Dr. Arthur Caplan is the founding head of New York University's Division of Bioethics. He is also the co-director and assistant dean of research at the NYUSPS Sports and Society program, which delves deeply into the health aspects of concussions, joint injuries and other wellness issues related to sports.
Caplan then, though not a medical doctor, is well-versed in the subject of head trauma and its myriad devastating impacts on the human brain. So when he sees eight Ivy League schools come together to ban tackling during in-season football practices, he feels hopeful at the same time as he's skeptical of the future of a sport that is, at its very core, contact-based.
"I think it's a good move. I think it makes it safer," Caplan said. "But there's an irony. The only way to make football safer is to play less of it. They're not using better helmets or equipment. There is no way around the damage done by contact, so we need to play less."
In 2010, Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens implemented procedures that would do away with full-contact practices for his players during the season. Instead of hitting teammates, Teevens' players worked on their tackling form against pads and dummies and even utilized a "mobile virtual player" that mimics the movements of a flesh-and- blood player and provides a moving target for tacklers.
This week, Teevens and seven other Ivy League coaches voted unanimously to eliminate full-contact practices entirely during the regular season in an effort to decrease the chances of their players suffering a significant injury. The measure is expected to be introduced formally once affirmed by the league's athletic directors, policy committee and university presidents.
But what does it mean for the future of football, a sport that finds its most fundamental aspects in and creates its most ardent fans via bone-crunching hits and highlight reel tackles? Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris made it a point after the coach's vote had passed to say that it wasn't an attempt to change the "nature of the game," only to make it safer.
But how realistic is that when, as Caplan notes, making the game safer means playing less of it?
"No one has ever studied how much practice you need to be a good tackler," said Caplan. "In the pros, over the summer there was less contact, and at the beginning of the season tackling wasn't as good. Tackling is so basic to the game, so not practicing will definitely change the nature of the game."
Concussions are difficult to curb largely because, as Caplan notes, there's almost no agreement in the medical community on how or why they are caused or the manner in which they effect people. Some former NFL players ride off into the sunset, issue-free. Others struggle with dizzy spells and memory gaps. Still others struggle to adjust to a life that no longer seems worth living.
In an effort to, at the very least, limit the opportunities players have to sustain head injuries, the NFL has adopted new policies, outlined in the 2012 Collective Bargaining Agreement, that limit the amount of contact practices teams can hold in the offseason and during the year; during the 18-week regular season, NFL teams are allowed just 14 full-contact practices. In similar fashion, the Ivy League already had guidelines in place prior to this week's vote, limiting the amount of contact during the spring and preseason.
Last season, there were 271 reported concussions in the NFL, up about 58 precent from the prior year. Why? Ostensibly because there are better protocols in place with league and team spotters to ensure concussed players come off the field and stay off. The NFL had boasted that the changes outlined in the 2012 CBA had resulted in fewer concussions in both 2013 (229) and 2014 (206), but that number, of course, rose dramatically in 2015.
Even at the lowest levels of the sport, where 6- and 7-year-olds in oversized pads and helmets line up across from one another as parents look on, some changes have been implemented. But it's not widespread enough.
"Tackling is not the trend of the future, in fact we are looking at flag football for the little kids," Caplan stated flatly.
There are, of course, other avenues for attempting to ensure the safety of football players and other athletes in contact-based sports. Better helmets - Denver Broncos' cornerback Aqib Talib helped his team to a Super Bowl 50 victory while wearing a groundbreaking helmet, filled with air-filled shock absorbers made by a Detroit-based company named Xenith - and rule changes - the NFL has attempted to increase fines and penalties for helmet-to-helmet hits and hits on defenseless receivers - but Caplan views the Ivy League's decision as a likely precursor to what may well be an inevitability.
Because when parents across the U.S. finally start to hold their children out of football, either altogether or at the very least until an age at which their brains have more fully developed, the game itself may look very different.
"There is no excuse for youth playing tackle football or banging heads until they get to high school," said Caplan. "Practicing as a Pee-Wee doesn't make you any better. If this doesn't change, football will be in trouble."
