Head injuries are new focus in college football

The NCAA has once again put UNC’s football program in the spotlight, but not in a way fans have come to expect.

As the issue of football-related head injuries on campuses experiences increased focus, the NCAA has highlighted UNC’s policy of testing student athletes for injury as a model for other universities.

A bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives would provide grants to states to purchase testing equipment and implement stricter monitoring plans to decrease concussions among athletes.

“Concussions are described as a hidden epidemic,” said Kevin Guskiewicz, chairman for the UNC department of exercise and sport science. “It is not an easy injury to see, like the swelling and bruising of an ankle sprain.”

The NCAA is using UNC as the suggested model program for designing several new concussion monitoring and return-to-play plans on university campuses.

UNC’s data are being used to help create an updated concussion protocol, Guskiewicz said.

He said he was part of an NCAA committee on concussions trying to set new guidelines to recognize and manage this injury because the University was one of the first to conduct research on head injuries.

UNC’s exercise and sports science department put into place sensor-equipped football helmets in 2004.

With each hit, the football helmet sends a transmission to the sideline with data on the force of the impact and location to the brain, Guskiewicz said.

The department has 60 helmets equipped with six small acceleration meters that bend and fit inside the padding of the helmet. In real time, the sensors stream data on any impact and measure the force and magnitude, he said.

For the past six seasons, the helmets allow the department to see what types of hits impact which parts of the brain, and how this corresponds with the likelihood of a concussion, Guskiewicz said.

The sports medicine department also holds educational seminars with coaches to teach them to recognize the symptoms and to realize the dangers of trying to play through it, said Mario Ciocca, director of sports medicine at UNC Campus Health Services.

“The NCAA is constantly seeking to protect the health and safety of its student-athletes,” Chris Radford, spokesman for the NCAA, said in an e-mail.

“NCAA rules committees oversee the playing rules of each sport and work closely with medical experts to make competitions safer,” he said. “Ultimately, it is the school’s responsibility to protect the health of its student-athletes.”

Concussions hit the national spotlight this year after University of Pennsylvania football player Owen Thomas committed suicide in April.

Post-mortem it was discovered Thompson was showing signs of progressive brain disease caused by multiple unreported concussions.

“It used to be a toughness thing, and you did not want to report it since it seemed a weakness,” Guskiewicz said. “There is now a culture shift and we now realize the dangers of playing through it.”

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.