Building Football 3.0

Studying trauma in America’s favorite sport

Author’s Note: My co-writer for this piece, Sujata Singhal, is a Tulsa educational consultant/tutor with a background in biosciences. 

We are a nation enamored with the sport of football. It occupies our high schools, our colleges, our man caves and our deepest loyalties. In American culture, football not only entertains us, it defines us. In recent years, however, various controversies have plagued the sport and a growing number of people are clamoring for change. 

In this three-part series, we’ll talk to scientists, fans, players, coaches and reform advocates to better understand the history of football, the sport’s present volatility and how Tulsa could decisively impact the future of this American obsession. 

A history of causal brutality

A century ago, college football was not only controversial, it was deadly. In an article titled “The president who saved football,” CNN Contributor Bob Greene writes:

“Early in the 20th century, football, as played on college gridirons, was something close to a street fight. The rules were lax at best, and were routinely ignored. During the 1905 season alone, 18 college and amateur players died. And despite the growing violence, fans were flocking to the games – the sport was gaining followers.

[Theodore] Roosevelt convened a meeting in the White House of the most influential men in college football. He impressed on them that genuine, substantive changes must be instituted.

Eventually, football’s leaders would agree to get rid of many of the elements that had turned the sport into all-but-unregulated brutality.”

Roosevelt effectively ushered in the era of Football 2.0, demanding a safer, saner version of the sport. It might be time to upgrade again.

A high-impact medical discovery

Today, brutality on the field is just one of many reasons for alarm. Racial tension, domestic violence, criminal activity and heated debate surrounding payment of college athletes all cast a shadow on our beloved sport. 

Among leaders in the medical community, perhaps most unsettling is the frequency of head injury among athletes at every level, from pee-wee to professional. The consequences of frequent concussions among football players have been largely unknown to the American public, but director Steve James’ 2012 film, “Head Games,” a follow-up to former player Christopher Nowinski’s book by the same name, and the upcoming big-budget Will Smith vehicle, “Concussion,” portray the troubling reality of life after football-related brain trauma.

In 2014, Dr. Rashmi Singh, an immunologist and former researcher at Tulsa’s Laureate Institute for Brain Research, her senior colleague, Dr. Patrick Bellgowan, a former faculty member at both Laureate and TU who now helms the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes, and David Polanski, the head athletic trainer for TU, completed a widely discussed sample study of area football players and concussion. 

“The brain is not fully developed until the age of 25,” said Singh. “College and professional football have adapted new regulations designed to forestall catastrophic injuries including concussion, but I believe that TV has a role in the new concussion crisis because young kids see NFL and college athletes hitting their heads and so they think it’s okay.”

In addition to a culture that downplays the severity of head trauma, diagnosing concussions can be tricky.

“A player with a possible concussion usually has to self-report,” said Singh. “You go through a number of symptoms with him. You ask, ‘Do you have a headache, how is your sleep, how is your hunger, are you feeling nauseated, did you see stars?’ If he says ‘no, no, no,’ then the diagnosis is negative, and he’s good to go back. The current diagnosis process is very subjective.”

Singh and her team are focusing on making brain trauma easier to recognize.

“Our study was trying to come up with markers not only for diagnostics, but also for injury severity. We wanted to look for markers for recovery. There are many studies underway using fMRI and [imaging technologies] called DTI and brain scanners that monitor cerebral blood flow. The difference in our study is Dr. Bellgowan’s background in fMRI and his deep expertise in cognition and human memory,” said Singh.

Singh and her colleagues have amassed data that seems to suggest that, independent of reported concussive injuries, the time a player spends on the field from high school participation onward is strongly connected to disturbing changes in a critical piece of the brain’s volume. 

An uncertain future

Despite numerous physical, moral and social dilemmas surrounding the sport today, football is probably here to stay. However, followers of the sport can hold out hope that weighty results from studies like Dr. Singh’s will form the foundation for implementing necessary changes. 

In the future, what technologies and gear, on-field systems and sensors, diagnostic methods, game reworks, new player payment models and safety policies might counteract the extensive damage and inequities that mar today’s game? Do opportunities exist for Tulsa’s football gurus to become major players? Maybe they, much like Teddy Roosevelt, have an important part to play in reshaping America’s favorite sport. 

Next issue, we’ll take a tight look at a passel of new technologies and the teams that are crafting them—transformative stuff that could transform the great game.

PART TWO

For more from Ray, read his article on new Vision 2025 projects.