IMPORTANCE: Players of American football may be at increased risk of long-term neurological conditions, particularly chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). OBJECTIVE: To determine the ...neuropathological and clinical features of deceased football players with CTE. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Case series of 202 football players whose brains were donated for research. Neuropathological evaluations and retrospective telephone clinical assessments (including head trauma history) with informants were performed blinded. Online questionnaires ascertained athletic and military history. EXPOSURES: Participation in American football at any level of play. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Neuropathological diagnoses of neurodegenerative diseases, including CTE, based on defined diagnostic criteria; CTE neuropathological severity (stages I to IV or dichotomized into mild stages I and II and severe stages III and IV); informant-reported athletic history and, for players who died in 2014 or later, clinical presentation, including behavior, mood, and cognitive symptoms and dementia. RESULTS: Among 202 deceased former football players (median age at death, 66 years interquartile range, 47-76 years), CTE was neuropathologically diagnosed in 177 players (87%; median age at death, 67 years interquartile range, 52-77 years; mean years of football participation, 15.1 SD, 5.2), including 0 of 2 pre–high school, 3 of 14 high school (21%), 48 of 53 college (91%), 9 of 14 semiprofessional (64%), 7 of 8 Canadian Football League (88%), and 110 of 111 National Football League (99%) players. Neuropathological severity of CTE was distributed across the highest level of play, with all 3 former high school players having mild pathology and the majority of former college (27 56%), semiprofessional (5 56%), and professional (101 86%) players having severe pathology. Among 27 participants with mild CTE pathology, 26 (96%) had behavioral or mood symptoms or both, 23 (85%) had cognitive symptoms, and 9 (33%) had signs of dementia. Among 84 participants with severe CTE pathology, 75 (89%) had behavioral or mood symptoms or both, 80 (95%) had cognitive symptoms, and 71 (85%) had signs of dementia. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In a convenience sample of deceased football players who donated their brains for research, a high proportion had neuropathological evidence of CTE, suggesting that CTE may be related to prior participation in football.
“In Texas, football is king,” Rob Fink writes, “so it provides a prominent window on Texas culture.” In Football at Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Texas , ...Fink opens this window to afford readers an engaging view of not only the sport and its impact on African Americans in Texas, but also a better and more nuanced perception of the African American community, its aspirations, and its self-understandings from Reconstruction to the present. This book focuses on crucial themes of civil rights, personal and group identity, racial pride, and socio-cultural empowerment. Although others have examined specific institutions, time periods, and rivalries in black college football, this book is the first to feature a broad narrative encompassing an entire state. This wide field of play affords the opportunity to explore the motivations and contexts for establishing football teams at historically black colleges and universities; the institutional and community purposes served by athletic programs; and how these efforts changed over time in response to changes in sport, higher education, and society.  Fink traces the rise of the sport at HBCUs in Texas and the ways it came to symbolize and focus the aspirations of the African American community. He chronicles its decline, ironically due in part to the gains of the civil rights movement and the subsequent integration of black athletes into previously white institutions. Finally, he shows how HBCUs in Texas have survived in the twenty-first century by concentrating on balanced athletic budgets and a carefully honed appeal to traditional rivalries and constituencies.
In the first half of the twentieth century, Jack Trice, Ozzie Simmons, and Johnny Bright played college football for three Iowa institutions: Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, and Drake ...University, respectively. At a time when the overwhelming majority of their opponents and teammates were white, the three men, all African American, sustained serious injuries on the gridiron, either because of their talents, their race, or, most likely, because of an ugly combination of the two.Moments of Impacttells their stories and examines how the local communities of which they were once a part have forgotten and remembered those assaults over time. Of particular interest are the ways those memories have manifested in a number of commemorations, including a stadium name, a trophy, and the dedication of a football field.
Jaime Schultz focuses on the historical and racial circumstances of the careers of Trice, Simmons, and Bright as well as the processes and politics of cultural memory. Schultz develops the concept of "racialized memory"-a communal form of remembering imbued with racial significance-to suggest that the racial politics of contemporary America have engendered a need to redress historical wrongs, congratulate Americans on the ostensible racial progress they have made, and divert attention from the unrelenting persistence of structural and ideological racism.
Recent protests by athletes focused on raising awareness of social issues and injustices, such as the Black Lives Matter protests led by Colin Kaepernick of the National Football League's San ...Francisco 49ers, have generated a great deal of attention and debate within society. Notably, the protests conducted by these players before games in the 2016 and 2017 seasons became such a sensational topic, that extraordinary amounts of attention was paid to it by the media, consumers, and even politicians who often denounced the players as being unpatriotic. Against this backdrop, the current research examines whether fluctuations in attendance at National Football League games are associated with explicit attitudes towards race, implicit racial prejudice, and racial animus within a population. Specifically, using multiple measures of racial attitudes as part of an econometric model estimating attendance at games, the results suggest that having a higher level of implicit bias in a market leads to a decline in consumer interest in attending games. Additionally, using interaction effects, it is found that while protests generally reduced the negative effects of implicit bias on attendance, markets with lower levels of implicit bias actually had greater declines of attendance during the protests. From this, the current study advances the understanding of racial attitudes and racial animus, and its impact on consumer behavior at the regional level. That is, this research highlights that racial sentiments in a local market were able to predict changes in market behaviors, suggesting that race relations can have wide reaching impacts.
BackgroundGiven the concern regarding the short-, medium- and long-term consequences of heading on brain health, being proactive about developing and implementing guidelines that help reduce the ...burden (volume, impact magnitude, injury risk) of heading in young and beginner players appears justified.ObjectiveTo explore the evidence underpinning strategies that could be incorporated into future heading guidelines to reduce heading burden in players across all levels of football.DesignA four-step search strategy was utilised to identify all data-based papers related to heading in football. Eligibility criteria: 1)original data; 2)study population included football players, 3)outcome measures included one or more of the following: number of headers, measurement of head acceleration during heading, or head/brain injury incidence; and 4)published in English or English translation available. SettingNarrative reviewParticipantsN/A Results In total, 58 papers were included with strategies based on 1)game or team development, 2)player skill development and 3)equipment. Greater emphasis existed for small-sided games (particularly in young players) where less headers are observed when compared with the conventional 11 v 11 game as well as reducing headers from goal kicks and corners. Evidence also existed for developing a heading coaching framework that focuses on technical proficiency as well as neuromuscular neck exercises integrated into general injury reduction exercise programs, enforcement of rules related to deliberate head contact and using lower-pressure match and training balls.ConclusionThis review is the first to outline and summarise the current evidence and make recommendations for the inclusion of different strategies to assist football governing bodies worldwide when drafting and standardising heading guidelines to protect the long-term brain health of current and future generation of players. An implementation and evaluation plan co-designed by important stakeholders should be developed in tandem to optimise the potential adherence to, and benefits from, any future heading guidelines.
BackgroundThe Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) established a panel of experts to determine methodological recommendations for the conduct of studies which explore the acute effects of ...heading (defined as a single session of heading). This process was deemed necessary to improve the quality of studies which use heading trials to better inform future heading guidelines and practices. ObjectiveThe aim of this panel was to create minimum quality criteria for the conduct of acute heading in football research.DesignUsing a phased mixed-methods approach, key methodological issues were discussed to determine minimum quality criteria to assess the acute effects of heading. Following two rounds of reviews, two members of the panel drafted quality criteria which was circulated for comment before the final quality criteria were agreed by the panel.SettingN/AParticipants The panel consisted of six experts (including two women) from six countries representing diversity in professional background. InterventionsN/AMain outcome measurements A key design element was good external validity rather than high likelihood of ‘significant results’, underpinned by safety concerns that research participants should not be exposed to unnecessary risk from higher number of head impacts than those observed during football match-play and practice.ResultsThe panel identified key methodological requirements pertaining to participants (including presence of a control group/comparator condition, heading experience, skill level, sex), heading trials and their measurement (including consistency of ball delivery, consideration of heading frequency) measurement and consideration of confounding variables (including history of concussion), statistics (including a priori sample-size calculation) and dependent/target variables and their measurement. ConclusionsBy applying minimum standards for research that explore the acute effects of heading it is hoped the quality of heading research will be improved and the evidence-base to support any potential changes to heading policy or practice are grounded in high-quality evidence.
Fear No Man Gastineau, Mike; Saban, Nick
2021, 2021-08-25
eBook
In 1984 the University of Washington Huskies won every game but one, ranking second in national polls. For most coaches, such a season would be a career pinnacle. But for Don James second place ...motivated him to set aside what he knew about football and rethink the game. James made radical changes to his coaching philosophy, from recruitment to becoming one of the first college teams willing to blitz on any down and in any situation. His new approach initially failed, yet it finally culminated in one of the most explosive teams in college football history.In Fear No Man, Mike Gastineau recounts the riveting story of Don James and the national championship team he built. Undefeated, the 1991 Huskies outscored opponents by an average of 31 points per game on their way to winning the Rose Bowl and a national championship. The team included twenty-five future NFL players, and in Gastineau's gripping account they come alive with all the swagger and joy they brought to the game. A brilliant examination of one of college football's greatest coaches and teams, Fear No Man is the inspirational story of an improbable journey that led to one classic and unforgettable season.
To examine the effect of body mass (BM) on eccentric knee-flexor strength using the Nordbord and offer simple guidelines to control for the effect of BM on knee-flexor strength.
Data from 81 soccer ...players (U17, U19, U21, senior 4th French division, and professionals) and 41 Australian Football League (AFL) players were used for analysis. They all performed 1 set of 3 maximal repetitions of the bilateral Nordic hamstring exercise, with the greatest strength measure used for analysis. The main regression equation obtained from the overall sample was used to predict eccentric knee-flexor strength from a given BM (moderate TEE, 22%). Individual deviations from the BM-predicted score were used as a BM-free index of eccentric knee- flexor strength.
There was a large (r = .55, 90% confidence limits .42;.64) correlation between eccentric knee-flexor strength and BM. Heavier and older players (professionals, 4th French division, and AFL) outperformed their lighter and younger (U17-U21) counterparts, with the soccer professionals presenting the highest absolute strength. Professional soccer players were the only ones to show strength values likely slightly greater than those expected for their BM.
Eccentric knee-flexor strength, as assessed with the Nordbord, is largely BM-dependent. To control for this effect, practitioners may compare actual test performances with the expected strength for a given BM, using the following predictive equation: Eccentric strength (N) = 4 × BM (kg) + 26.1. Professional soccer players with specific knee-flexor-training history and enhanced neuromuscular performance may show higher than expected values.
Notes how athlete leadership groups (ALGs) are a widely used yet under researched approach to leadership in professional sports teams. Explains how ALGs represent a shared athlete leadership model ...whereby a small group of players are selected as athlete leaders and appointed to a formal ‘leadership group’ that shares team leadership responsibilities with the coach. Seeks the perceptions of coach and athlete leaders of the development opportunities that have been afforded to professional football players to prepare them for their role in an ALG with the aim of providing initial insight into how players are developed for these ALG roles. Conducts semi-structured interviews with 16 head coaches and 14 players from leadership groups drawn from 17 teams across four professional football leagues (i.e., Super Rugby, National Rugby League, A League and Australian Football League) in Australia and New Zealand. Source: National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
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