The NFL now has 30 medical professionals at each game as it grapples with rule changes and greater head-injury awareness
We are high above the plush seats in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the NFL’s chief medical officer and I, watching the Atlanta Falcons’ Cordarrelle Patterson getting dumped on his back. “As he throws the ball, keep an eye on his head,” Dr Allen Sills says. The tackle looks innocuous, at least at first. But then Sills asks a technician in the video review booth to slow down the footage before viewing it from another angle. Now it is clear that, as Patterson falls, his head spanks the turf and ricochets up. The incident, from the NFL game in London on Sunday 10 October, led to a call being made downstairs from an independent neurologist to the game officials – and to Patterson being checked immediately for concussion.
In recent years we have learnt that, when it comes to brain injuries, what the NFL has faced first – from class-action lawsuits from former players to having to make rule changes to prevent concussions – other sports will eventually experience. It has been forced to confront and adapt. That is one reason the Premier League held a medical conference with the NFL last week: to share best practice when it comes to player health and safety, including concussion.
