The surprising reason why American football is the sport with the most concussions (for men)

On Thursday, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered his third concussion in his NFL career, once again bringing the topic to light in the NFL. Despite the protocols put in place, American football remains the sport with the highest concussion rate, especially in high school. Football accounts for more than 60% of diagnosed concussions in high school and causes around 250,000 concussions annually.

Sports like ice hockey, rugby, and soccer all cause a lot of impact to the head, and with a lot less gear for some of those. And yet, according to a 2017 Harvard study, an NFL player is around 3.8 times more likely to suffer a concussion in a regular season game than an NHL player.

It’s important to note that this statistic applies mostly to men, as the NFL and CFL do not currently have any female players. Women are more susceptible to concussions, and it’s soccer and basketball which carry the biggest risk of concussion for them. If there were more women playing professional football though, I think we’d see that statistic change drastically.

The NFL updated its concussion protocol in 2022 to try and alleviate these disturbing numbers at the professional level. Part of that protocol was redefining what determines a concussion, resulting in a drastic increase in the number of concussions that year. In 2023, in both the preseason and regular season, there were 219 reported concussions in the NFL.

The surprising reason why American football causes more concussions than other sports

But why is that? For a sport that uses so much protection and has been known for years to cause long-term effects like CTE, why is it still so common to get concussions when playing American football? There are a number of factors.

The helmets help prevent traumatic brain injuries, but they cannot prevent concussions. In fact, the helmets may actually contribute to a false sense of security and many players improperly use them as weapons, which puts them at an even higher risk of a concussion.

In football, it’s much more common for players to experience helmet-to-helmet contact when blocking and tackling, as well as hitting their head against the ground. Studies have shown that quarterbacks, wide receivers, running backs, and defensive backs are three times more at risk of suffering from a concussion than linemen. The linemen are more likely to sustain head impacts, but the skill positions are more likely to experience high-magnitude impacts.

If a player has experienced a concussion before, they are much more likely to have one again.

The NFL and other organizations have been taking steps to try to reduce concussions, but in a physical sport like football, it’s not an easy process, and they’ll never be rid of them completely. What’s even more unfortunate is that even if they were able to do so, researchers now believe that constant and repeated impact to the head, regardless of a concussion, can lead to long-term, detrimental effects.

In recent years, the NFL has adjusted their helmets to include more padding for less impact. Coincidentally, many of these changes came about following a hit that Tua Tagovailoa took in 2022, causing a very concerning concussion. A change to the kickoff rules resulted in a drastic decrease in concussions on kickoff in the regular season. Last season, they added position-specific helmets. Still, the risk of concussions in football is extremely high and the dangers of both the short-term and long-term effects are incredibly real.