I am sure some of you are aware that their is a mass action lawsuit taking place between rugby players and their respected governing bodies. The players are stating that they were not made fully aware about the dangers of rugby and that more should have been done to make the contact sport safer.
The appeal that the players lost this week was to do with providing medical records showing a history of brain trauma that has lead to their brain damage/disabilities. The problem is back when the older players were playing the chances of having a medical report or file actually monitoring these events is non existent. Maybe with the younger players who have been forced to retire early they will have some medical history tracking their head injuries.
The judge asking for the players to supply a history of head trauma is very relevant to this case and without this those players will be removed from the mass action law suit. The difficulty in proving your Parkinson's and Motor Neuron Disease or dementia is due to the number of concussions that occurred during your playing career is going to be a very tricky one for the more than 1100 players on the mass action case.
I stopped playing rugby in 1994 and if I had dementia now how would I prove this is because of rugby? You cannot as in my playing time there was no medical records kept by anyone unless you visited you doctor due to a broken bone. If you were concussed you went and sat down and if you were not wobbly on your feet or were not vomiting the chances are you were sent back on again.
The sports governing bodies are mostly made up of ex players who were also not made aware of the dangers of the sports besides the real obvious ones. Broken bones and the real danger of in a worse case scenario breaking your neck leaving you dead or disabled. The idea you could become a cabbage through playing the sport was never on my watch list and I dare say that would go for most players as well.
When I first heard about this mass action case I knew they were going to find it hard to prove either way without the medical records. Many of these players had retired from the sport before the symptoms appeared and even if they have medical records after they stopped playing proving this is almost impossible. We know the probability is very high this was caused by playing rugby but these hidden injuries are hard to prove. If there are blood samples lying around from drug tests during their career maybe a new test on those samples would show certain evidence. The chances of having blood samples lying in storage 20 years later is highly unlikely.
The safety aspect and player welfare has changed over the last decade and these players played in the wrong era if they wanted to be made more aware about brain trauma. Common sense tells you bashing your head multiple times is not good for your health so why anyone would put their head in harms way is beyond me. You can almost pick the players out through how they play and them being the macho man has not ended well.
This all depends on who you have looking after the players and I know in South Africa the Sports Science Institute started under Dr Tim Noakes was studying concussions 30 years ago. Many players benefitted from this with players being advised to stop playing. I know in other countries if you were concussed you were ruled out for 2 weeks, but 2 weeks is not necessarily the right treatment and would depend on your body.
Sexton even called some of his concussions phantom concussions even after failing concussion tests. He was selected to represent Ireland 7 days after being concussed and the medical team ignored all protocols.
A good example is Pat Lambie who retired at 28 years of age after suffering a number of concussions. He could have carried on playing like other players did and I can think of a few who fit into the same category being Johnny Sexton and Tom Curry. Sexton has since retired but continued playing after doctors advised him to walk away years before he eventually did. Currie gets concussed regularly and know of at least 3 times last season including being knocked out. Has no one mentioned to him what he is doing to himself? How can you blame the sport if these two have brain injuries in the coming years? Common sense has to be part of the player welfare and not just medical science.
Eben Etsebeth a current Springbok player is being monitored and on the watch list. Part of his treatment was to rest for 3 months and not the 14 day rule which for some reason everyone thinks is the time required to heal the brain.
The sport is generally safe as much as you can make a contact sport safe as we know you cannot guarantee safety. Rugby is safer today than it was 20 or 30 years ago so that is a big positive, but and a big but you cannot think for one minute you will play the sport and come out unscathed. All players receive multiple head knocks and whip lashing type car crash events every season and you should know as a player how bad those knocks to the head are. The players in the lawsuit are taking a chance and they know this. One player has already admitted he was pushed into this case even though he has no brain damage. This player on his own along with the lawyers has done more to discredit this case than anything else. This is simply stupid because for the sake of numbers you are jeopardizing everyone's chances which are slim to begin with.
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I don't mean to be insensitive when it comes to this issue but I feel like when players engage in a contact sport that it is kind of assumed that there is going to be some sort of long-term dangers present and if we were to attempt to rectify this and turn any sport into a completely safe thing, the sport would be forced to lose all of its appeal. I am reminded of an episode of Southpark where they come up with a sport called "Sarcastiball" where everyone just wears bras and hugs one another on the field so that nobody can get injured.
I don't want to be like "screw those guys, just play the sport" but I think that if you want glory and perhaps a lot of money based on some sort of sport, that you are assuming the risk. Otherwise what is next? Boxers complaining about getting injured because they got punched in the face a bunch and didn't realize that might not be 100% good for you?
I totally agree even though the real danger when I was playing was a broken neck and the thought of a brain injury was not really high on the list. For myself it was just common sense and self preservation that you did not stick your head somewhere it could get bashed. I have been concussed a few times and no doubt I have some wear and tear upstairs after playing the sport for a good 15 years with the last 5 years at a very high level that would be considered professional standards today. I am sure many of those who I played with have some brain issues due to how they played. The term animal springs to mind and I was never that dumb to put everything on the line. They believed the harder you played and the more committed you were in contact the least likely you would be injured which is nuts to think that would end well.
Contact sports are never going to be safe even if there is no head contact as a hard tackle on your chest could result in whip lash that could do the same damage as if you bashed your head against a knee or someone's head. I see too many players now that I do fear for as they are not looking after themselves and are prime candidates for brain damage. Blame the system or sport as much as you want, but at the end of the day it is down to the individual to have common sense and survival skills.
A few years ago my Dad (now in his mid 80s) had a brain scan because of Alzheimers and they discovered a brain lesion from a rugby injury he had received in his 20s.
He never knew about it but it had obviously affected him his whole adult life.
That is so interesting and scary. Most people who have played rugby presumably would have done so at school so your dad playing after school must have meant he was a decent player. I am not at all shocked to hear this and I would think this would be pretty common with most ex rugby players especially now the collisions are bigger due to the conditioning of the players. I am very happy to have stopped playing when I was 25 with myself more concerned about broken bones.