The National Football League announced last week new penalties that could help protect players’ brains. After a weekend particularly full of violent hits, the League decided to suspend players for tackles that had previously merely been punished by fines. This is the most ambitious regulation that aims to protect players by changing how the game is played.
The NCAA must follow suit and pursue a policy that achieves the same goals and is enforceable for all of its teams. Critical injuries happen to players below the professional level as well, and athletes must be discouraged from seriously hurting each other at a young age.
The consequences of football injuries have become a particularly salient issue at Penn lately. It was revealed last month that Penn football captain Owen Thomas was found to have had a brain injury linked to head trauma at the time of his suicide last spring. Since the disease isn’t diagnosed until death, who knows how many more college players are already suffering from the condition? And college players face other debilitating problems as well.
Last month, we wrote that the NCAA’s concussion policy should be more strict and specific, leaving less decision making up to individual colleges. A rule change like the one put into place by the NFL is the type of harsher, more concrete direction college programs need. Rules combined with increased education would help keep players safe.
