GREEN BAY (NBC26) - While thousands of eyes are watching an NFL game for the competition; there's a select group, that's not paying attention to the score.
We took a behind the scenes tour at Lambeau to learn more about the NFL’s health and safety protocols, especially concussions. Jeff miller, the NFL executive vice president of player health and safety innovation, lead the way.
"The league's investing substantially in terms of time, resources and experts,” Miller said. “We're putting money against better performing helmets; we're trying to innovate with new communities in how to build a better helmet prototype. In fact we have a $3 million challenge for new ideas. We're working on better improved cleats, better improved turf systems, so the lower extremity injuries we see will eventually be mitigated."
Miller said last year, they prohibited 11 different types of helmets; and that he believes there will be position-specific helmets in the future to help with concussion numbers.
During day-to-day medical operations at a game, at any given time, he said, there are about 30 medical professionals on the field. This ranges from doctors to athletic trainers.
As we made our way to the sideline of the field, we started with the Injury Media Review System [IMRS]. Miller said it’s critical for concussion protocol. It’s a machine that can review plays and is only able to be viewed by a doctor or NFL neurotrauma consultant. Together, they make the decision about whether a player needs to be reviewed about a concussion, or other injury. During this time, they also set up a blue tent meant to replicate a doctor’s office. The tent eliminates outside noise and gives them a chance to really look over a possible injury. No coaches, staff or other players are allowed in during the examination.
“We know a concussion evaluation takes 3-4 minutes,” Miller said. “About 2 out of every 3 players are able to return to play.”
On the sidelines, they also get help from up above in the ATC Spotters booth (athletic trainers’ booth). In this area, more medical professionals are also reviewing video and using binoculars to oversee possible injury plays that someone may have missed.
“These are the folks that find those videos and send them back [down to the IMRS],” Miller added.
If an athletic trainer in the booth believes a player on the field has suffered a concussion and is not getting attention, that’s when a medical timeout is called. Miller said they aren’t frequent but they average 1.1 medical timeouts across the league a week.
The videos viewed in the ATC booth can also be saved. They then get added to each individual NFL player’s electronic medical record.
While this only scratches the surface, Miller adds that making sure these protocols are top notch at the highest level, will keep safety strong for future generations.
“We want the colleges, the high schools and the youth, and the parents involved to understand what the issues are; and if they occur, to be quick to diagnose and make sure the player is cared for in the best way possible.”
The NFL notes there is an emergency action plan at each stadium. They also continue to work on improving safety standards. Miller said this is also ensured by working with companies on machine learning and artificial intelligence to gain more knowledge about the game that we can’t see with our own eyes.
Watch the full story to learn a few more insights into the safety protocol, like who wears the red hat on the sidelines.
