UGA’s cheerleaders had more concussions than football players, says sports medicine director – For The Win

WASHINGTON — Concussions and football have become synonymous. But as it turns out, athletes who play the perceived most-violent sport may not have the most danger for concussions.

At the Knight Commission forum on Intercollegiate Athletics, former United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan asked panelists who were discussing the health, safety and well-being of college athletes to rank their level of concern for concussions in specific sports.

Football was not No. 1.

“Over the last four years, we’ve had more concussions in cheerleading than we have in football and soccer,” Georgia sports medicine director Ron Courson said.

Princeton director of athletic medicine Margot Putukian echoed this surprising sentiment.

“Wrestling is very high,” she said. “Followed by American football, ice hockey, lacrosse.”

She also mentioned rugby, which is played in the Ivy League. Soccer was not discussed or ranked on the list for Duncan.

Myron Rolle, a Knight Commission member who played safety at Florida State and briefly for the Tennessee Titans, asked the panel for suggestions on how athletes can reconcile accepting an opportunity to get an education by earning a scholarship, but then facing the risk presented given the current state of brain injuries in sports.

“There’s more that we don’t know about these effects compared to what we’re learning and the risk of participating in sport is the way you look at it,” Putukian said. “There’s a much higher risk of brain injury on a bicycle, on a motorcycle, on a skateboard. Horse jockeys have 50 times the incidents of brain injury than NFL players.”

There was discussion amongst the panel — mainly between Putukian and Courson — regarding minimizing contact drills in practice. NCAA regulations currently do not address in-season, full-contact practices. The Ivy League and Pac-12 are the only conferences that have limited in-season, full-contact practices (two per week) and have policies for contact practices in spring and preseason practices. Both conferences cite safety concerns as the primary reasoning for reducing contact.

“Drills that we did 20 years ago, 30 years ago, we need to change,” Courson said. “From a rules standpoint, we can make it safer. From a practice standpoint, we can control it.”