NFL Reports Fewer Concussions in 2013
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David Lee/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Hoping to quell one of the biggest problems facing professional football, the NFL claimed on Thursday that concussions dropped 13 percent in both preseason and regular season games from 2011 to the 2013.
Jeff Miller, NFL senior vice president of health and safety policy, called the latest figure “a positive trend.”
The league is in the midst of trying to hammer out a major settlement with thousands of former players who’ve alleged they were misled by the NFL about the seriousness of concussions during their playing days.
According to statistics collected by the NFL, concussions actually rose from 252 in 2011 to 261 the following year but then fell to 228 in 2013.
Miller explained, “We have been working toward a culture change in the game, with rule and equipment changes, enforcement of rules against head-to-head hits, and we wanted to look at the data to see if that culture change actually is taking place.”
Helmet-to-helmet hits, which are outlawed by the league, dropped 23 percent over the past two seasons.
As for the settlement, a judge ruled that $765 million to cover 20,000 retired players may not be enough and ordered lawyers on both sides of the dispute to go back to the drawing board.
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