The National Football League and concussion: leading a culture change in contact sports.

1 P d s H n t “ t s r g a U l i t i a g The National Football League (NFL) Commissioner Roger Goodell appointed a new medical committee to advise him and the NFL on the issue of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in 010, thereby replacing the former Mild Traumatic Brain Injury ommittee (MTBI) of the NFL that was active from 1994 to 2009. As oncern for safety in sports has grown, with increased attention rom themedia, government and the public, the NFL has continued o address the concerns over the concussion issue in professional thletes with the gravity that the problem warrants. Thus, the NFL esponded with a plan to make the game safer through a multironged approach. This approach included rule changes on and off he field, and the appointment of a new scientific advisory commitee to study the neurological issues associated with concussion in FL athletes. American-style Football, although clearly not the only port to be associatedwith TBIs, has historically been the “lightning od” in the sports-related TBI maelstrom. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2010 stimated that the incidence of TBI in the general U.S. population ight be as high as 1.7million people per year (7). Furthermore, it is stimated that of these TBIs, approximately 300,000 per year are ports-related concussions. This TBI statistic for sports is second nly to motor vehicle crashes in high school and college-age stuents. In the past decade, soccer and football led theway for concusions in the high school and the college age student, comprising .9% of all high school and 5.8% of all college athletic injuries, espectively. Surprisingly, girls appeared to experience a greater rate f concussion in high school sports than boys (8).