NFL, NFLPA agree on concussion monitoring plan, differ on timeline – NFL News
National Football League (NFL), the premier American football league, and the football players' representative body, NFL Players Association (NFLPA) have agreed to give high priority to the issue of concussion monitoring at each
game.
However, differences are reported to have emerged between the two bodies over some of the aspects of the monitoring plan including its timeline and methodology for implementation.
Information available online has indicated that both bodies have agreed to the plan with aim to respond more proactively to the issue by monitoring each game. However, some reports said that there were some conflicting views presented
by the two sides with regard to placing of a medical observer inside the NFL command centre.
NFLPA medical director Dr. Thom Mayer has said on the Saturday night that the NFL office, starting from Sunday, will place a medical observer in the NFL headquarters in New York in line with the concussion monitoring plan. He said
all the games are shown live in the NFL headquarters through wide screens. It could prove an experimental step towards monitoring of the concussions incidents in the each game.
NFL Office spokesman Greg Aiello however downplayed that there was a plan to place an observer at the NFL main office starting from Sunday.
"There have been internal discussions that included having someone in the command centre, but that won't happen today and there's not a lot of interest on our side in doing that. The more likely scenario is placing someone at each
game site, but there's no timetable for starting it," he said.
Dr. Mayer said that the observer was being installed at the League's centre to protect the players. He said that to place someone in the NFL headquarters, from Sunday, was an exercise with prospects to extend the system to ensure
the players safety.
He said: "There would not necessarily be communication with those game sites immediately, but it will provide us with a step of improved coordination. Eventually, our goal is to have booth observers at each game who do nothing
but watch for those concussions that may be missed from the sideline view.”
He said that in case of the concussions relevant staff would alerted by the monitors to recover the player immediate from the field. He there were some serious risks involved due to concussions and the most serious was trauma,
especially if the player continues to play the game despite the concussion.
Few players have recently suffered concussions and are nursing their injuries while sitting on the sidelines. In them included are the San Diego Chargers’ pro bowl guard Kris Dielman. He suffered the injury in their game against
New York Jets on October 23, and has yet to recover.
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