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thanks for posting that by jt

I would also add that it is highly doubtful that he only had 15 concussions; he likely had many, many more than that, and most either went unreported or simply were shrugged off as "part of the game." I spoke with someone who had played under Kuharich and Devore and he mentioned at least 3 instances of getting knocked out during practice and mentioned that it was quite common in those days; he was a running back, and the OL and DL have repetitive hits, and in those days it was full go, every practice. This player also ended up with Parkinson's, though it was not necessarily tied back to his football hits. He also did have several mental health issues the rest of his days as well, but again not necessarily football related.

Bill Walsh was the first one to start easing up in practice (not counting John Gagliardi, who was doing it at a much smaller level years prior) to try and save on wear and tear, but it took the rest of the game years to catch up. Hell, anyone who played for Joe Moore can talk to you about "batting practice" and those repetitive hits.

We're definitely trying to get better at it. I was working with a college OL today, going over tape and trying to walk through getting his head out of his blocks. The hard thing is that it really starts from your feet in that if you get too far out on your toes (as opposed to being on your heels) your head will start to lead you as a way to regain balance. This is counter intuitive to how we walk/run when we are trying to "attack," so it's actually a difficult adjustment for kids as they're learning the game. We need good educators as coaches who are going to really stress the proper fundamentals of blocking and tackling (which, IMO is still poor at the college and NFL level). We have to have guys studying tape, and we need to take whatever precautions that are needed. It needs to start in practice; we can't count on the refs to simply enforce the rules and teach the game during competition--the game often moves too fast for them, and they aren't even always convinced at what they're seeing.