Larry Brown Sports

NFL concussion Guidelines missing crucial element
summary of concussion policy in the NFL

Date Released: 08/22/2007
New Concussion Guidelines are Missing Crucial Element Posted by Jim Dubenetzky under Off The Field News

You really have to question the new concussion guidelines in the NFL. The guidelines improve what happens after a player suffers a concussion but it does NOTHING to prevent concussions. Concussions are not completely preventable but there is something the NFL could institute that would reduce the likelihood of a player sustaining a concussion.

Dr. Gerald Maher of Mahercor Laboratiories is a team dentist with the New England Patriots and has developed a medical device that is similar to a mouth-piece that reduces a player’s susceptibility to concussions. Mark Picot, Executive Vice President of Mahercor Laboratories compared the device to a seat belt; it reduces the likelihood of being seriously injured. Most concussions are sustained from blows to the jaw and this device stabilizes the jaw thus reducing the chances of a player suffering a concussion but the Patriot players are the only ones in the league wearing them. Ted Johnson has so much faith in the device that after retired he brought his two nephews to get fitted for the mouthguard. The most impressive stat is that no NFL player wearing The Maher Mouth Guard has ever succumbed to a concussion from a blow to the jaw.

Dr. Maher has contacted the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell about his findings regarding concussions and the reasoning behind his device but his words have fallen upon deaf ears at the NFL. The NFL conducts its concussion research with antiquated automotive crash dummies that were designed for the study of automobile crashes not concussions.

They use a sensor in the center of the dummy’s head to measure energy transfer. It is obvious that a sensor in the middle of a fake head does nothing to measure the energy transfer in the jaw, thus does nothing to study how most concussions are caused.

Dr. Maher is a respected professional who has fit loads of world-class athletes with The Maher Mouth Guard. Most recently the Arena Football league requested the help of Dr. Maher and his mouthguard. He has worked with six world champion boxers. This doctor knows a way to reduce the number of concussions in the NFL and they won’t listen to him. Why does the NFL refuse to recognize this research and a product that could help them prevent concussions? Perhaps it’s because it would prove their liability because they have known about this prevention and haven’t provided it to their players.

Whatever the reason may be is moot. There is way to reduce concussions and the NFL is not doing it, meanwhile players are suffering concussions and causing irreparable harm to their brains.

http://www.mahercor.com

About Mahercor Laboratories, LLC
8/26/07 UPDATE:
(AP) — An unusual study by doctors treating blast victims at a field hospital in Iraq has found that ruptured eardrums may help reveal which troops are at risk of hidden brain injury.

The finding is important because many such brain injuries have been missed in the past, especially when more severe or obvious wounds demanded attention.

Researchers report their observation in a letter in Thursday’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

“Researchers led by Air Force Lt. Col. Dr. Michael Xydakis checked all troops brought for treatment from roadside bombs and other explosions to the Air Force Theater Hospital in Balad, Iraq, during the last three months of 2005.

Those with ruptured eardrums had a nearly threefold greater risk of concussive brain injury.

More research is needed to prove that eardrum rupture is a good marker for possible brain injury; Xydakis hopes that it will lead to more of these injuries being detected.

“We are the first to show this link,” with a study done amid bombs and bullets flying in Iraq, he said. “It’s a very challenging place to do this type of research.”