Should we be worried about this?
Posted 28/3/2011
By Shaun Maher
Watching Richie Fa'aoso crab drunkenly across Brookvale Oval
on Sunday was funny. As league fans it’s our first impression is to laugh at
these events. But the laughing quickly
gave way to surprise when the Knights were unable to replace him, and then the
surprise turned to concern when he stayed on the field for another ten minutes
or so. As fans we love our contact and a bit of blood, a black eye or a player getting
a bit wobbly, but it when it comes to players having surgery on the sideline
(DeVere vs the staple gun Origin 2003) and having convulsions on the field
(Anthony Quinn v Simon Mannering's knee 2009) that’s a bit much and we cringe
in our recliners. It might be time to start putting the basic concussion in the
same category.
Head injuries are a part of Rugby League. In the same game
as Fa’aoso was hurt, Shannon McDonnell was concussed after an accidental
shoulder to the head from Glenn Stewart and earlier in the round, Chris
Sandow’s disproportionately large head was causing problems for the Panthers’
players. Sandow loves going for the big shoulder charges, but he lacks the big
shoulders for it, and his big head keeps getting in the way. But the point is
that it's a common thing in the game so it needs to be managed appropriately.
Richie Fa'aoso was clearly concussed and should not have been on the field
regardless of the other injury and interchange concerns the Knights had.
Listening a to a Bill Simmons podcast last week (excellent
podcast for fans of US sports and pop culture look for it on ITunes as ESPN:
the BS Report) I was made aware of the research into the long-term damage that
is occurring to the brains of American Footballers, wrestlers and boxers. There
is real concern how regular brain injury is affecting their longevity and their
behaviour while they are still alive.
Simmons was interviewing Chris Nowinski, a former
pro-wrestler who was forced to retire after being diagnosed with post concussion
syndrome after sufferings headaches and depression. He went onto to write a
book called Head Games: Football's Concussion Crisis (Drummond Publishing Group
2006) and has since become a leading voice in highlighting the dangers of head
injuries in contact sports.
In the US, this is becoming such a concern that ex-players
are donating their brains to research the topic. What they are concerned about
is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a condition caused by repetitive
concussive brain injuries. There's alot of research out there about CTE, but
the bottom line is that repetitive or multiple concussions leads to impaired
memory function, poor impulse control, increasingly intensive outbursts of
anger and aggression (sound like any NRL players you know???) depression and
ultimately leads to early dementia.
CTE is evidenced by the build up of a toxic protein in the
brain that kills brain cells and ultimately looks alot like Alzheimer's
Disease. Of the 12 retired college and professional footballer players that
have had their brains examined post-mortem so far, all have exhibited signs of
CTE and many more players have signed up to the program to aid the research.
Serious questions are being asked now about what CTE is
doing to ex-athletes while they are still alive. It’s more likely that Muhammad
Ali is suffering from the effects of CTE rather than Parkinsons and the tragic
story of Chris Benoit (well known WWE wrestler who murdered his family before
killing himself over a three day period in 2007) is now being attributed to CTE
rather than the “roid rage” that was initially assumed. When his brain was
examined it was revealed to be similar to an 85 year old Alzheimer’s patient.
I'm not sure what all this means for league, but given this
is such a big issue in the NFL, it’s surprising that it’s not an issue in the
Australia. Nobody wants to see the contact and aggression of league toned down,
but it's pretty clear the game can do better when it comes to head injury
management, both at the professional level and most importantly at the junior
level where alot of the repetitive injury can occur.
