Without Washington State’s star quarterback Luke Falk playing, the annual Apple Cup competition was a lopsided win for the University of Washington. But it’s all for the good that Falk was held out. Kudos, team doctors, way to go, NCAA. In the not so distant past, Falk would have been allowed to play, simply because he could walk upright and it was such a big game.
Falk was knocked unconscious and suffered a concussion when his head hit the frozen ground after being sacked while playing Colorado on Nov. 21. The injury came a week after Falk appeared to suffer a head injury against UCLA, but was cleared to return in the second half.
During the week before the Apple Cup, rumors abounded that Falk might be able to play, after all. But he obviously didn’t pass the concussion protocol, and therefore couldn’t suit up. It may be disappointing — to the player, the team, coach and fans —but it’s progress as far as actually trying to protect a player’s health — now and in the future.
Numbers from the nation’s largest brain bank show that 96 percent of the deceased NFL players tested over the past decade had positive results for a degenerative brain disease connected with concussions, ESPN reported in September. This past week, the family of former college and NFL star and football announcer, Frank Gifford, announced that he suffered chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which can only be diagnosed after death. The family made the news public in “hopes of contributing to the advancement of medical research concerning the link between football and traumatic brain injury.” And the family wanted to honor Gifford’s commitment to promoting player safety, dating back to his involvement in creating the NFL Players Association, a union representing players’ interests, in 1956, CNN reported.
Since the connection between concussions and CTE has been scientifically shown, and with new concussion research adding to the growing body of knowledge, attitudes about football, and the rules that govern it, are necessarily changing. (If very slowly, in the NFL’s case, despite paying out millions in lawsuits.) The NCAA and WSU’s medical team keeping Luke Falk out of the Apple Cup is one example. Another is that more and more concerned parents are signing their young kids up for flag football, at least until they reach their teens, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended expanding non-tackling leagues as a way to limit exposure to collisions, the paper reported. (If you don’t think youngsters playing tackle football can really hurt themselves or each other, watch an episode or two of the show “Friday Night Tykes” on the Esquire channel. Yes, it does take place in Texas.)
Education is the key to protecting vulnerable brains; and all brains that play football are vulnerable. Time and rest are the only prescription for healing a brain injury. Not playing due to a head injury isn’t weakness, it’s self-preservation. Brains must come first, even before the team.
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