HJAR Jul/Aug 2023

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS I  JUL / AUG 2023 13 fact, or are we just speeding up the return to play for the sake of the game or team faster than we would an ordinary person who is injured with a concussion? There is no reason an athlete’s brain would recover more quickly than a non- athlete. However, athletes have daily access to medical professionals, while non-ath- letes have weekly access at best, so ath- letes recovering more quickly is likely due to access and incentives to recover quickly. Repetitive head impacts (RHIs), which research is now showing are the cause of CTE, result in irrevers- ible neuro nerve damage due to brain stretching from subconcussive hits. Yet, they seem to be an intrinsic part of the game. It seems obvious when you look at it — why would you need a helmet if there wasn’t a danger of hitting your head? Yet, there seems to be a lot of talk about “concussions” but not RHIs. Why do you think that is? Concussions are a problem that appears solvable. CTE cannot be completely solved in collision sports, only minimized. CTE is also more disruptive to a person’s life, so it could cause greater financial liability. Many sports are not yet willing to confront CTE. Is the way that college, high school, and youth leagues practice and play tackle football today eliminat- ing RHIs to a safe extent for players’ long-term neuro health? CTE risk is a function of the number and strength of hits to the head. While the NFL has made significant reductions in reduc- ing RHIs, other levels of football are not as committed. With players bigger, stronger, and faster, I don’t anticipate a reduction of CTE risk with current reforms. The NFL is the only league in Amer- ica where the players are all of the age of consent and the most well informed about the short- and long-term effects of the game on their brains. The players of the NFL have forced the league to limit hel- meted full-contact practices to once a week … why hasn’t this been done at the amateur levels? The NFL is the only American football organization that has admitted that foot- ball causes CTE, and that inevitably inspires efforts to reduce CTE risk. The NCAA, state high school athletic organizations, and youth football still deny CTE is caused by football, so they are not taking steps to pre- vent it. I recently read an article where a neuropathologist stated that allow- ing children to play tackle football, knowing what we know today, is paramount to child abuse. He basi- cally said that if what is happening to our children on a football field was happening outside those hallowed “football” areas, and if those same adults encouraged the children to hit each other over and over again while the adults yelled at them to get back up and continue to hit again for an hour or more — Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, half day Thursday — for 10 weeks, that adult could be brought up on child abuse charges. And the parents who told their kid to continue going, to do what the adult says — even if it hurts — could be charged with negligence. An attor- ney familiar with CTE was asked whether tackle football in children could be considered child abuse, and he said, “Yes, it is the equivalent of shaking a baby.” When I reached out to the press department of this state’s Department of Health and Human Services, the state agency that investigates child abuse, with a similar question, I was told they would not answer a “hypothetical.” Now, I know we, as a society, would not knowingly sanction mass child abuse. But knowing what we know today about the impact of playing tackle football on growing brains, in your expert opinion, are we doing exactly that? Chris Nowinski, defensive tackle for Harvard University Crimson, on the field as #58.