InTouch with Southern Kentucky March 2020 | Page 16

H ealth
IN TOUCH
Rule changes and head injuries
BY JEFF NEAL
COMMONWEALTH JOURNAL
We’ve seen a lot of rules changes in football over the past
few years. And all of them have one thing in mind — to take
the more violent head-to-head collisions out of the game.
But football’s reaction to its brain-injury crisis goes beyond
simply changing the rules. It also includes education for
coaches, different techniques for players and state of the art
equipment designed to keep athletes more safe.
“Football today is a lot different from when I played,”
said Pulaski County High School head coach Johnny Hines,
who played for the Somerset Briar Jumpers in the 70s, and
coached the Maroons to a Class 5A state title in 2014. “We
have a different approach to teaching tackling techniques
and we have a much different way of handling athletes who
might been suffering from a head injury.”
16 • I n T ouch with S outhern K entucky 
M arch 2020