Before the 2009 season when the league finally made a high-profile attempt to crack down on players being put back into games following concussions and introducing on field penalties for helmet-to-helmet contact, it has so far appeared that the culture of the sport has failed to adapt sufficiently.
In week 1 of the season for example, Philadelphia Eagles players Kevin Kolb and Stewart Bradley both suffered concussions, Bradley's with dramatic immediate effects
Stewart Bradley falls concussed to the ground
Almost defying belief, Bradley was put back into the game shortly afterwards only to be fully withdrawn later on. Incidents such as these, where despite the league insisting that coaches must perform substantive 'tests' on the sidelines to determine whether a player can return to the action, clearly show that the policy is not working.
And there is plenty of tragic evidence from the league's history, often swept under the carpet or blamed on other problems that signifies the extreme jeopardy players are being placed in when such apparent disregard for safety occurs.
Mike Webster, who died in 2002
Mike Webster, Justin Strzelczyk, Andre Waters and Terry Long are just a few of the known cases of former players who went on to develop serious mental issues in later life, often resulting in suicide.
Scientists believe that repetitive stress on the head and frequent concussions can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, similar to the condition that many boxers face following their careers in the ring.
CTE causes symptoms ranging from memory loss, a deterioration in mental ability, loss of co-ordination and speech problems, and a host of more general behavioral issues-explosive, inappropriate or uncharacteristic actions, jealousy, paranoia and depression.
Research is still in a relatively early stage in this area, and has meant that players such as Waters and Strzelczyk were only posthumously identified as having suffered brain damage caused by playing that may have determined their tragic final actions.
As a result, researchers are now encouraging both current and former players to help participate in co-operating with ongoing studies in an effort to better understand the long-term side effects of the game.
What is most worrying is that once you begin to research the effect of concussions in football, you find extensive examples of the devastating results.
In his book 'Head Game: Football's Concussion Crisis' published in 2006, former Harvard footballer and pro wrestler Chris Nowinski, who suffered his own career-ending concussive injury, describes the fog of ignorance surrounding the problem:
'The more I looked into my concussive problems, the more I realized that I had never heard of any of the true dangers posed by head injuries. Nor had the rest of the United States, it seemed. Why? Because the organization (NFL) with the most money to study concussions and the biggest stage from which to spread the message at this point hasn't shown the ability to publicize the truth about these devastating injuries.'
Part of the problem is the culture of the sport, from sidelines to locker rooms, where players are both scared to speak out when they have suffered an injury for fear of losing a spot on the team, and feel peer pressure from team mates to not appear 'soft' by stopping playing. It is not just players either; cases such as that of Stewart Bradley show that certain coaches are just as guilty of putting the performance of the team above the safety of their players.
The game itself has also evolved so that the helmet is no longer as much a protective item as a weapon. The frequency of helmet-to-helmet hits over the standard wrap-tackling has increased rapidly in recent decades, as defensive players go for dramatic show-reel plays that broadcasters such as ESPN show endlessly on Sports Center.
It's encouraging to see new helmet technology being developed to try and combat the effects of blows to the head, but it's going to take a sea-change in player attitudes led by early education to protect oneself properly on the field to avoid future cases like that of Justin Strzelczyk.
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