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Sports face a reckoning on brain injuries
Published on September 4, 2024For a long time, professional sporting bodies were afraid of the 'c word' — concussion.
For a long time, professional sporting bodies were afraid of the ‘c word’ — concussion.
As more medical evidence comes to light about the serious, lasting consequences of concussions, sports administrators face more scrutiny about how they best protect participants from harm.
At the top level, multibillion dollar leagues like America’s National Football League and the Australian Football League grapple with ways to make their sport safer without losing the intangible essence of the game that has made them the dominant players in their respective markets.
There are lucrative commercial interests at play, which may obfuscate the way research is explored and implemented by competitions. The NFL has been accused in a congressional report of covering up concussion research, while research in Australia around its rugby league and Australian rules competitions have hit administrative hurdles.
And for those who aren’t professionals, the consequences of repeated concussions feel even more disproportionately harmful. Throw out notions of informed consent and adults making a considered trade-off of health for wealth, the way head injuries are handled in junior competitions or amateur sport may require a complete re-think.