Athletic Department Partners with the Concussion Legacy Institute to Reform Football Concussion Protocols
High school football is known for teamwork, friendly rivalries, and the excitement of games. Unfortunately, the epidemic of concussions in the sport interferes with these ideals. Recognizing this reality, the Riverdale Athletic Department partnered with the Concussion Legacy Institute on an initiative to reduce concussions on the Riverdale football team. This organization has been a leader in preventing chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the disease most football players develop after multiple concussions. CTE is a condition in which the buildup of specific protein destroys brain cells, can lead to memory loss, impaired judgement, and early-onset dementia.
The amount of head trauma football players experience is shocking: the average lineman on a high-school football team takes 1,000 40 g-force hits to the head per season during practices and games. This trauma is problematic for the long-term well-being of students. Upper School Science teacher Dr. Monica Murakami, who teaches Riverdale’s neuroscience elective, believes that mitigating concussions is pertinent as “a student could miss two to three weeks of school with a really bad concussion and multiple concussions can even slow down hand-eye coordination.”
The need for changes to prevent concussions on the football team was clear. Athletic Director Mr. John Pizzi describes how “in 2018, our football team had a ton of injuries and several concussions, and I realized that football could not be sustainable at Riverdale if concussions continued to occur at this rate.” 18 players could not play the last game of the season due to injuries, prompting the Athletic Department to cancel the game as they did not think it would be safe to put inexperienced players in as starters.
Afterwards, Mr. Pizzi connected with leader of the Concussion Legacy Foundation Chris Nowinski to ensure that the football team would not experience a year like the 2018 season again. They thoroughly researched rule changes and concluded that they wanted to reduce the number of contacts per week and the number of tough plays. To achieve this goal, the Athletic Department first got rid of kickoffs this season, which despite representing only 6% of plays, lead to 28% of the concussions in college football. Another primary contributor to concussions is live practice, which involves the team preparing with full speed and full-strength tackles instead of just running drills. Trying to balance the need for this type of practice with the risks they pose, the Athletic Department limited the amount of live practice time per week to just 15 minutes.
Additionally, Riverdale has eliminated the onside kick, which is when the team with the football kicks the ball a short distance to try to recover it instead of kicking it to the other end of the field. This prompts players to run toward the ball at full speed, making a clash—and concussion— more likely. As Mr. Pizzi explains about the NFL, “Ten guys run at each other to get the ball, which is very dangerous at the high school level.” The Athletic Department wants fewer tackles, and, therefore, fewer injuries.
Though players miss the thrill of contact plays, they generally understand the need to have less live practice time before games, and students’ reactions to the new protocols have been understanding. Sophomore Theo Aborn, a member of the boys’ varsity football team, reflects that though kickoffs are iconic, he understands that “the amount of injuries caused by kickoffs are extremely high, so [he] completely support[s] sacrificing this part of the game for player safety.” Aborn adds that the coaches have ensured that “when we do hitting drills, we are going over important skills, so I do not think that our performance on the field has suffered by not doing [as many live practice] drills.” This type of positive community response is reflected by the increase of students playing football at Riverdale. The number of players on the high school football team increased from 32 last season to 47 this year. Mr. Pizzi believes that this increase can be attributed, in part, to parents appreciating the new protocols the Athletic Department has implemented to reduce severe injuries and concussions.
