NFL announces new sideline concussion protocol
The NFL is taking sideline safety to a whole other level next season.
Beginning in 2011-12, the league is implementing new concussion assessment measures in which players will be evaluated for any signs of neurological impairment after suffering a traumatic hit, the NFL's head, neck and spine committee revealed.
Within the new system announced on Friday, players would be subject to undergoing a symptom checklist, cognitive as well as neurological examination and a balance assessment.
Dr. David W. Dodick, a consultant in neurology at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., told CBC Sports' Teddy Katz that this will be an important step in limiting the number of head injuries in the league.
"One of the main problems is recognition, identification and diagnosis of concussions," he said. "It's hard to take a player out of the game if you don't recognize and diagnose a concussion.
"So what [the NFL is] doing with this sideline assessment, formalizing it and standardizing it, is a wonderful thing."
Yet, Dodick is concerned about the procedure itself, still in its infancy. He says that, as of now, there is no formal certification required for the individuals evaluating the players.
"It takes experience and formal training so the certification process will give everybody confidence," said the professor, "including the players and the people who are conducting these sideline assessments."
With concussions and the associated neurological damage gaining more and more public recognition, Dodick believes the NFL's policies could become a valuable asset and applicable to other leagues like the NHL.
In the case of Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, who was knocked down after a blindside hit by Dave Steckel during the NHL Heritage Classic against the Washington Capitals on New Year's Day, he returned to the ice and kept on playing.
Dodick believes that had the standardized sideline testing been in place, Crosby would have been pulled from the game and gone to the locker room for further evaluation, preventing any worsening of symptoms.
"When you conduct sideline assessments they need to be done in quiet and away from all the action," he said, "because of all the lights, all the mayhem that's going on by the bench and in the arena is very distracting for both the person doing the assessment as well as the athlete.
"So it needs to be done in a quiet area so the player can actually perform the test properly and the individual conducting the test can actually do it at his or her own pace and interpret the results properly."