[ad_1]
NEW YORK – The NFL is tackling team-by-team concussion.
Dr. Allen Sills, NFL Medical Officer, told the League meeting that, in 2017, seven teams had more pre-season concussion than the others and "have made a targeted intervention with these teams." Sills said that this process involved many discussions with the staff of the teams' football operations, which included the design of the training exercises and the helmets worn by the players.
"In six of those seven clubs, the numbers have gone down," said Sills. "These seven clubs had 23 concussions in 2017 and nine in 2018."
Overall, said the league, pre-season concussions had gone from 91 in 2017 to 79 this year, and no goal was recorded in coup de post . The NFL has changed its kickoff rules this year to make the game safer, as it traditionally has a significantly higher concussion rate than other games.
"We are cautiously optimistic about this result," Sills said of the number of pre-season concussions. "We are delighted to see this number decrease, but we still have a lot of work to do, and we are continuing a more in-depth analysis of the concussions that occurred during the pre-season, and during the regular season I watched video and saw what was the environment of the practice – see who was hurt in what role. We will dive deeper into this. "
Sills and Jeff Miller, NFL vice president of player health and safety, said the league was also pleased with the results of its helmet evaluation system and was seeing more and more helmets change for the safest helmets. The league distributed a pamphlet in the helmets of the preparatory ranking on a scale from green to red, jointly developed with the NFLPA, with green being good and red being bad.
Helmets that belong to the red category are banned from this year for new players and next year for players who were already part of the league, which gives them a year "grandfather" to find a helmet that works for them and stays in the approved category. .
Miller said the number of players wearing a red helmet had gone from 230 last year to 40 as early as the third week of the season.
Despite the increased focus on player safety, the NFL's chief of football operations, Troy Vincent, said he did not want players to worry about being notified or receiving a fine.
On Sunday night, Kansas City Chiefs 'linebacker Breeland Speaks said he had not eliminated Tom Brady, fearing a goalless penalty in the fourth quarter of Kansas' 43-40 loss. City in New England. Brady escaped Speaks and ran 4 yards for a touchdown to give the Patriots ahead.
"You have to play," said Vincent at the fall meetings. "You hope that no player will think of a rule." We want him to play [with a] free spirit where you are just free and you play. & # 39; & # 39;
The NFL has highlighted this season that officials should penalize defensemen for landing on quarterbacks with all or part of their weight.
NFL officials have issued 53 penalty flags for handling the smuggler during the first six weeks of the season, up from 38 in 2017 and 32 in 2016 for the same period of play.
Overall, the number of calls for rough passers has been declining since the competition committee clarified to the game officials the techniques used in these hits during a conference call last month. There were 34 difficult calls in the first three weeks and 19 in the three weeks following the conference call.
Vincent said the league did not advise officials to reduce the number of calls but they made sure the match was clear.
"If you do not see the full game, do not call it that," Vincent said. "It was a directive from the Competition Committee, it was always the focus but after the [conference] call and after watching the video, the committee and our coaches [said]: 'If you do not see the full game, we ask you to leave the penalty in your pocket. & # 39; "
Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source link
