Wiedmer: Let’s banish the helmet-to-helmet hit from football forever

I’m not a Minnesota Vikings fan, so this rant has nothing to do with the facemask penalty that was not assessed against Los Angeles Rams (and former Tennessee Vol) Byron Young late in the Rams’ 30-20 win over the Vikes Thursday night .

But the replay clearly showed that Young not only grabbed the left side of Minnesota quarterback Sam Darnold with 1:46 left as Darnold tried to pass the ball out of his own end zone, but also that his head clearly jerked, jerked and unscrewed from his grip, Young eventually threw Darnold to the ground.

And although two referees were supposed to be watching Darnold at the time of the play, neither saw the infraction.

So they couldn’t tell, or so Dumb and Dumber said, which meant a safety was called against the Vikes, who trailed 28-20 before the safety, with the two points from the safety making up the final score.

So much for protecting the quarterback. So much for the instant replay, when everyone in the stadium and on television across the universe could see that there was a blatant, obvious call for face coverings. However, it appears that a facemask call IS NOT… A VERIFIABLE… GAME.

Listen, I’m all for reducing the number of repetitions, or at least reducing the amount of time spent on them. And many calls are somewhat subjective. For example, different officers may come to different conclusions when making an arrest.

But a face mask is pretty obvious and can cause serious injury or at least a bad headache. And we live in a time in which we should protect players more, especially in the head and neck area. So as soon as a facemask violation is detected — and it almost always happens within about five seconds — why not have the replay booth signal the on-field officials to throw a flag? It wouldn’t slow the game down significantly – maybe 60 seconds at the top – and it would at least penalize a dangerous play.

But what really needs to change is the repeated helmet-to-helmet hits that endanger the long-term health of any player who receives them and, in many cases, become a welcome trigger for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which in severe cases Cases _ and there is currently no way to diagnose it until the patient has died, but it closely resembles dementia and patients usually die by age 60.

The conventional wisdom over the years is that CTE is linked to concussions, but a 2023 study by Dr. Daniel Daneshvar from Massachusetts General Hospital and Dr. Jesse Mez of Boston University suggests that it’s not the number of concussions, but the total number of hits that could increase the risk of CTE.

This is where the helmet-to-helmet threat comes into play and the need to get rid of it. If you tune in to a college football game this weekend, you’ll likely see at least one targeted call. The NCAA, college coaches and college administrators will swear to you that they want to reduce head hits. This is supposedly why the targeting rule exists. If a player is found guilty of targeting, he will be removed from the game and will have to sit out the next half. So if a targeted decision is made against you in the second half, you are out in the first half of the next game.

But it’s all largely a PR lie. Just this season they changed the rule to reduce the portion of the helmet that could result in a targeting call. If it is anything other than the top or crown of the helmet, DO NOT AIM.

Are you kidding me? At a time when nearly 9 percent of those playing at the college level will suffer at least one concussion this year, with all players, especially skill position players, taking a hit to the head and neck area at least 10 times per game , you can only receive a target call when the replay booth detects that you hit their helmet with the helmet crown. Yes, I’m sure all those little brain cells being shaken back and forth like scoops of ice cream in a blender as they turn into a milkshake are saying to each other, “Oh, we’re good at this mid-air collision because of that Referee said that wasn’t the case.”t targeted. Whooooo!”

The truth is, according to Dr. Daneshvar and Mez, EVERY… SINGLE… HIT on the head counts.

Or like Dr. Daneshvar noted in a National Institutes for Health article last year: “This study suggests that we could reduce the risk of CTE by making changes in the way soccer players train and play.” If we reduce both the number of head impacts as well as reducing the force of these blows in training and games, we could reduce the likelihood of athletes developing CTE.”

This brings me to how to stop this. All such hits to the head, particularly those from helmet to helmet, will be penalized by a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Unlike targeting, the player could at least remain in the game for such a penalty. Maybe he could be kicked out after two. The key, however, is to punish the offending player until coaches start forcing their players to attack below the neck.

Like Dr. Mez noted in the same article, somewhat dismissing concerns about concussion in favor of total blows to the head: “These results provide additional evidence that repetitive, non-concussive head injuries, rather than symptomatic concussions, are a major driver of CTE pathology.”

It won’t be easy or quick to change the culture of tacklers who instinctively aim for the head. These hits are glorified on social media and sports channels. This is how NASCAR wrecks used to spark fans’ interest in the sport.

As a longtime SEC defensive coach once told me about not telling his players to hit below the neck: “We want them (opponents) to know we’re there.”

But you can’t help but wonder whether these hits will be allowed to continue, whether either the tackler or the player being tackled will still know something years from now.

(Email Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@mccallie.org)