Neural minefield

Combating head trauma in football through emerging technologies

This is the second installment of a three-part series. For Part One, see “Building Football 3.0.” from the Dec. 16 issue of The Tulsa Voice.

American football is on a chaotic, downward trajectory. 

 As discussed in the first of our three-part series, football’s existential tumble is propelled by a variety of forces. Perhaps the most compelling of those forces is the developing research regarding brain trauma, combined with increasing concern from parents when it comes to allowing kids to strap on the pads – concern that not only affects today’s participation levels, but tomorrow’s recruitment possibilities. The present crisis is only intensified by a successful NFL player suit against league officials – one that will have a sweeping impact on the pantheon of sports. 

Tentative-but-mounting data surrounding frequent head injury portends long-term health consequences for as many as one in three NFL players and a number of college athletes. It’s all part of a neural minefield exposed by increasingly confident neuroscientists and the medical community at large. It’s bad mojo that is likely to be amplified by recently announced follow-up neural injury projects from the National Institutes for Health and the NFL.

If football is to maintain its lofty status in American culture, significant changes will have to be made.

Quashing the damage

There is a clear need to ratchet down athletic injuries for economic (and liability) reasons. Injuries are the big “season-doomers” that fans of the Oklahoma City Thunder and the surprisingly fragile Chicago Bulls deeply understand. Staying in the game in spite of injury is sparked more by athletes’ intense desire to play than by institutional or monetary dynamics. Player “insistency” was a factor discussed at an event hosted by TU Heath Sciences Dean Gerald Clancy. The session provided a tough look at brain trauma via a flick called “Head Games” and an after-movie coach/sports med briefing at the university about 18 months ago. 

Medical experts and sports pros consulted for this article agreed that panoramic injury prevention, optimized athletic training and sharper in-game decisions player re-entry after an injury are often the difference between a victory and an early playoff exit.  Rule changes, player body sensors currently in development, blood-based biomarkers that show brain damage in real time, “injury equations” and robotic optics may be the next big counter-trauma playmakers. These promising new on-field technologies will tightly monitor player movements and track collision intensity in real time to help coaches, trainers and officials bring some much-needed accountability to the game. 

A new game

Imagine 2022: a collegiate or professional football game takes on the look and feel of a tightly choreographed video game. This info-saturated landscape will accompany crisp on-screen graphics, player thumbnail sketches and dynamic play-tracking now commonplace in televised games.

Now envision a “bio status”-enhanced rendering of a live game: a vantage point that fans will share with coaches, human and robotic referees and sports medicine professionals. You’ll see the current condition of every player identified by a simple color scheme. Each player will wear a fabric “articulator” that displays a “how I’m doing” color for all to see. Just now, you see that the opposing team’s quarterback is more fatigued, more physically compromised than your main guy. You also observe that three of your players are near “pull point” and may be called off the field by a robotic referee before the quarter is out. And sadly, you notice that your team is decidedly more whacked, as a group, than the opposing outfit. A rich computer simulation also available to you suggests that the current state of play may result in a three- to six-point deficit to your side’s disadvantage as the clock runs out. 

Firms like the Aussie sports tech outfit Catapult Sports and U.S. competitors Nike, Adidas and STATS SportVU are working to make this virtual world a reality, and it may come to pass in the not-so-distant future. Tulsa’s very own ICEdot Inc. may have time to get in the game, as well.

Will these developments enhance or diminish fans’ perceptions and overall enjoyment of the game? And will Oklahoma be actively involved in pioneering new technologies, or will we be content to observe from the sideline?   

Stay tuned for part three, when we’ll talk to some local fans to see how they feel about Football 3.0.

Further reading for understanding head trauma in football

“Using Your Head: The Brain Game” A legal brief by Alexandra Sinatra, self-published, 2014
“Jersey-Embedded GPS and the Tech-Centric Future of Football” by Nick Fouriezos, Ozy.com, November 2015
“The Australian Tech That’s Improving the World’s Best Athletes” by Alex Konrad, Forbes, May 2013
“Solving the Concussion Problem and Saving Professional Football” by Rodney K. Smith, Thomas Jefferson Law Review 129 (2013)
“The Ghost in My Brain: How a Concussion Stole My Life and How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Helped Me Get It Back” by Clark Elliott, Penguin & Google Books, 2015
“Head Games” by Christopher Nowinski, Amazon/Kindle First Release, September 2012
“Head Games” A 2012 documentary film by Steve James