Rugby & CTE

[cr8zyncalif]

Hi, folks. Bloomberg's morning email blast had a small article regarding some changing Rugby rules due to CTE concerns. I thought it was interesting and figured some of you might find it to be of interest. Obviously there are a lot of parallels in American football. Head injuries are changing the game​

The Rugby World Cup in France is drawing record crowds. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a ticket, so I recently headed down to East London Rugby Club to watch a match instead. There, in the less-vaulted playing fields near the West Ham tube station, players are grappling with new rules designed to help the sport deal with its greatest existential threat: head injuries. A key part of rugby is the tackle. But new laws introduced by the game’s governing body in England stand to fundamentally change how a tackle is done. The rules came into force in England this year for amateur players, and are in the process of rolling out to community leagues around the world. They aim to reduce head contact by forcing players to crouch lower and make contact with each other below the sternum. The idea is that the new rules will reduce the risk of people suffering injuries to the brain. Not everyone is convinced these new laws will really do anything to lessen the risks of head injuries, though. “The head will just contact somewhere else, it will be the tackler’s head hitting the knee or hitting the hip,” East London Rugby Club Chairman Simon Crick told me at the team’s clubhouse bar. It’s just not possible to totally remove the risk of hitting one’s head in a game like rugby, he said. The new rules don’t (yet) apply to professional matches. But head injuries and knocks suffered by players have been a major talking point of the World Cup. In a sport where ferocity and brutality are a selling point, contact is hard to avoid. Of particular concern are the links between playing the sport and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, which was initially referred to as punch drunk syndrome for the boxers who often suffered from it. CTE is a neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated head injuries. Its symptoms — including dementia, memory loss and impulse control issues — can be severe and worsen over time. Finding a solution to concerns about the neurological health of rugby players will be crucial to rugby’s future. In 2020, a group of ex-professional rugby players sued some of the game’s governing bodies, seeking compensation for neurological injuries including early-onset dementia. In August, the NFL reached a $765 million settlement with thousands of former players, who had accused the league of negligence and of failing to warn of the long-term risks of head injury. “There is not going to be one piece of research that comes out that absolutely nails this link between repetitive head injuries and long-term damage because there are so many factors,” said Bill Ribbans, a professor of sports medicine and part of Progressive Rugby, a player welfare lobby. “But the research now is so strong that there is this link. I suppose that we feel that you should err on the side of caution.” — Lucca De Paoli

 

[L.S. Dietz]

I played high school football (TE) and then as a foreign exchange student to South Africa played rugby for that high school. Then played for WSU. One of the highlights of my school career.
I was taught to never tackle with the head and neck as you can do in football; always tackle with the shoulder and grip around the legs. Never had an injury. My brother played OG for the University of Puget Sound (who would be given a Coug jersey when we ventured west of the Cascades and were short players) suffered a consussion against Oregon.

 

[BSpike76]

I played high school football (TE) and then as a foreign exchange student to South Africa played rugby for that high school. Then played for WSU. One of the highlights of my school career.
I was taught to never tackle with the head and neck as you can do in football; always tackle with the shoulder and grip around the legs. Never had an injury. My brother played OG for the University of Puget Sound (who would be given a Coug jersey when we ventured west of the Cascades and were short players) suffered a consussion against Oregon.

I would get stingers every once in a while using the shoulder to legs. I only got my bell rung when I led with my helmet blocking at the knees, which was legal then. I did blow out one guys knee doing that.

 

[Suudy]

I would get stingers every once in a while using the shoulder to legs. I only got my bell rung when I led with my helmet blocking at the knees, which was legal then. I did blow out one guys knee doing that.

I played in the late 80's to early 90's, ad we used the Oklahoma drill weekly, usually on Tues practice. I got my bell rung at least 5-6 times a year doing that drill. And if you didn't, you weren't hitting hard enough. That was the mantra from the coaches and upperclassmen, and by the time I was a junior/senior, I was pushing on the younger kids. I remember one as a senior when myself and my opposite side guard (we were always paired), hit so hard we both wobbled and fell on our asses. My opponent, then rolled over and puked. Our head coach yelled out, "Now that's a hit! That's how you do it! That's damn tough right there!" We both had to be helped up, and we moved on like nothing happened. I'm now certain Darren had a concussion after that, I may have as well. But nobody seemed to know or care.

I get the CTE thing wasn't well understood and coaches didn't worry about back then. Frankly, I get the concern. And I am angry when the evidence was clear that concussions were an issue that it continued to be ignored. But I am also not so naive to think we can make football, rugby, or any other contact sport concussion free. The more you play, the more likely you are to have low-grade head trauma that never rises to more than just a stinger. And the more serious you are about playing, the higher your threshold for pain and discomfort and refusal to sit out. For college and pro players, I think you can continually monitor and provide information, but I think we allow them to choose how they want to proceed. Informed consent. They are adults, let them choose. Be honest and give all the information, and leave the decision in their hands.

 

[BSpike76]

I played in the late 80's to early 90's, ad we used the Oklahoma drill weekly, usually on Tues practice. I got my bell rung at least 5-6 times a year doing that drill. And if you didn't, you weren't hitting hard enough. That was the mantra from the coaches and upperclassmen, and by the time I was a junior/senior, I was pushing on the younger kids. I remember one as a senior when myself and my opposite side guard (we were always paired), hit so hard we both wobbled and fell on our asses. My opponent, then rolled over and puked. Our head coach yelled out, "Now that's a hit! That's how you do it! That's damn tough right there!" We both had to be helped up, and we moved on like nothing happened. I'm now certain Darren had a concussion after that, I may have as well. But nobody seemed to know or care.

I get the CTE thing wasn't well understood and coaches didn't worry about back then. Frankly, I get the concern. And I am angry when the evidence was clear that concussions were an issue that it continued to be ignored. But I am also not so naive to think we can make football, rugby, or any other contact sport concussion free. The more you play, the more likely you are to have low-grade head trauma that never rises to more than just a stinger. And the more serious you are about playing, the higher your threshold for pain and discomfort and refusal to sit out. For college and pro players, I think you can continually monitor and provide information, but I don't think we allow them to choose how they want to proceed. Informed consent. They are adults, let them choose. Be honest and give all the information, and leave the decision in their hands.

Add soccer to that list. Simultaneous headers will ring some bells. A Sounder has been having problems all year. Keeps getting elbows to the back of his head.

 

[CougPatrol]

Oh no!! Getting out and doing things poses greater physical risks than sitting on your ass all day playing video games.

We need to ban all sports immediately.

 

[BSpike76]

Hell, at 72 I can hurt myself just heading down the basement for my morning exercises. Doesn’t mean I have to stop, just accept the risk.

 

[cr8zyncalif]

I played in the late 80's to early 90's, ad we used the Oklahoma drill weekly, usually on Tues practice. I got my bell rung at least 5-6 times a year doing that drill. And if you didn't, you weren't hitting hard enough. That was the mantra from the coaches and upperclassmen, and by the time I was a junior/senior, I was pushing on the younger kids. I remember one as a senior when myself and my opposite side guard (we were always paired), hit so hard we both wobbled and fell on our asses. My opponent, then rolled over and puked. Our head coach yelled out, "Now that's a hit! That's how you do it! That's damn tough right there!" We both had to be helped up, and we moved on like nothing happened. I'm now certain Darren had a concussion after that, I may have as well. But nobody seemed to know or care.

I get the CTE thing wasn't well understood and coaches didn't worry about back then. Frankly, I get the concern. And I am angry when the evidence was clear that concussions were an issue that it continued to be ignored. But I am also not so naive to think we can make football, rugby, or any other contact sport concussion free. The more you play, the more likely you are to have low-grade head trauma that never rises to more than just a stinger. And the more serious you are about playing, the higher your threshold for pain and discomfort and refusal to sit out. For college and pro players, I think you can continually monitor and provide information, but I think we allow them to choose how they want to proceed. Informed consent. They are adults, let them choose. Be honest and give all the information, and leave the decision in their hands.

It is not hard to see the day when the pro teams will be required to run everyone who was in a head collision on Sunday through some sort of imaging machine on Monday, with a baseline from before the season (and previous seasons, if it is a veteran) and regular comparisons to the baseline. If that goes well, I could see FCS and FBS doing the same, at least at beginning and end of each season. We monitor a lot of other stuff. This would seem to be a likely candidate.