The number of concussions registered by the National Football League has fallen 11.3 percent this season, compared with last season’s record high, as more players reported suspected head injuries and medical spotters at games pulled more athletes aside for examination.
On a conference call with reporters, a panel of medical experts who work with the league said they were heartened by the declines, but they acknowledged that more work was needed to reduce further the number of concussions.
“I was encouraged that the numbers are down, but I’m still far from satisfied,” Dr. Mitchel S. Berger, a member of the NFL’s head, neck and spine committee, told the New York Times. “As a health care provider, I think one of our absolute highest priorities is to get these numbers further down.”
Acknowledging that the league has for years tried to reduce concussions by introducing an array of measures, NYT’s football commentator Ken Belson writes: “Yet in the five years since statistics on concussions have been published, the decline has been more modest, 6.5 percent, to 244 concussions this season, from 261 in 2012.”
This story first appeared in the blog, The Sport Intern. The editor is Karl-Heinz Huba of Lorsch, Germany. He can be reached at ISMG@aol.com. The article is reprinted here with permission of Huba.