Collision With Spring-Loaded Football Tackling and Blocking Dummies: Report of Near-Fatal and Fatal Injuries

• Published in: JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association Vol. 236; no. 11; pp. 1270 - 1271
• Main Authors: Torg, Joseph S, Quedenfeld, Theodore C, Thieler, Edward R, Lignelli, Gregory J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Medical Association 13-09-1976
• ISSN: 0098-7484; 1538-3598
• DOI: 10.1001/jama.1976.03270120046026

APPROXIMATELY 1,200,000 individuals participate in organized tackle football in this country each fall. Recent reports place the incidence of time-loss injury from this vigorous contact sport at 50% to 86% of the population at risk per season.1,2 Fatality rates have averaged two per 100,000 participants per year for direct causes over a 43-year period.3 Of the fatalities due to direct causes, the overwhelming majority have been due to head and neck injuries. Schneider4 has described a variety of mechanisms responsible for near-fatal and fatal head and neck injuries. These include knee-to-head injuries, tackling by face mask, hyperflexion injuries secondary to spearing and buttblocking, and hyperextension injuries of the cervical spine due to the levering effect of the face mask. The purpose of this communication is to describe a cause of near-fatal and fatal head and neck injury, to our knowledge previously unreported: collision with spring-loaded blocking and