Concussion concerns remain high after NFL offices shooting despite new league rules

PHOENIX – A recent deadly shooting inside of New York City’s NFL headquarters has turned attention back to the dangers of head trauma in sports.

Shane Tamura, 27, fatally shot four people before killing himself, leaving a note that questioned professional football’s concussion protocol and suggested he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy after playing the sport in high school.

The NFL has implemented new concussion protocols and rule changes, all while making advancements in helmet technology. Despite these updates, concussions are still happening, causing some to wonder if the game is getting safer or if concussions are an unavoidable part of the game.

Data from the past three decades makes it clear that concussions remain an ongoing problem across football.

The NFL has tracked concussion data for the past 10 years, with earlier data coming from outside studies of the league. Those studies, looking at 12 seasons from 1996 to 2007, found that around four concussions were occurring every 10 games. Recent NFL data` from the past 10 seasons, 2015-2024, show rates of around seven concussions for every 10 games.

Some of that increase can be attributed to better concussion awareness, improved detection methods and stricter reporting rules. Players today are more likely to be diagnosed with a concussion than they were in the early 2000s, when athletes often played through or hid symptoms.

“Rates are up because we report more,” said journalist and author Joanne Gerstner, who has written extensively about concussions.

Yet a stigma remains surrounding reporting concussions.

“Athletes want to play, and coaches want them to play, too,” Gerstner said. “Also, to be fair, athletes may not know they are concussed. It’s like asking somebody who is impaired if they are OK to drive. Their answers may not reflect reality.”

The debate about game safety picked up steam in September 2024, when a troubling scene played out on a big stage.

In a game against the Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa lain on the field motionless for the second time in a week, his fingers frozen in a disturbing position that made even the toughest football fans cringe. Silence fell over the stadium as everyone watched the training staff run onto the field.

Just days earlier, he had been hit in another game. Tagovailoa was quick to get up. He started stumbling as he tried to walk, but he was cleared to play the rest of the game. Now, under the bright stadium lights and the watchful eyes of all football fans, it was obvious this wasn’t something he could return from quickly. This was a reminder of what football players put on the line every time they put their helmets on and step onto the field.

To reduce the number of concussions, the NFL has made several changes over the past decade. Many changes focus on limiting dangerous hits and protecting players during high-risk plays.

“The NFL’s recent efforts to promote player safety and reduce the number of concussions players experience is encouraging,” Boston University CTE Center research program manager Kelsey Goostrey said. “Any measure taken to reduce head injuries or repetitive head impact is good for short and long-term player health.”

One of the earlier changes occurred in 2015 when the NFL updated the definition of a defenseless receiver to include an offensive player attempting to catch a pass immediately following an interception.

The next year, in 2016, the NFL experimented with its kickoff rules, moving the spot of a touchback from the 20-yard line forward to the 25. This rule was enacted to increase touchbacks and lower collisions during kickoffs, when a higher number of concussions occur.

This rule was fully accepted in the 2018 season after two years of testing. That year also marked the expansion of the helmet-to-helmet classification to include any deliberate contact using the helmet. It was different from the earlier rule, which focused only on the deliberate use of the crown of the helmet. This season saw a big drop in the number of concussions, dropping 23% from the peak of 8.78 concussions per 10 games during 2017.

In the next few seasons, the NFL worked to fix existing rules and made previous temporary changes permanent. This includes expanding the definition of a defenseless player to include kickoff and punt returners.

These efforts continued into 2023 when the NFL moved the starting position of teams who signaled fair catches to the 25-yard line, matching where touchbacks are placed, with the goal of lowering the amount of high-speed collisions.

Kickoffs changed again last season when the NFL implemented its biggest change yet – dynamic kickoffs. Players start only five yards apart and are not permitted to move until the ball is caught or hits the ground. Like the other changes, this was meant to reduce the player’s speed during collisions. With these changes, the NFL saw a 17% decrease in concussions from the previous season, dropping the rates to a 10-year low of 5.69 concussions per 10 games.

“This is a manipulation of the Law of Acceleration,” said Melissa Anderson, a concussion researcher and professor at Ohio University “By reducing the distance players run, they slow down the average speed, which decreases the force transmitted on impact. Modern players are heavier and faster than ever before, and instead of choosing smaller guys, slowing them down is the only other way they can really manipulate this formula.”

Despite the drop, concussions are still happening at a rate much higher than the early 2000s, when Bob DeMars was playing football at USC. A filmmaker as well, DeMars started looking into the effects of concussions after witnessing firsthand the long-term impact on himself and those around him.

DeMars directed and produced “The Business of Amateurs,” a film that started by looking into the rights of NCAA athletes, but quickly evolved to include the lasting health problems many of them face after college.

“The movie definitely shifted, it evolved,” DeMars said. “Our first subject of the film was somebody whose life was upended at the age of 39, being diagnosed with dementia after being a college football player and not really playing professionally.”

Beyond the obvious concussions and repercussions of football, there is another layer to the impact on football players’ brains. Experts estimate that players experience between 1,000 and 1,800 subconcussive blows every season, depending on the position.

Over time, these impacts are enough to negatively impact a person’s brain activity without them knowing.

“Even people that are headbangers and just go to concerts and move their head around,” DeMars said. “They can have long-term mental health issues just from being a headbanger, and there is going to be a lot more contact in football.”

New technology, like instruments, helmets or mouthguards, can be used to track repetitive hits in real time. Having this kind of data could lead to earlier interventions and better outcomes for players in the long run.

While rule changes and increased awareness have made football safer over the years, work remains to fully protect players, starting with better education. Right now, many athletes don’t know the full risk of playing football, especially when it comes to their brains.

“You sign a document every year when you renew your scholarship that itemizes your body parts,” DeMars said. “If you lose a pinky, it was like six grand. I just remember them running through these documents, and you know what’s not there? Your brain isn’t on there. Your long-term mental health isn’t on there.”

Leagues and organizations have made strides in informing athletes about the signs and symptoms of concussions and have tried to shift the stigma around reporting. This has helped at the higher levels, but confusion remains a widespread problem among the athletes.

“People often ask how many concussions are ‘too many,’ with some proposing the number three as the line in the sand,” Anderson said. “However, there is no set number of concussions that automatically leads to medical retirement. The risks of long-term complications increase with the number of concussions sustained, but the decision to retire is a highly personal one.”

Looking ahead, experts agree that football may never be entirely safe, but opportunities exist to continue lowering concussion risk. Continued development of concussion testing methods could help determine when athletes are actually ready to return.

New research, including BANK CTE and DIAGNOSE CTE-II underway at Boston University, is looking at ways to diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy before death. The studies look at former college and professional football players in order to better understand risk and resiliency factors surrounding head trauma.

Previous studies at the Boston University CTE Center have shown that for each year of tackle football participation, the risk of developing CTE increases by 30%.

“Other youth sports organizations, like USA hockey, have taken measures to increase the age children can body check to 13,” Goostrey said. “This aids in reducing the number of repetitive head impacts and concussions that youth ice hockey players may experience. I think youth football leagues should adopt what ice hockey has done to promote brain safety starting at the youth level.”

Innovations in equipment are also continuing, as position-specific helmet designs are being tested and implemented into the game. These helmets account for the different impacts each position faces, from a quarterback who is being sacked to a lineman who sees repetitive, lower-speed contact.

Football may never be risk-free, but ongoing research, evolving technology and better education for athletes can create a safer future without losing the essence of the sport.