Athletes hide concussions, foil purpose of new law

By Gabriel Arcaro
A new law passed this summer aims to protect football players and other athletes from concussions; however, this law may not be doing everything it’s intended to do. In interviews with at least a dozen football players this fall, every one admitted to feeling fuzzy or disoriented from hits taken on the field but none had reported it to the coach or trainer, as the new policy requires.



A dozen football players said they kept quiet about head injuries this year. The hockey coach is certain many of his players do the same. Adam Crowley (above) skates against Reading.



“It’s football,” Junior wide receiver Stephen Mattos said earlier this month. “The whole persona of being a football player gives off being a tough kid.” Mattos said he has had his “bell rung” before and has not reported it to a coach or trainer. And he knows teammates who have done the same. “I’d say only about 10 percent of kids go to the trainer,” Mattos estimates.

The law passed in August follows a growing awareness that concussions in high school cause severe brain damage later in life. If athletes experience dizziness or other impairment, under the law they are not supposed to be allowed to resume playing that day, and they cannot return to play in the days that follow until they get cleared by a doctor.


The problem with the policy, however, is that it is almost totally reliant on the confession of the injured athlete. Dizziness and headache can be easy to hide, and athletes know as soon as they say something, the coach is required to sit them out – a big blow to a serious athlete.

“No one’s going to start speaking up,” Mattos said. “That’s how it’s always been.”

Coach Maguire, of the football team, says that there have been no more concussions reported this year than in recent years, showing little change even with a new law.

Hockey coach Mr. Conceison doubts it will be any different with hockey this winter. He suspects concussions go unreported on his team every year, with athletes continuing to play and risking further injury. After all, he points out, there have only been three or four official concussions diagnosed during his 20 years of coaching.

“Many, many more have been undiagnosed,” Mr. Conceison said.

Freshman Randall Larson was one of very few football

players affected by the new concussion policy.

But the kids may not be completely to blame. The mentality of the tough football player who ignores pain for the love of the game has been pushed on them since the first time they saw a game on TV.

Coach Conceison confesses that the game at hand can become distracting to coaches, making them more focused on winning than the well-being of their players.

“When you’re in the moment, you don’t see the big picture,” Mr. Conceison said.

It’s for this reason that the state requires education for trainers and coaches in the new concussion law. This instruction has been meticulous, with each coach having to take an online course that stresses, “When in doubt, take them out.”

Most of the players interviewed, however, say the problem lies with themselves, not with the coaches. Senior Sam Arsenault said coaches told him if he felt disoriented at all “not to mess around with it” and to tell a trainer.

This was not always the case. The coaches of the past had a different mindset, according to Mr. Leonard, the freshman football coach.

“When you got your bell rung, you dealt with it,” Mr. Leonard said about his high school football years.

The increased concern for youth concussions is based on autopsies of deceased football players, such as Owen Thomas, the UPenn student who hanged himself in April. These autopsies have showed signs of brain damage and the disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which probably arose from numerous undiagnosed concussions in high school. The condition shows symptoms similar to Alzheimer’s, such as dementia, dizziness, and confusion.

Concussions have similar symptoms, just less severe, including difficulties with memories, sleep, and appetite.

Randall Larson, a freshman formerly on the football team, suffered one of the most dramatic concussions after being shouldered in the head during a practice.

“You don’t really feel it,” Larson recalled. “You just black out.”

But most concussions don’t involve losing consciousness. Officially, there are 25 symptoms and most can be very subtle, making it entirely up to the athlete to report…or cover up.