Tonight, Referees at MCPS Football Games Should Throw a Flag When They See Face-Tackling

Since the 1970s, initiating contact with the front or top of the head has been prohibited by the National Federation of High School Athletic Associations and NCAA. The technique is prohibited because it increases the risk the tackler will suffer a catastrophic and sometimes deadly cervical neck injuries.

The National Athletic Trainer Association (NATA) recently re-issued its 2004 position statement warning against players initiating contact with their heads, including with the face mask.   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC385269/

Already this year, 5 high school football players across the U.S. have died from head or neck injuries.    http://abcnews.go.com/US/death-teen-football-player-highlights-dangers/story?id=19995271  Untold others have been injured. 

The Gazette, however, reports that football coaches in Montgomery and PG Counties still teach kids  the dangerous "helmet on the football" tackling technique.  In Prince George’s County, “helmet on the ball is preached.” In Montgomery County, Walter Johnson High School football coach, John Kadi, was quoted as saying, “It should be helmet on the ball.”  http://www.gazette.net/article/20130918/OPINION/130919223/1014/coaches-need-coaching-on-tackling&template=gazette

But just across the Potomac, football coaches at every one of Fairfax County’s 24 high schools are taking the Heads Up course, which is aligned with the recommended shoulder and chest tackling technique.

Game referees as supposed to be part of the solution, but so far have been part of the problem.  In its annual survey of football injuries, the National Federation of High School Athletic Associations (NFHS) underscores the danger of tackling with the front or top of the helmet “initial contact should never be made with the head/helmet or face mask.”  But NFHS notes, “at the present time, officials are not calling all helmet contacts.”

Al Ferraro is the Commissioner of the Washington District Football Officials Association, the organization that provides referees for MCPS high school football games.  I strongly urge Mr. Ferraro to instruct WDFOA game referees to vigorously enforce the long-standing ban on spearing and face tackling. 

This won't be popular with football coaches.  Given how institutionalized the dangerous tackling technique is at some schools, games involving those schools could grind to a halt with penalties and effectively become proper-tackling clinics.  But by officials sticking their necks out and making these calls, they may be saving the necks of MCPS high school students from catastrophic injuries.

From a public health perspective, though, the game official's role is to reinforce coaches teaching the proper tackling technique when student football players execute that instruction incorrectly--and dangerously--in a game. 

It cannot be an acceptable public health policy for MCPS, Ulder Tillman MD, the Maryland Health Officer for Montgomery County, and Joan Glick, the MoCo HHS staff responsible for student health issues at MCPS, to tolerate football coaches teaching dangerous technique with the expectation that WDFOA officials will gently encourage them toward teaching safe tackling in the currency that coaches understand--calling penalties that may cost games. 

But game referees stepping up would be a start.  So tonight, stick your necks out and call face-tackling when you see it.