Football concussion expert on the importance of sports

It starts from the first time your baby pulls to standing and you instinctively reach out – hand cupped in mid-air, ready to be a human airbag if a sudden crash threatens a bump on the head. It gets a lot harder to insulate them, literally and figuratively as they grow, especially when sports are calling them to the field, the pitch or the court.

Physician Thom Mayer has seen almost everything. He trained in pediatric surgery and trauma, and he did some of the original research on traumatic brain injury. Mayer was the command physician at the Pentagon rescue and recovery operation on 9/11, was incident commander for an anthrax outbreak, led a mobile emergency team in Ukraine following the start of the war – and he knows an awful lot about the good and bad effects of sports on kids and adults. In fact, he is the medical director for the NFL Players Association and was the originator of the NFL Concussion Guidelines program. And he really loves football.

“I'm a Midwestern kid, grew up in Anderson, Indiana, and didn't want to do anything except play football in the NFL, and I went to college to play football and did have a chance to try out with both the Bears and the Vikings,” Mayer said.

As Mayer tells it, the only things keeping him from a storied career in the NFL were his size, speed, strength and talent. But what he might have lacked in some areas, he made up for in ways that have changed sports and those who play. Mayer treats the whole person, and he says what to play and when isn’t always black and white. He is also quick to note that while he is medical director for the NFL Players Association, he does not speak on behalf of the organization.

Force and contact sports

First, Mayer notes that concussions are not confined to football. Soccer is indeed a contact sport, and Mayer notes that the highest rate of concussions for each individual sport is female soccer players, but football has the formula for bone-jarring hits, as players continue to get bigger and faster. As concussions began to increase in the NFL, Mayer said he and others began to consider the importance of evaluating and treating concussions through a science-based lens.

“That led to a huge amount of work, looking at, essentially, force mitigation – taking the forces that are involved in head trauma, and reducing them, mitigating them as much as can be possible,” he said.

Among the results, Mayer cites better helmets and rules changes that better protect players.

“We have to continue our efforts to assure that both the short term and the long term effects from that are addressed in a way that we can make a difference,” he said.

Though Mayer said he didn’t set out to change youth, high school or college sports, there has been a benefit for all contact sports.

What about football? The answer starts with a question about joy

But the real question he hears from parents is more direct: should I let my child play sports?

“Like anything in life, there's a spectrum,” Mayer said. “The spectrum goes from don't play football, don't play contact sports – I'm sure there are doctors that when parents say, ‘Is it safe for my kid to play football, lacrosse, soccer, hockey?’ They might say ‘never – just don't do it.’ Well, I think that misses the fact that there are huge, huge benefits to physical activity, to playing on a team, to understanding working hard and sacrificing for the good of a team, teamwork – all skills that we're going to need throughout our entire life.”

And no matter what the age, Mayer said exercise is a critical factor in good health.

“There's so many benefits physically, mentally, spiritually, psychologically, and as it turns out, longevity, that come from an active life,” he said. “When you put that in perspective, you come up with an equation that says, (sports are) important, not necessarily to play football. To me, that's an individual decision that people have to make.”

Mayer wants every discussion of a child playing sports to start with that child’s deep joy. Why does the child want to do it? Is it important to them and if so, why?

“Listen to them, and see what they have to say about that, and begin to say, ‘OK, I'm with you. Are you willing to practice? Are you willing to get your homework done before you go to practice? Are you willing to make sure your uniform is clean? Are you willing to do all the things that it takes before you even get in the car to go to practice in the first place? Are you willing to go when you don't even feel like going?’ I think parents should be having those conversations about anything that their child might engage in,” he said.

It's a game, after all, and it should be fun

For any sport, Mayer said parents should consider the coaching, access to athletic trainers and the culture of the program – it should be positive, with an emphasis on fun. It’s so important to him that when he coached, it was part of the chant at the start and end of every practice.

If pressed on the football question, Mayer said contact football before ages 12 to 14 probably isn’t necessary. For younger ages, Mayer said flag football brings the teamwork and other important aspects of the sport, without the contact.

“Lining them up, and having pads and helmets, 7- or 8-year-old kids playing Oklahoma (contact) drills and head-to-head contact, there's just no benefit to that. It's not going to determine whether they play in high school, college, in the pros at all,” he said.

No matter when they take the field or in what form, the right program and the right attitude can mean what’s really important – “the people who are playing the game, their personal development, their ability to get better” – can linger for a lifetime, Mayer said.

Mayer’s latest book, “Leadership Is Worthless…But Leading Is Priceless – What I Learned from 9/11, the NFL, and Ukraine,” (Berrett-Koehler Publishers) is now available. Learn more at penguinrandomhouse.com/books/743095/leadership-is-worthlessbut-leading-is-priceless-by-thom-mayer-md .

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Football concussion expert on the importance of sports