Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingsman1288
At our association's meeting tonight, we were told the state office says this rule does not apply in CA and a player may never reenter the game if he was removed for concussion like symptoms. Any other states out there that are not adopting this revision? For those states that are, what are your thoughts on it?
|
I heard about this from some of the CA guys on the football forum. IMO it's a terrible revision of the rule and will completely undercut what NFHS is trying to accomplish for player safety here.
Officials will be reluctant to send any player off, knowing that the player will be done for the night. So as a result they will have a much higher bar for noticing signs or symptoms of concussion. Too few players will be sent off, and the result will be much like the current rule. And that defeats the purpose of the change.
Moreover, by taking physicians and trainers out of the loop, CA is really putting officials in the position of diagnosing concussions. The NFHS rule is written broadly as a precautionary measure based on observing "signs or symptoms" of concussion and removing players for diagnosis. Responsibility for that diagnosis lies with the person who decides whether the player continues to play, which here in Ohio is an M.D., a D.O., or a certified trainer. Since CA assigns that responsibility to officials -- who lack proper training -- they are setting their officials up for lawsuits (or, as I said, motivating officials not to remove players for concussion).
This change will be bad for players, bad for coaches, bad for officials, bad for the state association, and bad for sports in CA. Just terrible.