🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
The NFL's new concussion protocol has been praised by a leading expert, who has said that the speed that the authorities have acted means players will now be safer.
The league adapted its protocols after a head and neck injury suffered by Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in Week 3 of the season.
While another concussion expert has expressed his concerns to Newsweek about how far the new protocol will go to help players, Dr. Deepak Chona, a Stanford- and Harvard-trained orthopedic sports surgeon and founder of SportsMedAnalytics, has told Newsweek that he welcomes the changes.
Dr. Chona said: "I'm overall encouraged by the NFL's response to the Tua Tagovailoa concussion situation because of the speed with which they adapted their protocols.
"The diagnosis of concussion is not always clear, so these situations present with inherent medical challenges.
"We don't have definitive testing methods for concussions, as they aren't easily identified on X-Rays or blood samples."
Speaking about the injury suffered by the Dolphins passer, Dr. Chona continued: "In the prior NFL protocol, a player who exhibited unsteadiness—as Tua Tagovailoa famously did in Week 3—didn't necessarily have to be removed from play.
"In this case, Tua was reportedly symptom-free, passed clinical concussion testing, and explained his near-fall as a back injury flaring up.
"Now, a player who demonstrates an impact to the head and subsequent loss of coordination—regardless of explanation—must sit out the remainder of the game."
Dr. Chona said that while the new threshold will affect teams, it will be for the good of those playing the game.
He continued: "Essentially, the NFL is lowering the threshold for intervention. This will, of course, lead to some players being ruled out without having concussions.
"However, the modification will also ultimately protect some who could've otherwise been missed. Medically, it's undeniably safer for the players."
Despite more players essentially finding themselves pulled out of games due to the new protocol after a heavy hit, Dr. Chona said that recovery times should not be affected and there shouldn't be many delays in players returning from the sidelines in the following games.
He said: "We suspect that return-to-play timelines after initiation of concussion protocol won't be drastically affected.
"NFL doctors and coaches are likely to exercise an abundance of caution, but the NFL's post-diagnosis concussion management was already evidence-based and relatively effective.
"Eventually, the future of concussions will likely involve better diagnostic testing."
Dr. Chona revealed that research at Harvard would help teams identify how serious the concussion is.
He continued: "Recent research from the team here at Harvard demonstrated the ability to use biomarkers (aka results from urine or blood tests) in combination with functional testing (aka analyzing an athlete's gait) to successfully diagnose concussions.
"Building on these findings, implementing new testing and monitoring algorithms, and optimizing their accuracy is what we hope and expect to experience in the coming years.
"Given the current medical landscape of concussion management, the NFL's handling of the current challenge gives me optimism.
"As new science is discovered and diagnostic techniques are developed, they've given us reason to believe that they will be rapid to adapt again."
This comes after Chris Nowinski, who founded the Concussion Foundation and wrote Head Games: Football's Concussion Crisis From the NFL to Youth Leagues, told Newsweek that he fears that players could be in danger from long-term damage as the protocol doesn't go far enough to ensure all outcomes are covered.
Speaking to Newsweek, Nowinski said: "I don't think the new protocol is a substantial change from the protocol that failed Tua Tagovailoa.
"While the word ataxia was added as a no-go, it still relies on the judgment of the physician to determine that signs of ataxia were indeed due to a neurological injury and not an orthopedic injury. That is where the mistake was made for Tua, and that gap remains."
He added: "While it makes sense on paper to put the final call in the hands of the physician, the public needs to know that the protocol remains a risky one, and it should not be used as a model for children."
