in his balance. he's got much better at using his vision for his balance. He still has some what I would call sensory integration issues," said Ruth Beachey, CHI St. Alexius.

During his talk Braden is asking students to take concussions seriously and always seek medical help if you think you have sustained a concussion

There's no timetable on when Braden will be fully healed, but he hopes when he's back to full health he can play soccer again.

 

MDU's Teen of the Week: Injury inspires athlete to pursue medical career

Oct 31, 2018

 

 

 

A traumatic brain injury caused by two sports-related concussions may have slowed Rachel Mischel down, but the Shiloh Christian School senior hasn’t let it stop her.

The 17-year-old battled severe headaches, light and noise sensitivity, neck pain, memory loss, dizziness and brain fog for nearly seven months, yet managed to maintain her 4.0 GPA, making her a top contender for class valedictorian.

“I didn’t want to let the concussions make me lose my 4.0 (GPA),” she said. “So, I was in the classrooms every day after school getting extra help, asking for better instructions.”

 

Kindred basketball coach spending holidays watching son fight painful autonomic dysfunction

   Dec 21, 2016

ndred boys basketball coach Brad Woehl, his wife, Becki, and Becki's 17-year-old twins, Brenden and Brittany, will be celebrating Christmas in a hotel room in Minneapolis this year. Woehl's 13-year-old son, Brock, is fighting pain at Rochester's Mayo Clinic that has prevented him from doing the things he loves for more than a year.

Becki usually hosts Christmas at her home in Kindred with her entire family. There will be no white elephant gift exchange or games or hor d'oeuvres like there has been every year at her home.

The Radisson is not home, but it's where they need to be.

"We're getting what we want for Christmas," Becki said. "We're hopefully getting our kid back."

This past week Brad was looking at possibly getting his 200th win as a basketball coach. Now, he looks on as his son, who he once watched play basketball, golf and football, learns to adapt to living a life with pain.

"It basically rips your heart out, as active as he has been and his passion for sports and his love for sports and being with this friends," Brad said. "He was a very good student. Now, he's so far behind. It's very difficult for a parent to watch your kid suffer and struggle and go through something like this."

In August of 2015, 11-year-old Brock got a concussion from playing football. Becki was fully prepared for the headaches and sensitivity to light that comes with a concussion.

What she wasn't prepared for was her son constantly being weak and unable to get out of bed some days. She wasn't prepared for months of visits to the emergency room and doctor's appointments with no answers. He wasn't hungry. He was fainting. He didn't want to hang out with friends or play sports or leave the house.

Her son was in pain and she couldn't fix it.

"It's been terrible," Becki said. "It's been physically and emotionally exhausting."

Four months after the concussion, Becki and Brad got an answer. Brock was diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, also known as POTS. POTS causes an increase in heart rate from a change in position from lying horizontally to upright. Palpitations, light-headedness, chest discomfort, shortness of breath, nausea, weakness in the lower legs, blurred vision and cognitive difficulties can result from the change in position. Relief comes from reclining.

"Basically, it affects everything that you and I don't really think about like our body temperature, heart rate, our breathing," Brad said. "Once he had that concussion he never kind of recouped. He just kind of was always tired, wasn't feeling good, didn't want to attend school."

"Usually, POTS is brought on by a major illness like mono or influenza or a major surgery," Becki said. "Yes, they are trying to tie concussions to POTS, but scientifically, that hasn't been proven. They aren't positive. The diagnosis of it came out in 1999. There's a lot of learning to do with it."

In January, Brock was put on medications and his diet was changed, which helped a bit. The "good days," as Becki refers to days when Brock is himself again, lasted until this fall when his symptoms started coming back. In the past month, he's only attended school for a total of a half a day due to the pain.

Becki has put work on hold to spend a month at the Mayo Clinic's Pain Rehabilitation Center, while Brock goes through a program to help teach him to live with the pain.

"For the first time in a long time—a year-and-a-half—I think we're all seeing that there is hope," Becki said. "There's hope to move on with life. Hope to live somewhat of a normal life, do normal activities, everybody to get their life back."

Brock's program will end Jan. 5 with a graduation. The Woehls hope to get him back to school full time and back to being the Brock he was.

"Basketball, golf, baseball and just being with his friends," Becki said. "When you're hurt all the time you don't want to do anything. Getting to be a kid again and be social, that's what we want."

During the holidays, Brad and Becki's family will do what families are supposed to do. Families, of course, fight with each other, but families also fight for each other.

"Don't take things in life for granted," Brad said. "It certainly has impacted our family, and not just the parents and Brock, but all the family dynamic has changed. Don't take life for granted."

 

Helping athletes deal with concussions

August 07, 2011 12:15 am  
By Dr. Laura Archuleta

Much as we hate to admit it, back to school season is upon us, which means that students are gearing up for fall sports. If your child had had a sports physical, you've probably noticed that the pre-visit questionnaire asks several questions about head injuries. But what exactly is a concussion and why do we worry so much about them?

In the simplest terms, a concussion can be thought of as a “brain bruise.” It occurs when the player's skull hits another object, causing the brain to be bounced back and forth or even twisted within the skull. There are many factors that contribute to the severity of injury, many of which we don't completely understand. Some studies show that developing brains in young individuals are susceptible to longer and more serious effects from head injuries.

It is important to note that concussions can happen even if the injury did not cause a complete loss of consciousness. In some cases, a person may not show any signs of injury until a few hours later. Sometimes the signs of concussion can be subtle and difficult to recognize. Some common signs and symptoms of a concussion are: headache, nausea, balance problems, dizziness, vision problems, sensitivity to light or noise, concentration or memory problems, feeling sluggish, slurred speech and confusion.

If you suspect someone might have a concussion, here are a couple of things to look for. Is the athlete dazed, confused or disorientated? Are his movements more clumsy than usual? Is he having difficulty remembering what happened immediately before the injury? Is she behaving strangely or showing personality changes? If the answer to these questions is yes, the athlete should be evaluated immediately. Signs like vomiting, severe headache or difficulty staying awake also need emergent attention.

The 2011 Legislature passed a concussion management bill requiring that each official, coach and athletic trainer receive training on the signs, symptoms and risks of concussions. Athletes should be cleared by an appropriate health care professional before being allowed to return to play in games or practices. This process takes time (sometimes weeks or even months) and must be customized to each individual athlete.

In general, the first step is allowing the brain to heal so that there are no symptoms of concussion at rest. Once that happens, the athlete can proceed with activity in a step-wise fashion to allow the brain to re-adjust to exertion. We start with minimal to light exercise, gradually progressing back to full activity.

To help coordinate the rehabilitation process, some high schools require all athletes take a concussion impact test before the start of the season. The 25-minute test covers reaction time, coordination and memory of the athlete. The test gives athletic trainers a baseline for each athlete's performance before an impact.

 

 

If an injury to the brain were to occur during the season, the individual takes the test again and if the results do not match, the player will not be allowed to return to play. Testing centers can be found at a variety of student athletic training centers.

While such caution may seem extreme, the consequences of concussion are equally serious. Athletes who are not fully recovered from a concussion can be at much higher risk for repeated injury, which can cause permanent brain damage or even death.

The best treatment for a concussion is rest. The individual should avoid exposure to bright lights, loud noises, computers, television and video games. There are no medications that can speed the recovery from a concussion. The brain simply needs time to heal.

Concussions are serious business, but they don't have to be disabling. Before your child takes to the field this fall, talk to your doctor or coach to see what steps you can take to help keep him or her safe.

(Dr. Laura Archuleta is certified by the American Board of Family Medicine and is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Hospice & Palliative Medicine. Archuleta has special interests in pediatrics, natural family planning and end-of-life care.  Archuleta works at St. Alexius Medical Center-Mandan Clinic. She lives in Bismarck with her husband and three children.)

 

 

Commentary: The X’s and O’s of brain injury and youth football

 

Save Our Brains

 

 

Youth Concussion Stats

 

From Sports Concussion Institute website:

• CDC estimates reveal that 1.6 million to 3.8 million concussions occur each year
• Fewer than 10% of sport related concussions involve a Loss of Consciousness (e.g., blacking out, seeing stars, etc.)
• Football is the most common sport with concussion risk for males (75% chance for concussion)
• Soccer is the most common sport with concussion risk for females (50% chance for concussion)
• Estimated 47% of athletes do not report feeling any symptoms after a concussive blow
• A professional football player will receive an estimated 900 to 1500 blows to the head during a season
• Impact speed of a professional boxers punch: 20mph
• Impact speed of a football player tackling a stationary player: 25mph

From Science Daily, May 2015: “A slight majority of concussions happened during youth football games but most concussions at the high school and college levels occurred during practice, according to an article published online byJAMA Pediatrics.”

From Huffington Post story, February 2015: “…The study, conducted by researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine and published in the peer-reviewed medical journal Neurology, tested 42 former NFL players who had complained of “cognitive, behavioral, and mood symptoms” within the past six months. Half had started playing tackle football before age 12; half began at age 12 or older.

The researchers found that those who had played football before age 12 performed “significantly worse” on tests of decision-making, problem-solving, memory and verbal IQ.

“They were worse on all the tests we looked at,” Dr. Robert Stern, the senior author of the study and a professor of neurology and neurosurgery, told ESPN. “They had problems learning and remembering lists of words. They had problems with being flexible in their decision-making and problem-solving.”

Other research has suggested that the effects of concussions last longer in young teensthan they do in young adults. Yet children under the age of 14 constitute roughly 70 percent of all football players in the country, and children between the ages of 9 and 12 who play tackle football experience an average of 240 hits to the head during a typical season, according to previous research cited in the new study.

 

Basketball Head Injuries Rising Among Kids

By Rachael Rettner, Senior Writer | September 13, 2010

An increasing number of children are admitted to hospital emergency departments for traumatic brain injuries sustained while playing basketball, the most popular team sport for kids, a new study suggests.

The number of cases of basketball-related traumatic brain injury, which include concussions, head fractures and internal head injuries, has increased by 70 percent among children over the last decade, the researchers say.

The increase occurred despite a 22 percent decline in the total number of basketball-related injuries over the same time period.

The rise might be due to increased recognition, and therefore treatment, of traumatic brain injuries, the researchers say. However, factors such as the increased intensity and competitiveness of the game, along with the fact that children are starting to play at younger ages, might also have contributed to the rise.

The findings are similar to those of an early study, published last month, which found an overall increase in children's emergency department visits for concussions sustained while playing team sports. Concussions and other injuries to the head can pose a significant health risk to youngsters, the researchers say.

"Traumatic brain injury can have long-term impacts on young athletes. It can affect their heath, their memory, their learning and their survival," said study author Lara McKenzie, principal investigator at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Basketball injuries

McKenzie and her colleagues analyzed data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, a nationally representative sample of about 100 hospital emergency departments in the United States.

They examined cases of basketball-related injuries in children ages 5 to 19 between 1997 and 2007.

Traumatic brain injury cases increased from 7,030 in 1997 to 11,948 in 2007. However, traumatic brain injuries might be underestimated because studies have shown that around a third of athletes don't recognize concussion symptoms, or continue to play after they experience dizziness, the researchers said. And basketball related injuries as a whole might be underestimated, since the researchers only considered injuries treated at emergency departments, not other care centers.

Overall, more than 4 million basketball-related injuries were estimated to occur during this period. On average, there were 375,350 injuries per year.
The most common injuries were strains and sprains to the lower limbs, particularly the ankles. Fractures and dislocations were also common in the arms and hands, particularly the fingers.

Preventing brain injuries

In order to address this problem, athletes and coaches should be trained to recognize symptoms of traumatic brain injuries and learn how to prevent them, McKenzie told MyHealthNewsDaily. Symptoms of these injuries include blurry vision, nausea, coordination and balance problems, loss of memory and feeling light headed, she said.

Another recommendation is to use smaller basketballs for younger ages, which may decrease the number of concussions and finger injuries, McKenzie said. In the study, traumatic brain injuries were most common among younger children, ages 5 to 10.

Rough play should also be discouraged to minimize collisions, McKenzie said.

The findings are published in the October issue of the journal Pediatrics.

 

An equation that combines multiple subtest scores into one could make fooling a concussion protocol nothing more than a fool’s errand, says a recent study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The study details a promising approach for pinpointing more athletes who play "impaired" on the Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing, or ImPACT, a computerized tool consisting of eight subtests that gauge neurocognitive performance.

Administering ImPACT in the preseason helps establish a cognitive baseline that can be compared against the results of a post-concussion test, informing decisions about whether and when an athlete returns to action.

Concussions result from the brain slamming against the skull, usually causing short-term issues that some research suggests may evolve into long-term problems such as memory loss and depression when the brain is subjected to repeated trauma. To mitigate the risk of reinjury, athletes diagnosed with concussions take the ImPACT or a similar test to help determine when they have fully recovered.

But some athletes have undertaken the practice of sandbagging: giving lackadaisical effort on the baseline test to record a lower score in the hope of playing sooner after a concussion. Sandbagging can ruin the validity of the test and, because a recovering brain is more susceptible to further trauma, ultimately increase the likelihood of another concussion.

“At this point, people (administering) ImPACT may not have very much training in neuropsychological testing or standardized test administration or data interpretation,” said lead author Kathryn Higgins, a postdoctoral researcher with the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior at Nebraska. “If the baseline is the standard for when an athlete is recovered, there are all sorts of issues with returning someone to play based on poor baseline data.”

So Higgins conducted an experiment to determine whether a statistical approach could identify more of the athletes who sandbagged on the baseline test. The experiment asked 54 athletes from rural Midwestern high schools to take the test twice, once while giving their best effort and once while subtly sandbagging. After analyzing the results, Higgins identified four subtests that created the largest disparity in scores. She then developed an equation that yielded a composite score from those subtests.

Establishing a threshold for the composite score allowed her to correctly find 100 percent of sandbagging cases while identifying the best-effort cases more than 90 percent of the time. Prior research suggests that ImPACT’s existing system of validity checks, which flag suspicious scores on five individual subtests, detect just 65 to 70 percent of sandbaggers.

“Obviously, my flags are going to be better (in this case) because I built them and tested them on the same sample,” said Higgins, who conducted the study as part of her dissertation. “But I thought it was worth pointing out that this equation has strong potential as another way to detect poor effort on baseline testing.”

Higgins said she hopes further research will independently evaluate her approach and others that might improve the assessment of high school athletes, who suffer an estimated 300,000 sports-related concussions per year in the United States alone.

“There’s so much room for work to be done,” Higgins said. “We’ve come so far in the last 10 years -- we know so much more than we did -- but there are still a lot of things that we don’t know.”

Higgins authored the paper with Arthur Maerlender, director of clinical research at the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior, and Robert Denney from Neuropsychological Associates of Southwest Missouri. It appeared in the journal Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology.

 

Gale Sayers, Pro Football Hall of Famer, battling dementia

March 20, 2017

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Relatives of Pro Football Hall of Famer Gale Sayers say the Bears legend has been diagnosed with dementia.

His wife, Ardythe Sayers, tells The Kansas City Star that her 73-year-old husband was diagnosed four years ago and she blames Sayers’ football career. He played for the Bears from 1965-71 after setting records at the University of Kansas.

Ardie Sayers and the rest of the family had made no secret of his condition, but hadn’t shared it publicly. She recently determined that it’s important that his situation be known and understood to dispel false impressions.

His brother, Roger Sayers, says it’s “tough” to “build memories all your life, and the next thing you know you don’t remember anything.”

 

49ers great Dwight Clark, one half of ‘The Catch,’ announces he has ALS

March 19 2017

Former San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Dwight Clark, best known for making “The Catch” in the 1981 NFC championship game, announced Sunday that he has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

“In September of 2015, I started feeling weakness in my left hand,” Clark wrote in a statement. “I was mildly paying attention to it because since my playing days, I’ve constantly had pain in my neck. I was thinking it was related to some kind of nerve damage because it would just come and go. After months of tests and treatment, I got some bad news. I was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. I have ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Those words are still very hard for me to say.”

Clark, 60, said he was diagnosed with the disease after visits to six neurologists and three ALS specialists.

“The one piece of good news is that the disease seems to be progressing more slowly than in some patients,” Clark wrote. “While I’m still trying to wrap my head around the challenge I will face with this disease over the coming years, the only thing I know is that I’m going to fight like hell and live every day to the fullest.”

Clark said he has started experiencing weakness in his right hand, abs, lower back and right leg.

“I’ve been asked if playing football caused this,” Clark wrote. “I don’t know for sure. But I certainly suspect it did. And I encourage the NFLPA and the NFL to continue working together in their efforts to make the game of football safer, especially as it relates to head trauma.”

Clark tweeted a link to his statement Sunday night. His Twitter avatar is the iconic image of him leaping to pull in Joe Montana’s pass with 58 seconds remaining in the NFC championship at Candlestick Park on Jan. 10, 1982. Clark’s grab, which came to be known simply as “The Catch,” helped the 49ers defeat the Dallas Cowboys, 28-27, and clinch a spot in their first Super Bowl. Two weeks later, the 49ers defeated the Bengals, 26-21, in Super Bowl XVI.

“What I love about it the most is that it’s connected me with 49ers fans for the rest of time,” Clark said of ‘The Catch’ in 2013. “I didn’t realize at the time that people would keep talking about it. But they not only talk about it, they pass it down through the generations. I’ll be at an autograph thing, there’ll be a 10-year old kid saying, ‘You’re The Catch.’ ”

Clark, who played all nine seasons of his career with the 49ers, thanked his friends for their support and released a series of remarks from his former teammates about his diagnosis.

“Jennifer and I are saddened by the diagnosis of Dwight,” Montana said, via the Mercury News. “This is a difficult time for Dwight, Kelly and all of us who love him. He is family, and in our continual thoughts and prayers. We hope the public will be cognizant of Dwight’s desire for privacy.”

 

Former Viking Orlando Thomas dies

 

Nov 10, 2014

Former Minnesota Vikings safety Orlando Thomas, who led the NFL in interceptions during his rookie season in 1995 with nine, died Sunday night of ALS. He was 42.

Thomas' agent, Mark Bartelstein, confirmed the news.

Thomas had been battling ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) in Crowley, Louisiana.

"Nobody's ever fought a battle like Orlando fought, with so much dignity -- I never saw anything like it," Bartelstein said Monday morning. "It's just incredible. He never had a sense of self pity, never felt sorry for himself, he was always worried about everyone else. He was just the most incredible person I've ever been around."

When Thomas played for the Vikings from 1995 through 2001, he weighed 225 pounds. When Thomas died, he was down almost 70 pounds, Bartelstein said.

Some of Thomas' former Vikings teammates took to Twitter to remember him, including wide receivers Randy Moss and Jake Reed.

Thomas started 87 of the 98 games he played for the Vikings, intercepting 22 passes, before retiring after the 2001 season.

He revealed in June 2007 that he was suffering from ALS.

The Vikings said in a statement that they were "deeply saddened."

"Orlando was an outstanding player for the Vikings for seven years, but more importantly, he represented the franchise and the state of Minnesota with the utmost dignity and class. While his outgoing personality made him a favorite among his teammates, Orlando's involvement in the community made him a favorite outside of Winter Park.

"Since 2007, Orlando fought this disease with tenacity and optimism. Throughout his difficult battle, he refused to allow ALS to define him, instead putting others' needs in front of his and focusing on making those around him smile. Orlando will always remain a member of the Minnesota Vikings family."

 

Smith retires from pro football, wants to leave while still healthy

March 31, 2017

 

FARGO — One of North Dakota's all-time most decorated football players is leaving the game. Ryan Smith, the owner of three Division I FCS national title rings at North Dakota State, is retiring after three professional seasons in the Canadian Football League.

 

 

The Wahpeton native said he wanted to go out on his terms and while he's still healthy.

"The shots just keep adding up a little bit," he said. "Obviously I've taken quite a few shots over my time."

Smith, a wide receiver, still had two years remaining on his contract with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He spent his first two seasons with Saskatchewan.

"I had a great three years up there," he said. "I met a lot of people and had a blast doing it. Football has led me to so many different places."

It led him to NDSU in 2010 where he developed into one of the best receivers in school history. He had 147 receptions — fourth on the NDSU all-time career list — for 1,783 yards and eight touchdowns. He was most electric on kick returns bringing three punts and one kickoff back for touchdowns.

Smith said he has been thinking about retiring for a while, a decision he said he took his time with considering the magnitude of it. He said Blue Bombers head coach Mike O'Shea was surprised but supportive of the decision.

Smith had 53 receptions for 488 yards and one touchdown last season. His best year was 2015 when he caught 59 passes and seven touchdowns with the Roughriders.

"They're a top-of-the-line organization from the top down," Smith said of Winnipeg. "Anytime you come to a decision like that, you have to take into account what you're doing and who you're affecting."

An all-academic player at NDSU, he said he has yet to make a final decision on his next job.

"You see all those head injuries now, it just makes you think, what if I took another shot?" Smith said. "I want to be 45 years old and able to play with my kids and be able to run around. I don't want to be sitting there hurting and being barely able to walk. I want to go out on a positive note.

"Football is a grueling sport and injuries are part of it. The game has given me so much in life and I'll forever be in debt. It's a great sport but it's time to pursue other opportunities."

Schools, parents, players weigh decisions to play against concussion concerns

October 13, 2017

 

 

GRAND FORKS—Dom Otto wasn't sure how he suffered his first concussion. There was no specific hit on the football field that stood out. It was only because his head continued to hurt that he went to see a trainer and the concussion was diagnosed.

 

The second concussion was a no-doubter, however. "I went head-to-head with a teammate in practice,'' Otto said. "My head hurt right away. I remember everything that happened on that one.''

Those both occurred during Otto's sophomore football season at Grand Forks Central High School. He's now a senior and starting on the line for the Knights' football team.

After much deliberation, Otto and his mother, Stacey Flesche, decided he could continue playing despite the concussions.

"Mom loves football,'' Otto said. "She wanted me to play. But she was scared, not wanting anything to happen that would affect me for the rest of my life. And I love football too much to quit. So we went to a doctor and went over things. Mom was adamant that we did things right.''

Concussions and their long-range effects have been a growing major discussion in all sports, particularly in football. But, at least locally, concussion concerns don't seem to have impacted participation numbers in football.

At Central High School, for instance, participation numbers are up about 15 athletes from last season. At East Grand Forks Senior High, roster numbers are down 10 from last season, but figure to increase significantly next season with a large group of more than 20 freshmen playing. Polk County West in northwest Minnesota has consistently been in the 35-player range the past three seasons.

Only Grand Forks Red River has seen a significant decline in its football numbers, as its roster size has dropped by approximately 15 athletes from a year ago.

"It (fear of concussions) might have something to do with a few kids not coming out,'' Red River coach Vyrn Muir said. "But I think there are several factors.''

Muir said changes in school boundaries and athletes' decisions to specialize in another sport may be factors. "I can't put a finger on one reason why,'' he said.

 

Not all return

 

Central football coach Bill Lorenz estimates that, over the past 4-5 seasons, approximately six players who suffered a concussion didn't return.

Wyatt Rynestad is one who didn't come back.

As a junior last season, his head was jarred while being tackled in a game. "I couldn't remember what happened,'' Rynestad said. "I was dazed. My arms were numb.''

He was cleared to play and, a week later, was hit again. "I got the same tingly feeling. That's when I decided to not play,'' Rynestad said.

Rynestad said his parents discouraged him from playing again. Ultimately, however, it was his decision.

"I'd heard all the stuff about concussions. I didn't want to ruin my future,'' Rynestad said. "I loved football. I thought about going back this year. But I stopped myself. It was tough. I do miss playing. But it was a good decision.''

Rynestad would appear to be in the minority. Lorenz said the majority of football players who suffer concussions return to play.

"To me it's more of a surprise when they don't come back,'' Lorenz said. "With the procedures and protocols we have in place, there are steps to make sure the athletes don't come back too quickly if they're concussed. Kids have to be symptom free before they can return. The precautions are there for the kids' safety. That's the bottom line.''

 

Changing ways

 

The precautions around concussions have changed in a short time.

Muir recalls being concussed while playing in a high school game in 1990. "I remember us being ahead 14-0 in the game. I don't remember the rest of it (after being hit),'' Muir said. "My buddies told me afterward that I was asking what happened after every play. I had headaches for several days, but I played the next week.

"There's more awareness of the situation now.''

Equipment changes also have made it safer.

"When I played 10 years ago, the helmets I wore were so much different,'' East Grand Forks Senior High coach Ryan Kasowski said. "We have a helmet specialist come in and fit each player's helmet properly. The padding, the stability of the helmets—you can tell companies are doing their best to make it safe for the players.''

 

Not just football

 

Concussions probably are most associated with football because of the physical nature of the sport. But it isn't just football.

At East Grand Forks Senior High, Kora Jordheim just returned to play for the soccer team after she missed several games due to a concussion. She was going for a header when the junior collided with an opponent.

"I didn't remember how it happened,'' Jordheim said. "I had to watch it on tape to find out. All I remember was seeing my teammates after it happened; their eyes were so big.''

Jordheim said she wasn't sure if she would be cleared to play again this year. But neither did she think her soccer career was over.

Former Grand Forks Central athletic trainer Jon Sandy recorded all the concussions he dealt with at Central over the past five seasons. The injury isn't just football related.

Each of the 15 sports had at least one concussion case in that span. Eight sports had eight or more concussions reported (he didn't have complete data on gymnastics and girls hockey) in those five school years.

"At Central, when you look at the number of kids participating in football compared to other sports, the percentage of concussions is statistically fairly similar as far as the number of athletes being concussed in other sports,'' Sandy said.

 

Study shows playing football before age 12 can lead to mood and behavior issues

Study shows those who participated in football before age 12 were twice as likely to have problems

September 19, 2017

 

A new medical study has found that children who play football before age 12 suffer mood and behavior problems later in life at rates significantly higher than those who take up the sport later.

The study, which was published Tuesday in the medical journal Translational Psychiatry, showed those who participated in football before age 12 were twice as likely to have problems with behavior regulation, apathy, and executive functioning – including initiating activities, problem solving, planning and organizing – when they get older. The younger football players were three times more likely as those who took up the sport after age 12 to experience symptoms of depression.

“Between the ages of 10 and 12, there is this period of incredible development of the brain,” said Dr. Robert Stern, the director of clinical research at Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center who co-authored the study. “Perhaps that is a window of vulnerability. . . . It makes sense that children whose brains are rapidly developing should not be hitting their heads over and over again.”

Stern said the results were not tied to the total number of years the subjects participated in football or the highest level at which they competed. Perhaps most important, the findings also weren’t impacted by the number of concussions the former players reported, he said, meaning the dangers posed by football can’t be boiled down simply to big hits. Researchers are increasingly focusing on the effects associated with the accumulation of smaller hits that a player might more easily shake off during a game or practice.

“Concussions are a big deal when it comes to short-term problems, and it has to be dealt with,” Stern said. “But the dialogue out there needs to now start focusing on these repetitive hits that are part of the game and their potential for long-term problems.”

The Boston University researchers studied 214 former American football players. The average age was 51, which means the average study participant played youth football four decades ago.

Football’s impact on young players has been a growing area of research in recent years, and while the Boston University study focuses on the possible long-term impact, other researchers have examined the short-term consequences the sport can have on developing brains.

In one recent study, researchers from the Wake Forest School of Medicine followed a group of 25 players, ages 8 to 13, for a single season, measuring the frequency and severity of helmet impacts. The players underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tests before and after the season, which showed significance changes in the brain’s white matter. None of the participants in that study showed signs or symptoms of concussions, and the players who suffered more hits saw more significant changes to the brain.

As the science evolves and awareness grows, youth football participation has been in flux in recent years. According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, participation in tackle football among 6- to 12-year-old boys dropped 20 percent since 2009. Last year, according to the organization’s most recent report, 2,543,000 children ages 6 to 17 played tackle football, a loss of more than 400,000 players since 2011 for that age group. Flag football, meanwhile, has seen growth. There were 1,401,000 participants ages 6 to 17 last year, a slight uptick from five years earlier and an increase of nearly 225,000 from 2014.

In response to health and safety concerns, USA Football is piloting a new version of the game this year that it calls “rookie tackle,” aimed at minimizing the physical toll the sport takes on young players and bridging the gap to the traditional game. The augmented rules limit teams to seven players on the field, eliminate special teams play, shorten the field to just 40 yards and call for players to start from a crouched position rather than a traditional three-point stance. The organization, which is heavily funded by the NFL, is piloting the program this year with about 1,000 children in 10 different organizations and could introduce it to more cities and leagues in the future.

Stern says that childhood involvement in sports is “critical” and has many benefits, but he said there is not necessarily a safe age to introduce children to tackle football.

“Is there a magic age? No,” he said. “Our results suggest that age 12 is a meaningful cutoff, but some people might be slower to develop, so for them age 13 or 14 might be the time where their brain is more developed and less prone to problems.”

 

Concussions, controversy will lead to decline in high school football participation, CU study says

Participation in prep football has likely peaked, professor says

Sept 26, 2017

A new University of Colorado analysis has found that concerns about concussions and other controversies surrounding the National Football League will lead to a further decline in the number of high schoolers playing football.

 

The study, conducted by professor Roger Peilke, the director of CU’s Sports Governance Center, found that the number of high schoolers playing football grew steadily from 1998 to 2009, but has since been in a “notable decline” that is likely to continue.

In the 2008-09 academic year, 1.14 million high school boys played football. In 2016-17, that number had come down to 1.09 million. The percentage of age-eligible high school boys playing football also declined, from 13.2 percent in 2012-2013 to 12.7 percent in 2016-2017

“From 1990 to 2009 it was a steady increase. Football was getting more and more participants and was the king of sports,” Pielke said in a statement. “But in recent years we have seen things shift into reverse, with each year seeing a subsequent decline.”

Pielke said the sport overall remains healthy, but the declining numbers should be a cause for concern for the NCAA and NFL.

Read the full story at dailycamera.com.

 

Citing brain-injury risk, doctors say orthopedic surgeons should not support football

 

Orthopedic surgeons should dissociate themselves from football at all levels of the sport rather than enabling an activity that carries a risk of brain injury, according to an editorial by senior editors of a Philadelphia-based orthopedics journal.

 

No team sponsorships, such as the marketing arrangement that the Rothman Institute and Thomas Jefferson University have with the Eagles. No standing on the sidelines. No performing sports physicals for high school and college players.

The authors of the piece in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research said their conclusion was prompted by a July study of the brains of deceased football players. In the brains of 110 of 111 men who had played in the NFL, researchers identified a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy — CTE — that is associated with memory loss and dementia. For those whose highest level of football was in college, this type of degeneration was apparent in 48 of 53 brains.

Orthopedic surgeons obviously would continue to treat injured football players off the field, said Seth S. Leopold, a professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine and the lead author of the editorial. But engaging in activities that directly support the game is “not consonant with the best values of our profession,” he said.

No one knows how often football players develop CTE, as the telltale buildup of abnormal proteins cannot be detected in those who are still living. Nor can physicians say for sure how often it occurred among those who are already dead, as most families have not donated deceased players’ brains for examination. Those that have done so are typically the ones with concerns about the player’s behavior before death.

And the authors of the editorial acknowledge that brain injury is not their prime area of expertise. Still, the evidence from the July study, led by the CTE Center at Boston University School of Medicine, was enough, Leopold said.

“When we sat down to write this, it wasn’t to convince anybody that we know everything there is to know,” he said. “It was simply to make the point that with what little we know now, we have enough already to be really concerned.”

The NFL and the league’s players’ union did not respond to requests for comment. The Eagles, the Rothman Institute, and Jefferson also declined to comment.

In November, the Eagles announced an eight-year extension of the team’s long-running contract with Jefferson and Rothman, which is partly owned by Jefferson.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but such arrangements are common in many cities, with orthopedics centers paying pro and college teams for the right to advertise that they are team partners.

The Eagles-Jefferson-Rothman deal was described as a “fully integrated partnership” in the announcement. The health care institutions get “a strong branding presence at Lincoln Financial Field, which includes prominent messaging on the stadium’s LED and video boards during Eagles games.”

Rothman and Jefferson also get mentioned on TV and the team’s website, and Eagles practice jerseys feature a Rothman Institute at Jefferson patch.

 

 

Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz throws during practice last week, wearing a jersey bearing the Rothman/Jefferson patch.

The announcement of the deal included this statement of support from Stephen K. Klasko, president and chief executive officer of Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health:

“This has been a championship combination. Jefferson is fortunate to be a leader, along with the Eagles and Rothman Institute, in impacting the health and well-being of the community and caring for everyone from elite athletes to weekend warriors.”

Leopold, editor-in-chief of the journal, said he anticipated it might draw objections on two fronts: first, that players might be worse off if orthopedic surgeons are not standing on the sidelines; and second, that the surgeons have an opportunity to promote safe play if they remain involved in an official capacity.

Regarding the first point, injured players are commonly stabilized and taken to the hospital by trainers and other personnel, not by surgeons, he said. “Nobody’s doing surgery on the football field,” he said.

As for the second, he agreed that it was important to promote research on safe play, but he said there was no evidence that certain kinds of helmets or rules changes would decrease the risk of CTE.

In the meantime, Leopold said, “we’re continuing to run this experiment on human beings.”

 

Laboratory stain of a brain sample from a deceased college football player (bottom) reveals the buildup of abnormal proteins that signal a condition called CTE.

 

Though the odds of a football player’s developing CTE are unknown, Leopold and his five co-authors cited an estimate of the minimum rate in pro football that was calculated by the New York Times. The newspaper divided the 110 cases by the number of all NFL players who died during the same period, roughly 1,300, for a rate of about 8.5 percent.

That method leaves out the unknown percentage of CTE cases among the living, which could be lower or higher.

Still, looking only at players who died is a reasonable way to “ballpark” a low end for the rate of CTE, said Chris Nowinski, a co-author of the study of players’ brains. A formal study would require a detailed analysis of the changes in life expectancy and other causes of death over time, among other factors, he said.

Leopold and his co-authors began their editorial by urging members of their profession to ask themselves whether they should be involved in football, saying that “well-meaning individuals will disagree.” That includes one of the journal’s seven senior editors, who opted not to join in the editorial.

But the six who wrote it said that for them, the answer was clear:

“Typically, physicians do not support the continued exposure of patients to known, severe, avoidable harms while approaches to risk-reduction are evaluated,” they wrote. “Our first responsibility is the health and safety of our patients.”

Beehler, Demons grateful for second chance

Noveember 3, 2017

 

What happened in Bismarck's second football game of the season is not what senior memories are made of.

 

 "You don't like the feeling of walking off the field. ... I don't want to have that empty feeling again," said senior lineman Bennett Beehler, harking back to Bismarck's 41-0 loss at West Fargo.

 

 

 The score was no mirage. The Packers built a 24-7 advantage in first downs and generated 457 yards in total offense to Bismarck's 138.

 

 

 "But you've got to use it as motivation," added Beehler, a 5-foot-10, 245-pound offensive guard. "Now we're going into a big week."

 

 

 Big, indeed. The Demons return to West Fargo tonight for a rematch with the Packers in the semifinal round of the state AAA playoffs. For Beehler and a score of other BHS seniors, their high school football careers hang in the balance. A victory puts them in the state championship game at the Dakota Bowl. If they lose, they turn in their pads at Hughes Field for the last time.

 

 

  Bismarck goes into today's 7 p.m. game as a clear underdog. The Demons, 8-2, were ranked fourth in the final AAA state media poll. Undefeated West Fargo was the unanimous choice as the No. 1 team.

 

 

 For Beehler, tonight's rematch looms as an opportunity to wash the taste of that first encounter with the Packers out of his mouth.

 

 

 "That was one of the first times Bismarck High lost 41-0 and I was a part of the team and contributed to that. I want to prove we're a better football team than that," he said. 

 

 

 Beehler said the Demons didn't show up ready to play that first game, and West Fargo took the field with passion and purpose.

 

 

 "If you don't love the game and aren't passionate about it you're not going to be successful," he noted.

 

 

 This is Beehler's second year with the BHS varsity, but his first complete season. He was the Demons' starting center when a concussion wiped five games out of his junior season. When he returned he found himself at a different position.

 

 

 "I came back and played quick guard in the first round of the playoffs. That's where I'm playing this year, too," Beehler said. 

 

 

 He said the transition wasn't terribly difficult, because he'd played guard as a freshman and sophomore.

 

 

 "There's quite a bit of carryover (from center to guard). You still have some of the basics, but it's a little different when you get into it," he said.

 The first sport Beehler played was hockey. He started hockey as a preschooler and played through his sophomore year. He began playing flag football in the second grade and moved up to contact football in the Youth Football League as a fourth-grader. Then it was up the ladder to the Midget Football League, Wachter Middle School and BHS.

 He was a running back in flag football, but hasn't carried the ball on an offensive play since his he was a seventh-grader.

 "I caught a pass in seventh grade as a tight end, but I didn't get many thrown to me. I was more of a blocking tight end," he recalled.

 Still, he can muse about the possibilities.

 "It's everyone's dream to carry the ball at least once," he said.

 In reality, he must extract pleasure from a job well done in the trenches.

 "There's satisfaction in creating holes for the running backs and watching on film when they break a long run," he said.

 Yet, Beehler said he doesn't need to watch film to know if he's had a good game or not.

 "You kind of know as the game goes on if you're missing blocks or getting a good push or not," he observed. "But when you hear about the rushing yards or rushing touchdowns it's kind of nice. ... "My dad (Brian) will tell me how many yards rushing we had and that's satisfying."

 Tonight, though, the focus won't be on yards. Beehler wants to leave the field knowing there's one more game to be played.

"We've got another chance to redeem ourselves. ... We get another shot at them," he said.

 

Helmet Debate Breaks Out in Girls Lacrosse

Dec 8, 2017

By Ken Reed

Unlike soccer, in which boys and girls — and men and women — play by virtually the same set of rules, lacrosse has traditionally had a different set of rules for males (contact allowed) and females (contact not allowed).

As such, female participants haven’t been required to wear helmets — like they do in the boys/mens game.

However, as concern over head and brain injuries has increased in the girls game, that is changing. Many high schools now strongly encourage, or require, girls lacrosse players to wear headgear.

Bill Pierce, the athletic director for the Corning-Painted Post school district in upstate New York, where the varsity and junior varsity girls’ lacrosse teams last season were required to wear headgear, said it wasn’t hard for him to make the decision.

“We put mouth guards on their teeth and have them wear goggles to protect their eyes,” said Pierce, citing two established equipment requirements in girls’ lacrosse.

“The most valuable commodity they have is their brain, so we were all in when it came to protecting the most important part of their body.”

Girls lacrosse has the fifth-highest rate of concussions in high school sports, following football, ice hockey, boys’ lacrosse and girls’ soccer.

As is the case in football, helmets can’t prevent all concussions. Helmets cover the skull but inside the skull the brain still flops around against the skull (which can lead to a concussion). Until someone invents a helmet for the brain inside of the skull, we will continue to have concussions in sports.

That said, headgear has been shown to lessen head trauma caused by ball-to-head and stick-to-head contact — neither of which is uncommon in girls lacrosse.

Three years ago, Dawn Comstock, an associate professor of epidemiology for the Pediatric Injury Prevention, Education and Research Program at the Colorado School of Public Health, published research that revealed that most concussions in girls’ lacrosse occurred when players were struck by the ball or a stick.

Stephanie Cooper, a former college lacrosse player who is currently Corning-Painted Post High School’s varsity coach, believed prior to this season that going to headgear would irreparably change the game and make it too much like the male version of the sport.

“I now see the benefits,” Cooper said, adding that her team incurred no head injuries last season. “If the rules are enforced, it doesn’t change the style of play or increase the physicality of the game.”

 

 

St. Mary's Student Makes a Comeback after Serious Head Injury

 

April 20, 2018

About a year ago, a St. Mary's high school student and promising athlete was told he would likely never play sports again.

Now he's making a comeback. This time on the track. 

Braden Benz was beginning his sophomore year when he suffered a concussion playing the sport he loves most.

He says, "There were about 20 minutes left in the game and the ball hit me in the left side of my head, and my head flew into the right side of another person's head. I kept playing for 20 more minutes because we had no subs. I figured 'I can do this, it's not going to be that big of a deal', but I knew something was off. I knew with headaches and migraines and [I was] completely dizzy. Something was definitely wrong."

The official diagnosis was TBI, a Traumatic Brain Injury.

Braden's mother Jami Benz says, "There is a stigma sometimes attached with that. People are like, what is this, or how does he look? Is he going to act different? He's himself, he's 100 percent himself."

What they found is the injury affected Braden's vestibular system, which tells the brain where your body is in space.

His chiropractor Dr. Jeremy Schmoe explains, "Your vestibular system comes from a peripheral mechanism in your ear and it fires into your brain stem and into your brain, into your cortex to let you know where your head and neck is."

The injury made playing sports a distant possibility.

Dr. Schmoe says, "He couldn't run before because his vision was all over the place."

But Braden wouldn't let it stop him.

He adds, "It was still hard but we kept going back to Dr. Schmoe every 4 weeks and did weak intensives here and there."

And now he's back in uniform, on the track.

Jami says, "It was a lot of work, a lot of hard effort put by him and myself and our whole family, but when you're an athlete that's what you do, right?"

Braden is just as optimistic, leading his teammates across the field.

He says, "I'm just hoping that with running and track, and all those kind of sporting events and physical activity, it's just going to keep getting better and better, and I'm going to continue to keep healing."

And his mom won't rest until he's better.

Jami and Braden have dedicated the time they are not in work or school to educating others about TBI, and assuring them there is hope for a future.

Concussion PSA compares youth football dangers to smoking

 

by: JIMMY GOLEN, Associated Press

Posted: / Updated:Oct 10. 2019

BOSTON (AP) — Everybody seems to be having fun when the kids in a new public service announcement are just playing football, until one boy is thrown to the ground and the background music turns ominous.

Then, the coach starts handing out cigarettes.

“Tackle football is like smoking,” a youthful voice-over says as a smiling, motherly type lights a cigarette for one of the pre-teen players. “The younger I start, the longer I’m exposed to danger.”

“Tackle Can Wait ” is part of a campaign by the Concussion Legacy Foundation to steer children under 14 years old into flag football and away from the contact version of the sport. The organization says children who start playing tackle football at the age of 5 have 10 times the risk of developing the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy compared to those who wait until they are 14.

“Tackle football is really a man’s game, and it’s incredibly dangerous to the developing brain,” CLF co-founder Chris Nowinski says in a video accompanying the ad .

“We now have the data that show that playing youth tackle football and developing CTE is correlated in a very similar way to smoking, and developing lung cancer,” Nowinski said. “We’re trying to help parents visualize that those two things are equally bad: Letting your kid smoke and letting your kid play tackle football are both bad ideas.”

Some states, including California, New York and Illinois, have discussed banning tackle football for children under 12. Until then, the PSA hopes to let parents know about the risks.

According to the foundation, the ad released Thursday cost $126,095 to produce. Many of the services were donated by those who have been affected by CTE, the degenerative brain disease that has been connected to repetitive blows to the head in contact sports like football and boxing.

The spot’s creator is Angela Campigotto-Harrison, whose father, Joe Campigotto, played college football and developed stage 4 CTE even though he was never diagnosed with a concussion. Director Rebecca Carpenter, whose father played 10 years in the NFL and spent three more decades as a coach , worked for scale; Lew Carpenter was also diagnosed with advanced CTE.

Look closely, and you may notice that the referee in the PSA is former San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland, who retired from the NFL at the age of 24 after one season — and two diagnosed concussions.

“Waiting to play until later is better for the health of young athletes and obviously better for their brains,” Borland said in a separate video . “We don’t need to use young kids as guinea pigs. We can retool the game where they can still glean the benefits, enjoy themselves, get exercise and delay tackle football until junior high or high school.”

The PSA, which will be released for TV, digital and social media, carries a note that the smoking shown on screen is simulated.

The behind the scenes video notes that the football was also safe.

“During filming, no players were allowed to tackle,” the disclaimer says. “A stunt coordinator oversaw the production as two certified teenage stunt actors simulated tackling.”

 

Homegrown with Hope: Safety measures for sports

Oct 2, 2019

 

BISMARCK, N.D. - Fewer Bismarck Youth Football League (BYFL) teams are squaring off on the field this fall. As youth participation numbers are dwindling across team sports, fears over the safety of the players are especially impacting football leagues.

KFYR-TV employees Max Grossfeld, Ryan Farrell and Anthony Humes invited us out to a game for the BYFL team they're coaching to weigh the risks in this Homegrown with Hope.

They say it's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game that really matters. That's one reason parents cheering on the sidelines of a Bismarck Youth Football League game signed their kids up for a season, despite fears their children could be injured. How kids are playing the game of football has been shifting in recent years as more is learned about head injuries and the risk of concussions.

"I watch all the precautions they put into it with helmets and everything," Carla Arndt, whose sons play football, said. "They also do the 'heads up' technique."

Coaches with the league say this is not the reckless contact sport you might have played as a kid.

"When I was a kid, it was like lead with your head, stick your head in there, put your head in there. We don't do that anymore. We're very conscious of head injuries," said Bill Prokopyk, head coach with BYFL.

Researchers in some parts of the country are recording higher rates of football-related concussions among young players. In the Seattle area, 5 percent of five to 14-year-olds were diagnosed with one last season. It's part of a growing effort for coaches and trainers to better diagnose those injuries and prevent them. In Bismarck, the league is working to address the issue on every level.

"We pay close attention to that," said Prokopyk. "We certify our helmets by sending them off to manufacturers. We're constantly checking our inventory and we talk a lot about it."

With athletic trainers on-hand to constantly assess players, they say they're not going to let a player back on the field if there is even a slight concern for head injury.

"There are good ways to tackle and there are poor ways to tackle," Nadine Brew, Athletic Trainer with Sanford Health, said. "I think they're doing a good job trying to make it as safe as they possibly can."

Parents on the sidelines so those measures put their minds at ease. That's a win for the players with a love for playing the game.

"They could get just as much injured, if not more, jumping on the trampoline in the backyard," Arndt said.

Despite the safety measures, coaches say concern for injuries has reduced participation numbers so much so that they have two fewer teams playing in the league this year.

Many student athletes face risk of concussions that heal slowly

Recovery appears longer for girls and any high school athlete with a previous concussion

Nov 2, 2020

 

A blow to your head from a fall or collision with a sports teammate can really jolt your brain. This can cause a type of injury known as a concussion. A wide range of high school athletes may be at risk for this. And following such an injury, those athletes may need a month or more to recover, a new study finds.

Scientists and doctors had once thought kids recovered faster from concussions than do adults. Indeed, young athletes with concussions often returned to sports right away, sometimes on the same day.

But new studies are showing that kids do not heal quickly. The latest study looked at just how long that recovery can take.

Toufic Jildeh led the research. An orthopedic surgeon, he works at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Mich. “On average, high-school athletes with concussion take about one month to return to play,” his team found. “And additional rest is needed after additional concussions.”

What’s more, girls seem to face a special risk. Their recoveries take longer.

Jildeh and his team reported their findings July 1 in Orthopedics.

The most common sport responsible for concussions was football. Next in line were hockey, soccer, basketball and cheerleading. In fact, the study found, nearly any sport can put an athlete at risk of a concussion.

Repeated blows to the head

Jildeh’s team reviewed medical records for 357 high-school athletes between the ages of 14 and 18. All had been treated for a concussion. And about one in every three of them had been concussed before.

Each student went through a battery of medical tests. These evaluated memory, motor speed and reaction time. Such tests had help doctors assess whether someone is ready to play again.

The really concerning finding, Jildeh says, was that athletes with a previous head injury take longer to recover. To him, this “suggests that prior concussions may have lingering effects.”

That finding is striking, says Kathryn Manning. She is a brain-imaging expert at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada and wasn’t involved in the study. More long-term research is needed to understand the harm of single and multiple concussions, she says. “What we don’t know,” she explains, “is 20 years down the road, after these athletes have retired from their sport, are they completely normal? Or are there long-term effects?”

Among study participants, 38 percent were girls. And they reported taking longer to recover, the study found. Those results are in line with previous studies showing that men and women respond differently to these head injuries.

Elizabeth Teel is an exercise scientist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Researchers don’t know why girls and women appear to take longer to heal, she says. “There’s not a firm answer,” she points out. Indeed, caution the researchers, it’s possible that both sexes take equally long to heal, but that boys simply may stop reporting symptoms earlier in their recovery.

Still, a few studies have found that the brains of male and female athletes can differ in their response to injury. For example, female athletes show more widespread brain damage after concussions than do male athletes. That, too, might explain why girls need more time to recover.

Are teens different?

The new study’s focus on high-school athletes was unusual, both Manning and Teel say. A lot of concussion research looks only at adults. But the older brain may react to head injuries differently than do the brains of children. “Even at the high-school age, children are not small adults,” Teel notes. “We need more tools to help diagnose kids with concussion and also to help return them to play.”

So, what’s the take-home message if you play sports?

First, know the symptoms of a concussion. This injury can cause you to black out or feel confused. You might develop a headache, dizziness, nausea or vomiting. If you experience any of these symptoms, report them to your coach, athletic trainer or parents. And do it right away.

Then listen to your doctors. They will carefully assess when you can safely return to sports. Don’t go back until you’ve gotten their okay. Your brain will heal in its own time. So don’t rush it. Your brain will thank you.

Citations

Journal: T.R. Jildeh et al. Return to sport following adolescent concussion: epidemiologic findings from a high school population. Orthopedics. Vol. 43, July 1, 2020, e306. doi: 10.3928/01477447-20200521-03.

 

Former Vikings great Matt Blair dies at age 70, likely linked to CTE

Oct 22, 2020

Ring of Honor linebacker Matt Blair was 70 and had spent an extended period in hospice.

 

Matt Blair, one of the greatest linebackers in Vikings history, died Thursday of what's believed to be complications from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the neurodegenerative disease linked to football and considered to be the signature menace in the NFL's concussion claims in recent years.

He was 70 and had been in hospice care for an extended period of time.

quotHe'd been suffering for a while, so I guess maybe it's a blessing in disguise,quot said former teammate Scott Studwell, the only person in Vikings history with more tackles than the 1,452 Blair had from 1974-85. quotBut it's still too young. It's a sad day.quot

In February 2015, a still-chiseled 64-year-old Blair broke down in tears during a Star Tribune interview. A local neurologist had just given Blair and his wife, Mary Beth, the bad news that his early signs of dementia were likely the results of CTE — which can't be diagnosed until after death — and were about to accelerate. Blair is believed to have had Alzheimer's disease at the end.

The look in Blair's eyes that day in 2015 was chilling.

quotWell,quot he said, quotit's coming. It's going deeper for me.quot

Like too many football wives, Mary Beth knew her assignment that day was to become the strong one.

quotI realize I can't get emotional because two of us emotional together would be a mess,quot she said. quotI could see Matt's eyes welling up with tears. I'm thinking, 'Breathe, breathe' because inside I want to cry, too.quot

In the fall of 2015, Blair's former teammate, roommate, fellow linebacker and lifelong friend Fred McNeill died from ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, another neurodegenerative disease linked to CTE. He was 63.

Forty-one years earlier, the Vikings drafted McNeill out of UCLA in the first round and Blair out of Iowa State in the second round. They both played for the Vikings for 12 seasons. Blair became a six-time Pro Bowler and Associated Press first-team All-Pro in 1980.

quotMatt was always so big and strong,quot said former teammate and Vikings legendary ironman Jim Marshall. quotIt's a shame he had to lose everything that he had. That's the curse of playing football. You look at how many guys we've lost this way.quot

The man McNeill replaced at the Vikings' right-side linebacker was Wally Hilgenberg. He died from ALS in 2008. He was 66. Safety Orlando Thomas, who played from 1995-2001, also died of ALS in 2014. He was 42. And Hall of Fame center Mick Tingelhoff has been battling serious cognitive health problems since before his enshrinement in Canton in 2015.

Blair was born Sept. 20, 1950 in Hilo, Hawaii. Among his loves were football and photography, the latter of which he turned into a second career as a noted photographer in the Twin Cities.

He was All-America in 1973 and became an Iowa State Hall of Famer in 1999. In 2012, the Vikings placed him in their Ring of Honor.

Including playoffs and two Super Bowls, Blair played 173 games (139 starts). Only Studwell and Roy Winston played more games at linebacker in Vikings history.

quotMatt embodied the best of what it means to be a Viking,quot said Vikings owner and president Mark Wilf, via the team's website. quotHe is a Ring of Honor player whose legacy will live on forever with the franchise and in the community he loved.quot

Blair finished his career with 16 interceptions and 20 fumble recoveries, but it was his uncanny ability to block punts, PATs and field goals that many people remember most about his career.

He had 20 of them. Yes, 20, said Greg Coleman, former Vikings punter and the longtime friend of Blair's.

quotHe was 6-5, which was unusual at the time, and he was what Bud [Grant] would call a leaper,quot Coleman said. quotBud would have the big hogs up front to root the offensive line back. And then Matt was one of the most dominant kick-blocking linebackers ever.quot

It was Coleman who got the word Thursday from Mary Beth that Blair had died. He relayed the information via text to more than 20 or so former teammates and friends.

quotAs a person, he was a hell of a man,quot Coleman said. quotHe probably had as big a heart as anybody on that team. Always laughing that big, gregarious laugh of his.

quotBut he also took his responsibility as a leader and a captain seriously. He always led by example, but he also wasn't afraid to tell a guy, 'Hey, that's not how we do it around here. This is how we do things.' He was a great man who was not hard to follow.quot

 

New concussion headset shows when it's likely safe to return to play -- ScienceDaily

 

'New Concussion Headset Shows When it’s Safe to Return to Play | UC San Francisco (bing.com)

 

Concussions loosen insulation around brain cells: Condition detected two weeks after concussion, when players said they felt ok -- ScienceDaily

 

 

 

Study: Lasting Evidence of Brain Injuries Present in College Football Players – OH – Orlando Health (multimedia-newsroom.com)