Source: ksby.com | Repost Duerson Fund 11/7/2022 –
Concussions have ruled the conversation around football for the better part of the last decade, but despite the growing awareness and regulations, numbers show they are only increasing, and not just in football, but in most high school sports.
In the early and mid-2000s, concussions started making real noise across the US when three former NFL players took their own lives and doctors diagnosed them with CTE, a degenerative brain disease associated with repeated head trauma.
It was the first time an NFL player had been diagnosed with CTE, so states became proactive and started passing laws known as Return to Play Act to protect kids in all sports. The laws set concussion education requirements for coaches and players and set limits for how long a player must stay out if they are diagnosed with a concussion.
Washington state became the first state to pass a Return to Play law in 2009, and by 2015, all 50 states and Washington D.C. had them in effect.