Week 8 Injury Report : Will Fuller's ACL, The Non-Existent Helmet Rule, Merril Hoge's "Brainwashed" Book & Dartmouth's Non-Contact Practices

Week 8 Injury Report : Will Fuller's ACL, The Non-Existent Helmet Rule, Merril Hoge's "Brainwashed" Book & Dartmouth's Non-Contact Practices

Kevin Saum
2018 Injury Reports

After each week of NFL football games for the 2018- 2019 season, the Heads 'N Tales podcast will be posting an episode dedicated to injuries and health & safety topics surrounding the NFL. Specifically we will talk about possible prevention strategies, the rulebook, equipment and other injury buzz around the league.  

The strategist for these episodes will be one of my closest friends, Josh Boyd.  Josh and I grew up playing baseball together. Josh was a division-1 center fielder for Monmouth University and experienced his fair share of injuries throughout his career.  Although Josh never played organized football, the dude flat-out knows the game of football and undoubtably knows more about the ins-and-outs of the sport better than I do from both a fan and x's & o's perspective.  

Dr. Wazim Buksh "Waz" is the newest member to the Heads 'N Tales team and has been a long time friend of mine.   Waz will serve as the medical expert in these recordings to give you the most realistic expectations for when your favorite players go down with an injury and what their road to recovery will look like.  Dr. Buksh is board certified in both Internal and Sports Medicine. Waz completed his sports medicine fellowship with the New York Jets medical staff in 2014.

Our intention for these episodes is to spark conversations around topics that are usually brushed under the rug or only minimally covered in the hopes of making football and all sports safer for the athletes who play them.  

You are currently looking at the show notes for Week 8 of the 2018 season!

Week 8 Injuries:

Houston Texans: Will Fuller, WR, ACL

Cincinnati Bengals: Carl Lawson, DE, ACL

Arizona Cardinals: David Johnson, RB, Concussion

  • Friendly fire from the veteran?

Buffalo Bills: Tremaine Edmunds, DB, Concussion

  • Helmet rule is non-existent…

Pittsburgh Steelers: Ben Roethlisberger, QB, Broken Left Index Finger

  • Non-throwing hand.

  • Dr. Waz gives his prognosis.

And SO MANY HAMSTRING INJURIES!

Thoughts on Merril Hoge’s book, "Brainwashed: The Bad Science Behind CTE and the Plot to Destroy Football."

Week 7 #NFLWayToPlay Award Recipient:

  • Weaksauce in our opinions…

Other examples of good technique tweeted by Troy Vincent

Don't really see the NFL posting the illegal hits like the NHL does and like they were posting earlier in the season…

NFL operations meeting with NCAA:

Dartmouth Football:

Highlights from article…

  • In 2010, the Big Green eliminated tackling in all practices — even preseason camp and spring ball. Coach Buddy Teevens likes to say that a freshman will play four years without being tackled by another Dartmouth player. The N.C.A.A. has since recommended dialing back contact significantly in practice.

  • A couple of years ago, Dartmouth began using moving robots as tackling dummies.

  • Teevens, 62, casts his unusual policies as enlightened self-interest. Practices with less contact mean fewer injuries and fresher players. Never tackling teammates means more, and more precise, work on tackling technique. He estimates that Dartmouth has cut its missed tackles by two-thirds.

  • In 2010, the year Teevens got rid of tackling, Dartmouth had its first winning season in 13 years. In 2015, Dartmouth was 9-1 and won a share of the Ivy title.

  • “This is probably the best Dartmouth team in the last 25 years,” said Tim Murphy, Harvard’s coach since 1994, calling the Big Green “as big and strong and physical a team as we’ll see all year.”

Be on the lookout for Zach Miller’s Players Tribune Documentary (11/14/18):

Maryland Football Coach DJ Durkin Reinstated, Then Fired the Next Day

Download Episode: iTunes | Stitcher 

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