NFL's Chief Medical Officer Says Rise in Concussions Is a 'Call to Action'

Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL's chief medical officer, said during a meeting of the NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee that the league will attempt to aggressively counteract a 16 percent rise in concussions between the 2016 and 2017 seasons, per Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com.

While the increase from 250 to 291 concussions in 2017 can be attributed, in part, to players self-reporting concussions with more regularity, Sills said the league shouldn't hide behind that fact when analyzing the numbers.

"It's not OK to simply stand behind that and say, 'Well, the numbers are going up because we're doing a better job.' I think to me this is really a call to action to see what we can do to drive it down."

According to Seifert, "47 percent of concussions involved a player addressing symptoms with a medical official, the highest percentage on record."

While that is a step in the right direction, 9 percent of NFL players still suffered a concussion in the 2017 season.

The meeting also outlined various steps the NFL will take to limit the number of concussions suffered by players, including using safer helmets, highlighting warning signs to teams and working to introduce more rules to promote safety.

Additionally, the NFL Players Association distributed a medical book to the players that, in part, helped identify the various warning signs in cases of head trauma and offered more information on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). 

The NFLPA's medical director, Dr. Thom Mayer, further stressed the importance of education in preventing head injuries moving forward:

"With 291 concussions, if we're going to take a progressive strategy toward reducing or eliminating the maximum number of concussions we have, I think it's imperative, and I think we're long past having coaches educated as to how these concussions occur. Not only the head coaches but also the position coaches. I think we have to get down to that level for them to understand precisely how these concussions occur.

"I get that there are 80 guys flying around trying to make the 53[-man roster], but I think we also owe to ourselves and to our players to take an aggressive education program to those coaches and assistant coaches."

Concussions and CTE have become a major storyline in the NFL, as further research continues to identify the long-term risks of head injuries and how regularly football players suffer them. A 2017 study by neuropathologist Dr. Ann McKee, for example, diagnosed CTE in the brains of 110 out of 111 former NFL players.