Tuesday’s health and safety news from the world of football:
- NFL vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said on his Twitter feed this week that the NFL Competition Committee is pondering adding independent medical timeouts during games. He expounded on that in a conversation with Yahoo!Sports.
- CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora offered four suggestions to help concussion worries in the NFL, including the addition of the medical timeouts, better press-box spotters, expanding game-day rosters and establishing a baseball-like injured reserve list. In regards to the spotters, he said:
- USA Today reported that the NFL Foundation was among four winners of the Youth Sports Safety Ambassador Awards.
- A columnist with the Winnipeg Free Press talked to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ athletic trainer, who details how teams deal with injuries is far greater than it was 10 years ago.
- NFL.com reported that Australian rugby league star Jarryd Hayne had signed with the San Francisco 49ers to begin his dream of playing in the NFL. ESPN.com wrote about what he faces in his transition from rugby to football.
- Titans Online featuredTennessee Titans players who took part in the Music City Polar Plunge for Special Olympics Tennessee.
- Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News called for the Dallas Independent School District – and all Texas high schools – to increase the hiring of athletic trainers.
- Salt Lake City Weekly reported that a bill that would expand the state’s concussion law to youth sports has advanced in the Utah House.
- WOAI-TV in San Antonio looked at BrainHeroes, a concussion study on high school athletes in the city that will be conducted in conjunction with the Alamo Bowl.
- KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh profiled a local inventor who created a headband to reduce head trauma.
- HealthDay reported that a study on college football players that said measuring blood flow to the brain might determine the recovery time from a concussion.
-- Bill Bradley, contributing editor