Attempts to recognize and deal with sports-related injuries, including traumatic brain injuries, in football go back virtually to the origins of the game itself. President Theodore Roosevelt, for example, called for attempts to reduce what he called "brutality" in the sport over a century ago. His efforts led to the creation of the NCAA.

The National Football League ("NFL"), spearheaded by the aggressive efforts of Roger Goodell, its current commissioner, is renewing those efforts with a vengeance, and seeking most centrally to expand new protections to younger children across the country who play the sport.

The impetus for doing so has been given extra force by the recent suicide of Dave Duerson, a former player with the Chicago Bears. Duerson suffered a number of head-related hits during his career and, before his death, asked that his brain be medically examined for traumatic brain injury.

The NFL is now openly acknowledging the seriousness of concussions and other head injuries in the sport, and Goodell says the league is now "changing the culture" of football by more closely policing the on-field conduct of professional players and by allocating "substantial resources" to getting youth concussion laws enacted in all states.

The model favored by the NFL would require a coach of any youth football team to bar a player from further competition after a head injury until the youngster is cleared by a doctor to play again. The NFL states that nine states (not yet including Ohio) have already passed a similar law.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 130,000 children between the ages of 5 and 18 are treated for head injuries in the United States each year.

Related Resource: www.google.com "NFL urging states to pass youth concussion laws" February 24, 2011