How best to reduce concussions and other brain injuries that occur in American football continues to perplex scientists, coaches, and fans at all levels of the sport. A new study published in JAMA points to one way to make the sport safer: move the kickoff line. A 2016 and 2017 Ivy League experimental rule that moved the kickoff line from the 35- to the 40-yard line and the touchback line from the 25- to the 20-yard line reduced the average annual concussion rate by more than 68 percent, according to the research conducted by a team from The Ivy League and the Perelman School of Medicine.
Kickoffs occur multiple times throughout the course of a football game, including at the start of each half and after a scoring play. During a kickoff return, a player from the receiving team who catches the ball has the option to return the ball while the opposing team attempts to tackle them, or to take a knee. This specific play has a much higher rate of concussion than other plays in the sport, most likely due to the high speed at which collisions can occur. In 2015, kickoffs in Ivy League football, a NCAA Division I conference of eight private universities, accounted for 6 percent of all plays but 21 percent of concussions.
In 2016, Ivy League football coaches recommended changing the kickoff line in hopes of causing more kickoffs to land in the end zone, thereby causing touchbacks—where the receiving player chooses to not advance the ball.
“The national conversation on concussions that occur in football can be informed by scientific research aimed at making sports safer,” says senior author Douglas J. Wiebe, a professor of epidemiology in biostatistics, epidemiology, and informatics, who co-leads the Ivy League’s concussion surveillance system, which has amassed data on more than 2,000 concussions since 2012 to better understand causes and effects of these injuries. “We’ve found that this simple yet strategic policy change helps sustain the quality of the game, while also making it safer for student athletes.”
Read more at Penn Medicine News.
