International Federation of American Football

As youth football leagues get ready to kick off another season of America’s favorite sport, many lawmakers are lining up behind the players and their parents to help make the game safer.

As of April 23, 2013, 47 states and Washington, D.C., have passed laws protecting student-athletes from returning to play too soon after suffering the effects of a concussion. 

Through education and proper medical treatment, the goal is to better understand and recognize concussion and its symptoms in order to help athletes return safely to competition.

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The USA Football Film Room has expanded to include new Heads Up Tackle videos designed to help coaches build confidence in their players while teaching the sport’s fundamentals and introducing them to contact.

The videos, available to USA Football coach members and included in the Level 1 Coaching Certification Course and Coach Recertification Course, were produced with assistance from the American Football Coaches Association and the NFL.

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As more is understood about concussion and its effects, it is important to learn how to recognize symptoms and respond correctly.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a new resource for parents, coaches and school and sport professionals – titled Get a Heads Up on Concussion in Sports Policies (download PDF below) – designed to help safely return concussed student-athletes to the classroom and playing field.

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In recognition of Brain Injury Awareness Month, USA Football co-hosted a live Twitter chat with the NFL, CDC and National PTA on March 25.

The discussion ranged from how to spot a concussion to when it’s OK to return to play and school to ways to keep kids safer on and off the field.

Drs. Stanley Herring, Elizabeth Pieroth and Gerard Gioia along with USA Football’s director of football development, Nick Inzerello, were on hand to answer questions.

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The NFL's goal in making helmets where a runner or defender leads with the crown of his head illegal is a good step forward towards increasing on-field player safety. But I'm willing to bet it comes at the cost of significant controversy when enforcing the rule.

There are plenty of reasons to like the rule but the primary one is it makes tackling more fundamentally sound, limits nasty head-first collisions and takes the head out of the game.

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As more is learned about concussion and its effects, high schools and youth leagues across the United States are adopting return-to-play policies to safely get athletes back on the playing field.

But what about the classroom?

Student-athletes who suffer a concussion need care – and patience – from the academic world as well, said Dr. Gerry Gioia, the chief of pediatric neuropsychology at the Children’s National Medical Center and director of its Safe Concussion Outcome Recovery and Education Program.

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Developing fundamentals and learning proper mechanics dramatically reduces the chances for injury, according to a pair of medical experts who work with NFL and college football players.

These are critical ingredients for a better, safer sports experience and too often overlooked in current news stories that discuss football injuries, including concussion, said Dr. Patrick Kersey of Indianapolis-based St. Vincent Sports Medicine and Dr. Kevin Guskiewicz of the University of North Carolina Concussion Research Center.

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NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday that concussions aren’t just a football issue but something on which every sport should concentrate.

“In recent years, there has been a sharper focus on concussions in football and other sports,” Goodell said during his speech at the University of North Carolina. “Let me make a point here. Concussions are a global issue, not just a football issue.”

Goodell’s speech, titled “Progress to the Road to a Safer Game,” was part of the Department of Exercise and Sport Science’s annual Carl Blyth Lecture.

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Former Atlanta Falcons linebacker and veteran youth football coach Buddy Curry has become a master trainer of USA Football's Heads Up technique.

Curry is one of 21 former NFL and college players, as well as high school coaches, who went through the training in Indianapolis March 2-3. The master trainers will teach other youth football coaches across the country to promote safer play.  

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Class is in session in the new school of football. The focus is on teaching kids a safer way to tackle, easing the fears of parents alarmed enough about concussions to ask whether their sons should play at all and ensuring a now-thriving game has a future.

The faculty began taking shape here over the weekend. It includes Chuck Kyle, who in 30 seasons as coach at St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland has won 11 Ohio state titles and twice been named USA TODAY’s National High School Coach of the Year.

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