Concussions in Professional Sports: Health and Safety Analysis

This essay provides a detailed analysis of concussions in professional sports, highlighting the risks associated with these injuries and the importance of health and safety protocols. It discusses the impact of concussions on athletes' lives, the breaching of concussion protocols, and the development of a robust safety culture. The essay emphasizes the roles of various stakeholders, including equipment makers, coaches, and governing bodies, in preventing and managing concussions. It also explores the legal aspects of concussion-related injuries and the need for strict adherence to guidelines. The conclusion underscores the significance of a proactive approach to concussion management, advocating for safer sports environments and the well-being of athletes.

Concussion in Professional Sports
1

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Concussions in sports.............................................................................................................3
Concussion protocols and their breaching.............................................................................4
Development health safety culture for the players.................................................................5
Management of safety culture for players to prevent concussions........................................6
Role of stakeholders in preventing concussions....................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9
2

Introduction
The professional sports such as Football, Ice Hockey, Basketball and such others have got a
significant fan base which make the players perform exceptionally well in the sports without
even taking care of their personal health. The organizations sponsoring these events, thus,
need to be highly responsible for making sure that the players do not suffer from sports
injuries while entertaining the spectators. Concussions gained notoriety initially with their
association with the football injuries but, football is not the only sport which can cause head
injuries to the sportspersons. Other sports such as basketball, ice hockey and such others have
also seen an increase in the number of head injuries or concussions (Quinlan et al., 2010).
Many times, the players do not report the concussions in order to remain in the game and they
do not perceive the injuries to be very serious (Eckhart, 2014). The following essay will
discuss the requirement of the health and safety practices for the sportsmen as well as the
professional working in proximity to these professional in order to prevent the concussions or
the serious brain injuries. It will also highlight how the safety culture can reduce the rate of
concussions and their severity and what roles can the stakeholders play in handling these
situations.
Discussion
Concussions in sports
In the recent years, the media has been highly focusing on the personal lives of the players
apart from just the sports and the scores they make for their teams. The personal life
specifications of the sportspersons include the medical consequences of the injuries they face
while playing that sport. The blows on the head are very common for the players involved in
the sports and the sportscasters focus on concussion testing in such cases to take all the
effective measures to make the sportsmen return to the field as early as possible. These mild
3

head injuries can have a lifelong impact on the lives of the players. They may lead to certain
brain disorders on the players such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and chronic traumatic
encephalopathy (CTE). According to the statistics, about 3.8 concussions occur in the players
every year while engaging in the sports and out of which 50% concussions go unreported
(BrainLine, 2019).
Matt Buntine, a renowned footballer also suffered from a head blow and it changed his
perspective on football. He got two successive blows on his head and missed four to five
weeks of football due to these blows. He faced certain consequences of these blows as he
mentioned, “everything was 10 per cent harder to really switch on when you wanted to. In
terms of training, picking up peripherals was harder and [more] strenuous than normal”.
However, he mentioned that the day to day normal activities did not take much toll on him
but, wherever the hard work was involved, the complications arouse. But despite of these
concussions, Buntine did not change his ways on field and kept playing for the team (Wu,
2015).
Concussion protocols and their breaching
According to the Concussion protocols in Australia, “a player must not return to the field if
they exhibit symptoms of a loss of consciousness, seizure, memory impairment, balance
disturbance (ataxia) or if they fall to the ground without taking protective action” (BBC,
2017). In the majority of the cases, the players and the authorities comply by the concussion
rules but in some matches, it was seen that the rules were breached by the authorities. In
2017, it was observed that three rugby clubs in Australia suffered from fines for not following
the protocols. These teams were Gold Coast Titans, St George Illawarra Dragons and
Newcastle Knights. These heavy fines made it very clear for the players all across the nation
that the player safety can never be put at risk and the breaching of the concussion will not be
tolerated (Guardian News & Media Limited, 2017).
4

Leading to the increase in the rates of concussion in the sports players and the study of the
severity of these concussions, there has been a huge debate regarding the cause. According to
Pachman and Lamba (2017), the standard care pertaining to the concussions has become a
topic of debate in the light of the recent scientific and legal developments. With the
increasing number of concussion related injuries, the large sports welfare organizations like
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Pop Warner, and such other state athletic
associations have also become the targets of litigation. The legal environment pertaining to
the concussion related injuries has become strict and the athletes, the coaches, trainers, sports
associations and other authorities need to understand the protocols effectively. Staying aware
of the guidelines and the changed ideas, the organizations as well as the players can be
protected from handling the lawsuits. The authors have quoted several examples from the
past regarding the lawsuits faced by the sports organizations for not complying by the
concussion related guidelines and protocols. They will also make the sports safer for the
sportspersons. According to the authors, the health and safety of the players must be the
priority (Pachman & Lamba, 2017).
Development health safety culture for the players
Safety culture is one of the major ideas which have been promoted by the governments as
well as sports authorities for achieving the highest standards of safety. Risk awareness is also
a related concept, which promotes the safety among the players (Register-Mihalik et al.,
2017). The safety culture can be established within the organization with the help of the
safety management systems as, major accidents in the organization occur due to the failure of
these systems. The development of the safety culture is a characteristic of groups and not of
individuals. All the groups of individuals need to work in a collaborative manner in order to
make sure that safety is ensured for all the players and they are given proper medical care in
order to make sure that the concussions or other injuries do not result into severe or life on
5

repercussions. According to Hopkins (2005), the safety culture must be established in a way
that it includes all the latent factors into consideration. For instance, if the concussion turns in
to a severe brain injury for the player, it is not the player to be blamed but also the medical
team, coach and other staff members who were either not able to detect the severity of
concussion or allowed the player to play despite of being injured. The concept of risk
awareness is also relevant here, where the players must be made aware of the risks which can
be associated with the concussions (Commonwealth of Australia, 2019). The risks at the
workplace must be considered while developing the risk management plan. The risks which
can prove to be catastrophic might be considered in the plan. The risk ratings and scores must
be given to the identified risks so that their severity can be understood. The latent failures
must also be considered while developing the risk plans and they can be identified using the
Swiss Cheese Model given by James Reason. This model contains various provisions to
consider for identifying the human as well as organizational factors which can contribute to
the risks related to the work, in this case, the sport.
Management of safety culture for players to prevent concussions
Concussions are graded by severity. The concussion can result in lifelong consequences for a
player if its severity is high. Thus, there is a need to identify the risks associated with it, its
causes and develop approaches to reduce it. According to Reason (2000), there are two basic
approaches to determine the solution to a problem. These two approaches include dealing
with the individual person; and dealing with the system as most of the errors in any process
are either a result of the errors committed by a person or due to the lack of measures
developed by the system or authority. The person approach indicates that most of the unsafe
acts arise as a result of personal aberrant mental processes such as forgetfulness, inattention,
negligence, recklessness, poor motivation, and carelessness. In this case, it can be said that
the negligence, recklessness and inattention of the players regarding the concussions can
6

result into severe impacts of the problem. The second approach highlighted by the author is
the system centred approach, which is related to the modification and improvement in the
conditions under which the humans work as the human errors cannot be totally eradicated.
All the hazardous events which might take place within the organization must possess
barriers and the safeguards. The players must be made aware regarding the risks associated
with concussions and there must be strict guidelines to ensure the compliance of the
guidelines (Reason, 2000).
Role of stakeholders in preventing concussions
The role of stakeholders in this aspect is also very relevant. There are a number of
stakeholders associated with a sport. Major stakeholders associated with the sports include
equipment makers, coaches, fans, referees, lawmakers, and governing bodies of sport. The
equipments such as helmets, mouth guards and such others can be worn by the players to
prevent concussions or other types of head injuries. Thus, the equipment makers can use the
latest technological intervention such as placing the accelerometers in the helmets to check
the magnitude and the force of head collisions in real time so that the concussions can be
diagnosed. Coaches can prevent the concussions and severe damages caused by them by
optimization of skill development through training of athletes, and developing a good
sportsmanship. The governing authorities of sports are responsible for policing and enforcing
the safety rules in collision sports, rules related to wearing the safety helmets and other sports
equipments must be made strict. Concussion legislations must be developed for athlete
welfare and three major areas, including education of players and coaches; removing the
players with concussions; and not allowing the players to return without clearance in case of
concussion injury (Guskiewicz et al., 2014).
7

Figure 1: The Concussion Equation
Source: (Guskiewicz et al., 2014)
The diagram shows the key stakeholders which can contribute or control the concussion in
players. The green ovals indicate the areas of management following the concussion.
Conclusion
The above essay shows that concussion has been a major problem for the players and has had
severe consequences for many players. But despite of this, players have been neglecting
them. However, the sports authorities have induced penalties on the teams which do not
comply by the rules. The development of a safety culture needs to be developed for players
both off-ground and on-ground. The roles of stakleholders are also very crucial in developing
concussion safety equipments and legislations.
References
8

BBC, 2017. NRL clubs fined record amount for breaching concussion rules. [Online]
Available at: https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-league/39324940 [Accessed 27 August
2019].
BrainLine, 2019. Concussion and Sports. [Online] Available at:
https://www.brainline.org/article/concussion-and-sports [Accessed 27 August 2019].
Commonwealth of Australia, 2019. Safety culture, collective mindfulness and risk-awareness.
[Online] Available at: http://regnet.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/publications/attachments/
2015-05/WorkingPaper_7_0.pdf [Accessed 27 August 2019].
Eckhart, E., 2014. Looking at the Risk of Concussion in Sports Head On. [Online] Available
at: https://www.brainline.org/article/looking-risk-concussion-sports-head [Accessed 2019].
Guardian News & Media Limited, 2017. NRL stands by concussion fines imposed on clubs
but suspend majority. [Online] Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/apr/06/nrl-stands-by-concussion-fines-imposed-on-
clubs-but-suspend-majority [Accessed 2019].
Guskiewicz, K., Teel, E. & McCrea, M., 2014. Concussion: Key stakeholders and
multidisciplinary participation in making sports safe. Neurosurgery, 75(4), pp.113-18.
Hopkins, A., 2005. Safety, culture and risk: the organisational causes of disasters. CCH
Australia Ltd, Sydney.
Pachman, S. & Lamba, A., 2017. Legal aspects of concussion: The ever-evolving standard of
care. Journal of Athletic Training, 52(3), pp.186–94.
Quinlan, M., Bohle, P. & Lamm, F., 2010. Managing occupational health and safety. 3rd ed.
Palgrave Macmillan.
9

Reason, J., 2000. Human error: Models and management. British Medical Journal,
320(7237), pp.768 - 770.
Register-Mihalik, J., Kroshus, E. & McLeod, T.C.V., 2017. A multifactorial approach to
sport-related concussion prevention and education: Application of the socioecological
framework. Journal of Athletic Training, 52(3), pp.195–205.
Wu, A., 2015. Head knocks give Buntine concussion wakeup. Sydney Morning Herald, 36,
pp.1-2.
10