NFL Europe

Epidemiology

Injuries in NFL Europe

ASMI and NFL Europe have developed an information management system that will supply data to league coaches, trainers, and medical personnel concerning player injuries and provide an environment for the testing of protective equipment effectiveness. The information provided by this active surveillance of player injuries will be utilized by NFL Europe coaches to make informed decisions about reducing the number of injuries. This will be accomplished by making the injury factor both a qualified and quantified aspect of coaching methods. Research applied to the experience of coaches using the system will ultimately improve the professional abilities of coaches. The information will also be used by equipment manufacturers to evaluate the effectiveness of current safety equipment and as a resource for identifying new areas of equipment protection in elite football. This, coupled with the improvement in coach decision-making tools, will improve the quality of the athlete experience through improved safety for participants in the NFL Europe.

The technology is available and the infrastructure is in place to provide NFL Europe coaches with timely information concerning injury risk in their athletes and to evaluate the effectiveness of safety equipment. This allows ASMI to follow all athletes on the active roster of NFL Europe franchises. The information will be used to identify potential improvements in rules, equipment, and coaching methods. This information will be disseminated in a format useful to players, coaches, team management, league officials, and affiliated equipment manufacturers.

The team trainers will collect data through the use of the attached data collection forms. These forms will track player characteristics (e.g., age, height, weight, equipment used), exposures (e.g., games and practice sessions), and injuries (e.g., injury location, mechanism, contributing factors). This information will be analyzed by ASMI researchers using standard statistical techniques and will be summarized for use by NFL Europe and affiliated manufacturers. This will aid in improving the quality of coaching from high school to the pros and will translate into making football a safer sport for all participants.