All concussions are serious injuries.

If you have not yet had the chance, you should check out the following article in GQ magazine (October 2009):  Game Brain.  It is a thought provoking piece written by Jeanne Marie Laskas that takes a look at chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in primarily ex-NFL players. The article begins with the following excerpt:

Let’s say you run a multibillion-dollar football league. And let’s say the scientific community—starting with one young pathologist in Pittsburgh and growing into a chorus of neuroscientists across the country—comes to you and says concussions are making your players crazy, crazy enough to kill themselves, and here, in these slices of brain tissue, is the proof. Do you join these scientists and try to solve the problem, or do you use your power to discredit them?

Former Pittsburgh Steelers great Mike Webster died at the age of fifty and ended up on the slab of a young Nigerian born forensic pathologist/neuropathologist named Bennet Omalu.  Dr. Omalu became obsessed with how this Pittsburgh hero went from a larger than life athlete to a man whose very sanity was questioned.  Omalu theorized dementia pugilistica and set out to prove his findings. He began to run special tests which resulted in microscopic analysis of  Mike Webster’s brain tissue.  Dr. Omalu began processing slide of brain tissue after slide of brain tissue; so many, in fact, that he had to start paying for the tests out of his own pocket.

The breakthrough came when he got a set of slides back and found large accumulations of tau proteins all over the place. The tau proteins were responsible for killing brain cells in the regions of the brain responsible for mood, emotions, and executive functioning.   Dr. Omalu published his findings thinking that the doctors of the NFL would look at this scientific evidence that repeated blows to the head (like those sustained in a football game) could cause severe brain damage.  What happened turned out to be very different.  The NFL set out to discredit the young scientist and his findings.

While the NFL was attempting to discredit Dr. Omalu and his findings, ex-NFL players kept ending up on Dr. Omalu’s slab.  Ex-players with advanced CTE:

• Former Pittsburgh Steelers guard Terry Long dead at 45 after drinking antifreeze.
• Former Philadelphia Eagles safety Andre Waters dead at 44 after shooting himself in the mouth.
• Former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive linemen Justin Strzelczyk dead at 36 after crashing his car into a tanker carrying corrosive acid during a police chase.
• Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive linemen Tom McHale dead at 45 after a lethal combination of oxycodone and cocaine.
• Former Miami Dolphins cornerback Gerald Small found dead at 52.
• Former San Diego Charger center Curtis Whitley found dead at 39.

At the time the article went to press Dr. Omalu had found 17 confirmed cases of dead ex-players with advanced CTE. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is not limited to professional athletes.  I was rather shocked to find the following comments in a follow up Q & A Jeanne Marie Laskas had with Julian Bailes – chairman of the department of neurosurgery at the West Virginia University School of Medicine:

Q. We’re not just talking about NFL players. The congressional hearings are possibly looking into the effects of head trauma on college and high school players, too.

Shockingly, we have found this even at the high school level. Bennet Omalu has examined the brains of three high school players who died as a result of injuries they sustained from playing football. In the brain of one of the players, he found incipient CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Q. CTE in a high school football player—the same sort of brain damage that led to the downfall of Mike Webster, Terry Long, Andre Waters, and so many others?

Right. In a high school player. It gets back to the point you made in the GQ article: What is the NFL’s responsibility for the greater good? The greater good, meaning all the young men and women who desire to participate in football and other contact sports, the ones who aspire at a young age to emulate the NFL and their players and are fueled by their advertising and the incessant bombardment of our society. What is their responsibility to the greater good? I don’t know. They’re going to have to answer that.

Repetitive brain injuries are no laughing matter. They are simply a matter of life and death. Football is an extremely violent game. We can try to minimize risk by enforcing rules that prohibit the most violent types of contact (e.g. illegal helmet contact). Sadly, we simply cannot prevent all traumatic brain injuries. However, it is incumbent on players, coaches, officials, and administrators to know the signs of concussion and be vigilant about checking players for signs of loss of consciousness.  Fortunately, the NFHS gives us guidance in things to look for when making the determination of whether or not a player has lost consciousness.

3.5.10 SITUATION D:

What guidelines should the officials follow in determining if a player is apparently unconscious?

RULING: Some obvious guides would be that the player is unable to receive information and/or unable to respond to questions or the player’s responses are inappropriate. The observation of the player will normally be made by more than one official, and in some cases may involve the entire crew. If the officials determine a player appears to be unconscious, he must leave and may not return to the game without the written authorization of a physician (MD/DO).

Additional common symptoms include:

• Unusually long headaches
• Memory impairment
• Difficulty concentrating
• Ringing in the ears
• Persistent neck pain
• Fatigue, lack of motivation, reduced energy
• Light/noise sensitivity
• Disruption of normal sleep schedule
• Nausea/vomiting
• Vision problems

The vast majority of coaches properly place the safety and welfare of their players ahead of winning a contest.  They also recognize the dangers that traumatic brain injuries pose to their scholar athletes.  I have, however, personally observed what I would assume to be temporary lapses in judgment by coaches in the heat of the moment.  These coaches have attempted to send in players that had gone out earlier in the game after displaying signs of loss of consciousness.

In such cases we, as officials, are the last line of defense. Don’t let a coach’s momentary lapse in judgment jeopardize the future of their scholastic athlete. Call an officials time out and invoke 3-5-10 d.

The NFHS defines three types of illegal helmet contact: spearing, butt blocking, and face tackling. Spearing is an act by an offensive or defensive player who initiates contact against any opponent with the top of his helmet (2-20-1 [c]). Butt blocking is an act by an offensive or defensive player who initiates contact against an opponent who is not the ball carrier with the front of his helmet (2-20-1 [a]). Face tackling is an act by a defensive player who initiates contact with a ball carrier with the front of his helmet (2-20-1 [b]).

Talk to a group of 100 high school football officials and you are likely to get 100 different points of view when it comes to calling illegal helmet contact. Some believe it’s no big deal and simply will not call it. Some believe it should be called any time you suspect you may have seen it regardless of whether or not it actually took place. However, most fall somewhere in the middle.

The majority of officials, coaches, players, and fans recognize that a significant danger exists when a player leads with his head and makes initial contact with the helmet. There is, however, a misconception as to whom is at most risk. While many think that the illegal helmet contact rules were put in place to protect the player being hit, it is actually the player delivering the blow that is most at risk of catastrophic injury. Illegal helmet contact is the only foul where a player is penalized for his own safety.

Despite the risks, illegal helmet contact is not called nearly enough – at any level.

In 2005, the NATA/AFCA task force conducted a survey of NCAA officials on the existing helmet contact rule. More than 200 officials from the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern conferences responded. In the 2005 season, those officials called 2,027 games with the average of 9.9 games each. When questioned regarding how many helmet contact penalties they had called over the past year, 80 percent said they had not called a helmet contact penalty the entire season. Sixteen percent had called one, two percent had called two and two percent had called three. No official called more than three of those penalties.

NCAA Football 2007 • A supplement to the NCAA Football Rules • Prepared by the editors of Referee magazine

“Make sure you are calling what you see and pass on any foul you are not sure of” could be the mantra of football clinicians.

Unfortunately, illegal helmet contact is simply a hard foul to call. It’s difficult to see in the best of cases – the head is normally lowered or lunged forward a fraction of a second before contact. Blink and you miss it. It’s not an impossible foul to call, though. I’ve made it a personal point of emphasis this year.

Working semi-pro games over the summer, I’ve noticed that – like all other things in the game – illegal helmet contact slows down after you’ve gone out of your way to see it a few times. While difficult, it’s not impossible to see and call.

We can do better. We must do better.

Or the next kid that leaves the field on a backboard is on all of us.

In the video clip below, we have a legal forward pass that ends up simultaneously possessed by airborne offensive and defensive players. The defensive player in joint possession of the ball appears to return to the field of play in his own end zone prior to the offensive player. The ruling on the field by the side judge was touchdown.

Is this play a touchdown or an interception? Did the crew get it right?

The correct answer, of course, is… it depends.

This play highlights one of the areas where the NFHS (high school) and NCAA (college) rule sets differ.

Under NFHS rules, “a forward pass, legal or illegal, is complete and may be advanced when caught by any player A or B. If a forward pass is caught simultaneously by two opponents, the ball becomes dead and belongs to the passing team. (7-5-4)”. Since possession of a live ball in the opponents end zone is always a touchdown (8-2-1), this play would result in a touchdown under Federation rules.

Under NCAA rules, the legal forward pass is considered completed or intercepted by the player who first returns to the ground in bounds when joint possession is established with both players in the air (AR 7-3-6 II). In this case since the defensive player returned to the ground on the field of play first, the play would result in an interception. Since the ball became dead in possession of a player behind the goal line and the offense was responsible for the ball being there (8-6-1 [a]), the play results in a touchback under NCAA rules.

This is a high school game played under NFHS rules between the Blackhawk Cougars and Montour Spartans in Pennsylvania.

The side judge was in perfect position and ruled correctly, touchdown!

Who am I?

My name is Brett Anderson. I currently reside in Grayslake, IL with my wife and twin children. Since 2006 I have been a licensed official with the Illinois High School Association (IHSA). I am currently licensed in six sports: football, soccer, wrestling, basketball, baseball, & softball. My officiating career got off to an auspicious start in November of my first year when I tore an ACL and shredded a medial meniscus officiating my first contest. The rehab process was significantly slowed due to the fact that I had one month old twins (Owen & Marlo) at home at the time, so I was unable to take the field, court, mat, or diamond until the following August.

Undeterred by my initial experience and with the help of a wonderful extended family, I began to officiate games the following fall at the pace of 300 – 400 per year. I’ve developed a true passion for the avocation of officiating and the perpetual quest for the perfect game.

Professionally, I spend my days working as a software engineer. Since 2003, I have been employed byFry, Inc working out of our office in Westmont, IL.

Why bother with blogging?

Mostly for selfish reasons. I’ve found that to truly master a craft you have to be capable of instruct others in the various aspects of that craft. I spend a significant amount of time working to improve as an official and I believe this to be an extension of that work. I am hoping that people will find these blog posts factually correct, informative, useful, and/or interesting. I believe that blogs of this nature work better as conversations, so please feel free to leave on topic comments or send me an email message.

Isn’t this a bit presumptuous at this point in your officiating career?

Possibly.

However, I’m looking at this as simply an exercise where I can organize my thoughts on various aspects of officiating. Nothing more. Nothing less. Posting my thoughts publicly not only invites feedback that I might not be able to receive via other various channels, but allows for the possibility that others can benefit from my work.

The thoughts expressed here are mine and not representative of my employer, any association of which I am a member, or the IHSA.

How can I contact you?

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