Bill Polian: Better coaching reduces football injuries
Training innovations have made football safer than ever for youth players.
I have two grandsons who play youth and high school football and who share my love for the sport.
With Super Bowl Sunday concluding this football season, there are parents, athletes and coaches questioning the safety of the game and wondering if the benefits outweigh the risks.
I love my grandchildren beyond measure.
When taught and played the right way, I agree with experts across medicine and sport that football is a healthy, rewarding and important athletic pursuit for my grandsons.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), representing 64,000 members, sets no limits as to when our children should begin enjoying the sport and realizing its rewards, so long as important standards are in place.
In my 50 years in football, I believe the game has never been safer.
What's under-reported is how this sport instills confidence, promotes fitness and fosters friendships in a fun, exciting and exceptional way. This is youth sports at their best.
New strides are being made on youth and high school levels that advance young players’ health — strides that should be taken in every sport our kids love to play and not just football. And it begins with education — empowering coaches who are in fact educators.
Research from the Datalys Center, published in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine in July 2015, found young football players are less likely to be injured or sustain a head injury when their coaches are trained in teaching proper tackling fundamentals.
Medical organizations agree. In an October 2015 policy statement, the AAP announced that teaching proper tackling techniques in youth leagues may reduce the chance for injury as they progress to middle school and high school play.
Organizations such as USA Football, the sport’s national governing body and recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee, understand that tackling is only one way the game is improved for our kids. USA Football, which ESPN supports through in-kind and financial investments, educates coaches, parents and players on all-sport-relevant matters, including heat acclimatization and hydration as well as concussion recognition and response guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control.
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Nearly 70% of youth football leagues and more than 1,100 high schools signed up for USA Football’s Heads Up Football program in 2015, which is endorsed by leading medical experts and associations.
And the program works.
In a recent study spanning more than 2,100 youth football players, kids playing in leagues that registered for Heads Up Football showed a 76% reduction in injuries during practice as well as 34% fewer concussions during practice when compared to teams not participating in the program. Our country’s eleventh-largest school district (Fairfax County, Va.) saw injuries decrease 16% and concussion in particular drop 28% after implementing Heads Up Football’s hands-on and digital coaching education.
I am proud of this continued evolution for the good of our kids, and there is more to be done.
Bill Polian is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was the president of the Indianapolis Colts and the general manager of the Buffalo Bills and Carolina Panthers, building teams that participated in six Super Bowls. Polian currently serves as chairman of USA Football’s Football Advisory Committee and as an NFL analyst for ESPN.
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