{"id":287867,"date":"2023-09-07T14:34:41","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T14:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=287867"},"modified":"2023-09-07T14:34:41","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T14:34:41","slug":"nfl-style-lawsuit-and-brain-injury-concerns-hang-over-rugby-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/rugby-union\/nfl-style-lawsuit-and-brain-injury-concerns-hang-over-rugby-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL-style lawsuit and brain-injury concerns hang over Rugby World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/span>NFL-style lawsuit and brain-injury concerns hang over Rugby World Cup<\/h2>\n


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Alix Popham traveled the world as a rugby player. He played 33 times for Wales and competed at two Rugby World Cups, and even got to meet Nelson Mandela before a match in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Or so he\u2019s told.<\/p>\n

He can\u2019t actually remember.<\/p>\n

Popham is 43 and his rugby career is, in his words, \u201call a blur.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy neuropsychologist described it,\u201d he said, \u201cas when I was playing in those games and in that part of my life, my brain was so inflamed through the contact I was doing continuously over a 10\/11-month season, it\u2019s like I was taking photos but with no camera.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Popham has been diagnosed with early onset dementia and is one of a growing number of rugby players in their 30s and 40s \u2014 all of whom have brain disorders such as motor neuron disease and epilepsy \u2014 to have launched a lawsuit against governing bodies of the sport he still loves. They contend the rugby authorities failed to take reasonable action to protect the players from repeated blows to the head during their careers.<\/p>\n

The case has similarities with a lawsuit settled by the NFL in 2013, at a likely cost of more than $1 billion, after thousands of former American football players who developed dementia or other concussion-related health problems claimed they were caused by the very on-field violence that fueled the game\u2019s rise to popularity and profit.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s against this backdrop that the Rugby World Cup is taking place in France from Sept. 8.<\/p>\n

END OF AN ERA?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this World Cup is the end of rugby as we know it,\u201d Prof. Willie Stewart, a neuropathologist and former adviser to governing body World Rugby, told The Associated Press. \u201cI think the current form of rugby union as it is played will change straight after the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rugby is nearly three decades into the professional era, which has brought about huge changes to the game.<\/p>\n

Big business; bigger and bigger players; monstrous collisions at a volume far higher than the NFL. The sight of a big, heavy forward powering into prone, defenseless players at a breakdown can make viewers shudder.<\/p>\n

Hence the increasing concerns about the health of players, from the elite level to the grassroots, and especially the effect repeated knocks to the head can have on the brain.<\/p>\n

Concussions \u2014 or, in other words, brain injuries \u2014 are commonplace, roughly one per game according to annual injury audits commissioned in English rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cRugby\u2019s awareness, even if they won\u2019t say it publicly, is that there’s a significant problem with brain health in former players,\u201d said Stewart, an honorary professor at the University of Glasgow.<\/p>\n

“Looking at it back in the \u201970s and \u201880s, training a couple of evenings a week \u2026 if we\u2019re seeing a problem from then, rugby must \u2014 secretly or even publicly \u2014 be really worried about 1995 (professional era) onwards when suddenly players were being exposed to contacts all week and having a form of rugby based on collision rather than avoidance. That\u2019s going to be stocking up a whole world of problems which are just beginning to emerge.\u201d<\/p>\n

NFL EXPERIENCE<\/p>\n

The NFL has learned lessons from the costly 2013 lawsuit that sparked so much introspection, and continues to take more steps to ensure the health and safety of players.<\/p>\n

The league has tried to eliminate hits to the head by implementing penalties, fines and suspensions. This year, the NFL drastically changed the kickoff rule to reduce returns because the play led to 19 concussions in 2022. In April, the first quarterback-specific helmet designed to help reduce concussions was approved for use by the NFL and NFL Players’ Association, while a position-specific helmet already has been used by offensive and defensive linemen.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time we can change the protocols to make it safer for our players, we\u2019re going to do that,\u201d NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said at the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

Rugby, which doesn’t use hard helmets or thick pads, has made many changes, too. The recommended tackle height has been lowered in community rugby to below the base of the sternum in an effort to eliminate head hits, and World Rugby is not ruling out experimenting with it in the elite game. The governing body has issued guidance on weekly practice loads such as a maximum of 15 minutes of full-contact training, though it’s up to teams to enforce it \u2014 and isn\u2019t as strict as in the NFL where it\u2019s overseen by an independent players\u2019 union.<\/p>\n

In theory, there are stricter punishments for high tackles and breakdown cleanouts targeting the head. And rugby is taking its in-game and return-to-play concussion protocols seriously, claiming the sport is world-leading and adopts an evidence-based approach. One recent innovation to detect concussions is the use of a special mouth guard that measures biomarkers in saliva.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayer welfare is World Rugby\u2019s No. 1 priority and it should be the No. 1 priority of every rugby organization,\u201d World Rugby says. \u201cEveryone involved in the organization has a duty of care in relation to the players and every step should be taken to mitigate against potential risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

COMPETING INTERESTS<\/p>\n

Critics are skeptical, however, about the sport\u2019s safety crusade, arguing the authorities are conflicted by the advent of professionalism and pointing to flaws in their protocols and regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cFormer professionals are paying a heavy price for rugby’s abject failure to rigorously investigate concussion’s long-term risks,\u201d said author and campaigning journalist Sam Peters, whose soon-to-be-published book \u2014 \u201cConcussed\u201d \u2014 examines rugby’s relationship between business and player welfare.<\/p>\n

How, critics say, can Wales prop Tomas Francis, after clashing heads with his own teammate in a match last year, pass a head injury assessment despite appearing unsteady on his feet and leaning on a post for support \u2014 signs that should have led to his immediate removal? Just this month, a judicial panel overturned a red card for England captain Owen Farrell for a high, no-arms tackle to a Wales player\u2019s head in a World Cup warmup. Farrell was later handed a ban following an appeal by World Rugby but the whole affair did little to inspire confidence in the disciplinary process around head injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always competing interests when it comes to sports and professional associations,\u201d said Chris Nowinski, a co-founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, a Boston-based not-for-profit organization that supports athletes and others affected by brain injuries. \u201cWhat\u2019s best for business is the guys playing (hundreds of) days a year and never taking a day off for brain injuries, but that\u2019s not fair to the athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re going to have to make some sort of sacrifices if they want rugby to succeed long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nowinski was a former American football player and WWE wrestler who now, with a Ph.D. in behavioral neuroscience, is a co-author of brain research projects and has helped doctors at Boston University acquire the brains of former NFL players. So far, 345 of the 376 brains of NFL players studied at the university’s brain bank have been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated head trauma, according to the latest figures released in February.<\/p>\n

Stewart\u2019s research team conducted a study of 412 former Scotland rugby players and more than 1,200 individuals from the general population. It showed the chances of the former rugby players being diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease were 2.67 times higher.<\/p>\n

In 2021, a study funded by the nonprofit Drake Foundation looked at biomarkers in 44 current elite players from 2017-19. Results showed 23% of them had abnormalities in their brain structure.<\/p>\n

For Nowinski, the evidence is mounting and the clock is ticking for rugby authorities to acknowledge the link between repeated head impacts and CTE, and to make more changes so the sport is safer.<\/p>\n

He’d like to see fewer or even no hits in practice, for head hits to be more aggressively penalized, and for children to not be exposed to sports where they could get CTE \u2014 including rugby \u2014 before at least the age of 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could be as close as five years away from diagnosing CTE in living people,\u201d Nowinski said in a video call. \u201cIf we throw a bunch of 18-year-olds through a scanner and find out 30% of them already have CTE, would you sign up your son or daughter for that game? The answer is probably not.\u201d<\/p>\n

HEAD FOR CHANGE<\/p>\n

Popham has three daughters and won\u2019t be pushing them to play rugby, given what he has learned. Away from the lawsuit that has reached its first preliminary hearing in the courts, he is making it his mission \u2014 as a co-founder of the Head For Change charity and through his lobby group, Progressive Rugby \u2014 to raise awareness about the impact of head trauma in sports and to demand better protection for players.<\/p>\n

That means, in Popham\u2019s view, reducing the number of games per season, keeping players out for 28 days after a head injury and for players to have a brain scan every season to assess their brain health. He wants a concussion to be called what it is \u2014 a traumatic brain injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conversation we\u2019re having in rugby was happening in boxing 100 years ago,\u201d he said. \u201cThe knowledge has been there, it just didn\u2019t get passed down the food chain. And it\u2019s shocking really.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my mission, educating people on this so the game does survive. But unfortunately, the powers-that-be have their heads in the sand.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Steve Douglas is at https:\/\/twitter.com\/sdouglas80<\/p>\n

Recommended<\/h3>\n


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AP rugby: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/rugby<\/p>\n

Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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