“Not only do I think that, but the videotape tells that, our eyes tell that every game we see,” said Cantu, the chief of Neurosurgery Service and Director of Sports Medicine at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass.
He believes the best way to avoid helmet-to-helmet collisions and to protect against concussions and long-term brain injuries is to limit the amount of contact players take in practice.
“First, eliminate stupid drills like Bull in the Ring or the Oklahoma Drill, where young kids are bashing helmet-to-helmet,” Cantu said. “Secondly, have several days a week where you take the helmet off so you don’t have any brain trauma on those days. You’re running plays, but you’re not running any tackling or defense.”
Cantu said research using sensor-equipped football helmets, which can measure the magnitude, location and direction of blows to a player’s head, has shown Division I players take roughly 800 to 1,500 hits over 20 G’s of force in a season, most of which is spent practicing.
He recommends coaches limit hitting in practice to one day a week and wants teams to practice without helmets.
Cantu said research shows there are more injuries when teams practice with just helmets because “the only part of the body you can hit with is your head and the kids hit more.”
He believes the NFL’s new rules on blind-side hits to fine and possibly suspend players is a great way to help them learn proper techniques. He said the suspension is really what’s going to get people’s attention because “the team losing the player is what’s going to hurt them.”
“The player getting fined, money is water to them at this stage of their lives,” Cantu said. “(Money) really doesn’t matter, but not being able to play does. The team will put pressure on the player to play correctly.”
He said he “almost would guarantee” those rules trickling down to the high school and college level, similar to the way they did with the NFL’s return-to-play guidelines last season.
“It’s a start, a great start, but I would love to see all purposeful headhunting taken out of football,” Cantu said. “You can play the sport the way it was played in the 50s and 60s and it will be every bit as exciting. You just won’t be taking people’s head off and having the unnecessary carnage to the brain and spinal cord.”
He believes the rule changes won’t affect play and will only make the game safer.
“They’re going to continue hit as hard as ever, but just don’t hit the head with somebody else’s heads,” Cantu said. “It’s every bit as spectacular, it’s just taken the head out as the initial point of contact.”
‘We must believe it’
Cantu’s theory of limiting contact in football practice is nothing new to John Gagliardi.
The 82-year-old football coach at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., has led the Johnnies for 53 years — and they’ve never tackled in practice.
Gagliardi is the all-time winningest coach in all divisions of NCAA college football. His 477 victories and four national titles are proof limiting contact can work.
“It’s what we do, so we must believe it,” Gagliardi said.
Gagliardi’s coaching philosophy is called ‘Winning with Nos.’ He creates an environment of fun and focuses on winning football games with concentration and flawless execution. The Johnnies emphasize repetition and fundamentals in practice, without tackling.
They also don’t use blocking sleds, dummies or whistles, and practices last no longer than 90 minutes. The players also wear shorts or sweats at practice.
“We limit the injuries,” Gagliardi said. “We keep most of our guys able to play because injuries can take them out of the game.”
He said, however, he can’t see not wearing helmets at practice.
“I don’t know about that,” Gagliardi said. “It’s the first time I’ve ever heard anything like that. We always wear helmets because you have to protect the face. I just never thought of that. Everybody’s got their ideas and some work and some don’t.”
Physicality is a big part of football, and most coaches worry their teams may not be as physical without contact in practice. It’s not an issue for Gagliardi.
“We’ve done it for so long that I don’t worry about it any more,” Gagliardi said. “If it hadn’t (worked), we probably would’ve changed right away. Fortunately, it worked right away. By work, I mean we won, so we just never changed it.”
Even without tackling in practice, the Johnnies still have players who have suffered concussions during games.
“We’ve had guys from time to time, especially now with rules where you’ve got to be cleared and take tests,” Gagliardi said. “I don’t know that they paid all that much attention to it before. We’ve had a couple guys in the last few years because of the new rules who have had to miss a game or two.”
Although Gagliardi’s philosophy has worked, he said he’s in the minority when it comes to limiting all contact in practice.
“I’m not surprised because it’s a different way to do it,” Gagliardi said. “Not a lot of people are willing to do something like that.”
Hitting home
Area high school teams are also limiting hitting in practice to help keep athletes healthy.
Several schools, like Springfield, Southeastern, Shawnee and Catholic Central, hit just two days a week.
“It would be ridiculous to waste our kids on practice,” said Catholic Central coach Steve DeWitt.
Catholic Central, which had as few as 28 players at one point this season, hits on Monday and Tuesday and goes light the rest of the week. DeWitt said with 10 varsity and seven junior varsity games, he has to keep his team in shape for games.
“We need those bodies to be able to go,” DeWitt said. “Everything we do is geared to prevent injuries. We work to be preventative as much as possible, especially with young men who span this age of development.”
Over the summer, DeWitt and the football parents decided to make an effort to put all of their players in Xenith football helmets, which are designed to reduce the risk of concussions. They’re selling at $400 per helmet.
“I believe it was a good investment,” DeWitt said.
At Shawnee, the Braves have major contact days on Tuesday and Wednesday throughout the season, but they show some restraint.
“Even those days, it’s not like every drill we do is full contact,” said Braves coach Rick Meeks. “It’s strategic in how we utilize that full contact. I don’t think you need to bang, bang, bang all the time.”
Meeks said Shawnee dressed 50 players in last Saturday’s playoff game against Washington Court House. At this point in the season, the Braves usually go hard one day a week to help prevent injuries.
“We’re on assignments, making sure bodies are on bodies,” Meeks said.
Springfield, which dressed 40 players for last Friday’s playoff game, hits two days a week, Tuesday and Wednesday. It also had weeks where it held back due to injuries.
Head coach Rick Robertson also makes his players wear full equipment every day in practice. He said he has seen crazy injuries in the past, like players breaking their nose trying to catch a pass without a helmet on.
“I’ve seen stupid stuff happen accidentally, and we don’t want a kid getting hurt,” Robertson said. “The kids aren’t fans of it, but each year it’s gotten better.”
He believes the speed of the game is the hardest thing to simulate.
“To do anything less than full speed is tough to prepare for,” Robertson said. “It’s tough to tone down a player no matter what you’re doing, To take it away even more, doesn’t seem like the way to go.”
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