The evolution of two of the biggest American Sports over the years!
Many changes have taken place in sports of all kinds over the years which are not intended to make the games more visually appealing or for crowd participation but for one purpose. That is to make the sports safer… for players and spectators, because these sports are so popular and so many people are involved! Below stair lift maker Acorn Stairlifts identify many of the key changes in safety that 2 of the biggest American sports implemented…
Football.
Football is one such sport. Marvin Washington has stated in an article he wrote as a player on the Denver Broncos’ Super Bowl XXXII championship-winning team. The article was published in the New York Times and called, “the game of football is safer than it has ever been”.
He said “Over the last few years, the NFL has made 39 rule changes to enhance player safety. Kickoffs were moved to the 35-yard line from the 30-yard line to increase touch backs and decrease dangerous kickoff returns. A more rigorous protocol was established for dealing with concussions. Independent medical spotters can now call a timeout if they see that a player may have been concussed. Receivers on a pass that is intercepted are now classified as defenseless players.
“These are just a few recent changes that have had measurable results.”
Just looking at the NFL consider that in the early years, there were no substitutions, and any player could pull the face masks of other players anytime! Even in those early years an offense only had to be a yard from the sideline!
Presently, it is quite accurate to say that the various forms of football and particularly in this instance the NFL carry rules, implemented rules whose outcome has been to make the games more entertaining but equally much more safe and fair! The health of the players is of utmost importance, and just back in 2008 the NFL added rules / changes which put a prevention on the famous wedge to block (by defensive players) with three or more players. This important alteration to the rule book was made because this legal strategy during play had been studied and was statistically involved in a very high degree of injuries. By making this play illegal the motive for the change was to reduce the number of injuries… that was the reason for that rule alteration.
Similarly, changes have been made regarding the “chop block”. Commonly the “chop block” is a move where one player is tackled by two players, one tackle tackles high and the other low. A very effective way to stop an attacking player but again responsible for lots and lots of injuries. that move is now illegal. Its now an illegal move.
The NFL has now been changing laws, making moves illegal for three decades plus! Identifying simple things that make big impacts on reducing injury. There are so many it is not possible to list them all here in this article but it makes for fascinating reading, please do research more for yourself…
It will also come as no surprise that as our ability in humanity for technology has improved, so to innovators have seen again and again how that technology can be applied in sports from a safety perspective. For example, the mouth guard… what improvements we have seen! So much so that PBS reported in a NOVA production which showed how more effective the mouth guard is when an accelerometer and gyroscope are fitted which measure, track and chart the speed and movement of athletes in real time spatially! Combined with the gyroscope measuring the athletes skull position through that time and then adjustments can be made and athletes can train with new skull and body positioning making refinements to their movement and gaining performance and safety advantages from that! Also these devices are in real time measuring the intensity of hits players are receiving and where. Then officials and coaches can substitute them off if the forces the athlete is enduring are above safety limits via bluetooth technology! Once the player is off the field of action they can be evaluated by doctors and medical staff.
With the availability of technology and the accessibility of it financially at such low prices, lots of the safety innovations are available at the school boy and juvenile levels! In fact at juvenile level robotic simulations of real players (this has been started already in schools, for example
St. Thomas Aquinas in Ft. Lauderdale) with the right height and weight measurements, so 18lbs and six foot tall and because they are robotic they are more life like and are more effective simulacra (they can run for example and sprint) of a real game situation but in a training environment…
One of the consequences of using simulacra is it increases safety as players are practising against these robotic devices with simulate game time and scenarios but without the unpredictable variables so they can tackle these robotic dummies with a vastly reduced unknown variable rate and therefore reducing training injuries!
Boxing
Studies conducted in Germany have shown that our perception of boxing as actually quite dangerous physically is relatively correct. the German study showed a rate or average death rate in boxing of ten deaths per year every year from 1990 to 2016.
People are worried about this, for good reasons obviously yet Doug Ward, President and Trainer for the Underground Boxing Company has proposed a antithesis proposal. Doug wrote an article called “the real fact is that boxing is among the most regulated sports in all of athletics” published on the “Boxing Blog” in which he shows that the ethical axioms, the foundation principles of boxing are focused on fairness for all athletes, so that the ring is a place where fairness is the goal for all the athletes. They are within the same weight range, they are within similar age ranges, their experience is matched… hence the idea of a “fair contest”. Doug said… “The goal is to make fights that are fair and competitive”, and he further states that we don’t see this in many other sports where athletes who are vastly different in things such as “experience” are actually competing against one another! Doug actually wrote and we quote ““boxing has gone the extra mile to insure the safety and protect the well-being of its athletes”.
Consider the following data which begins to establish that this is in fact what is happening:
The role of doctors and their involvement in the boxing process is integral throughout. they are at pre-fight physicals, assessing medically if the athlete is actually fit to box, a judgement they will be held to, you know that is a doctors opinion so to speak, it has relevancy. Further, a minimum of 1 doctor is present throughout boxing bouts and their entire reason for being their is the health and safety of the boxers, the doctor is assessing that at all times for both athletes. The doctor or doctors are there at the end of the bout again, what is the health of the boxer at the end of the bout, even after the fight is over.
Constant work is being carried out by doctor’s who are working tremendous hours to identify how boxing can be made even more safe. For example, N.K. Sethi is a board-certified neurologist at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical Center. He has been the doctor at boxing bouts and has written on the subject noting in a post for the “Athlete’s Quarterly” that he did actually have to call off a bout very near the end for safety reasons of a medial nature. People were critical of N.K. Sethi for stopping that bout, and he noted, “As a doctor, I can tell you for certain, 30 seconds in a fight truly matters. One punch can be the difference between life and death. The final punch can have a fatal effect. So while we, as ringside physicians, endure the wrath of trainers, the media and sometimes the fighter himself, for stopping a fight, we cannot let this discourage or intimidate us to make comprises on a fighter’s safety.”
N.K. Sethi offers the following guidance, “The fighter’s mentality is never to quit no matter what the circumstances. Doing so brings disgrace to the fighter, his family and his corner. This mentality and culture needs to change.
“Boxers and corner staff should be educated and encouraged to actively recognize and report to the ringside physician any subjective symptoms of concussion and traumatic brain injury, such as headache, subjective feeling of dizziness or light headedness, blurring of vision, double vision, confusion and a feeling of fogginess.”
Further to this a boxing manager Kellie Maloney provides an interesting key to safety which could be implemented which is to have the pre-fight weigh-in during the same day as the bout itself! This will reduce the “dehydration” injuries! She said on BBC Radio 4 Today a program in the UK, “I think it’s something to do with dehydration, making weight, because the fluid around the brain is drained out when fighters have to make weight.”
Sources:
https://operations.nfl.com/the-rules/evolution-of-the-nfl-rules/
https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/02/05/is-it-wrong-to-watch-football/football-is-safer-than-it-has-ever-been
https://operations.nfl.com/football-ops/nfl-ops-honoring-the-game/health-safety-rules-changes/
https://youth1.com/football/gear-innovations-how-technology-making-youth-football-safer
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/boxing/nick-blackwell-is-boxing-safe-deaths-chris-eubank-jr-a6959631.html
https://www.titleboxing.com/news/is-boxing-safe/
https://www.athletesquarterly.com/makeboxingsafer/
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/boxing/nick-blackwell-is-boxing-safe-deaths-chris-eubank-jr-a6959631.html
