--- title: Football Head Impacts Can Cause Brain Changes Even Without Concussion description: New study looks at high school athletes canonical: https://time.com/3611146/football-head-impacts-can-cause-brain-changes-even-without-concussion/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-01T17:24:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:45:23.262Z og:title: How High School Football Changes the Brain og:description: Effects seen after a single season og:url: https://time.com/3611146/football-head-impacts-can-cause-brain-changes-even-without-concussion/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2c86ca495fe2561/69876b8cf887dc6db3e88aba/86207344.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5125 og:image:height: 2883 og:image:alt: 86207344 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How High School Football Changes the Brain twitter:description: Effects seen after a single season twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2c86ca495fe2561/69876b8cf887dc6db3e88aba/86207344.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Football Head Impacts Can Cause Brain Changes Even Without Concussion > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Twice a week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Football’s Ultimate Cost: The Chad Stover Story [Watch (HLS stream): Football’s Ultimate Cost: The Chad Stover Story](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/OYDHBOhj.m3u8) (6:12)  _Published 2014-09-17. It was halloween night, and the Tipton Cardinals needed a tackle. Trailing 27-18 in the opening round of the Missouri high school playoffs, a stop here—would help keep Tipton’s fading season alive_ by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Dec 1, 2014 5:24 PM UTC  Football players at line of scrimmage ready to snap football Football players at line of scrimmage ready to snap football Tetra Images - Erik Isakson—Getty Images/Brand X by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Dec 1, 2014 5:24 PM UTC As the world mourns the loss of Ohio State University football [player Kosta Karageorge](http://time.com/3611060/osu-player-kosta-karageorge-found-dead/), who was found dead in an apparent suicide on Nov. 30, concerns about the long term effects of head injuries sustained by footballers continue to mount. A day after Karageorge’s death, a study has been released that suggests sports-related head impacts can cause changes in the brain even when there are no outward signs of a concussion. In fact, researchers from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., say some high school football players in the study exhibited measurable brain changes after a single season of play, even in the absence of concussion. The Wake Forest team, lead by Dr. Christopher Whitlow, focused on youth players, a group that until now had been widely overlooked in the research into the effects of the repetitive head impacts associated with a typical season of football. “For every one NFL player, there are 2,000 youth players. That’s close to four million youth players and the vast majority of research on impact-related brain injuries has been on the college and professional level,” says Dr. Whitlow, noting that two-thirds of head impacts occur in practice sessions, not games. Read More: [High School Football Player Dies After Injury](http://time.com/3457700/another-high-school-football-player-dies-after-injury/) In the first-of-its-kind study, the researchers hooked up 24 high school football players between the ages of 16 and 18 with helmet-mounted sensors to assess the frequency and severity of helmet impacts and then sent them out to play ball. As the players hit the field, the sensors allowed the researchers to monitor the severity of players’ head impacts. The team collected data from the helmets before and after every game and the high school students also underwent pre- and post-season diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of the brain. “We looked at both structural and functional neuro-imaging and evaluated the players’ neuro-cognitive function,” he says. “We found some changes in the brain that are concerning,” said Dr. Whitlow. “They are concerning because kids with more impacts had more changes and the kids with fewer impacts had fewer changes.” While none of the football players were concussed during the season, the researchers found that there were microstructural changes in _all_ of the players’ brains, especially in those players who were deemed “heavy hitters.” That direct correlation between game-related hits and changes in the brain is not exactly surprising, but may be unsettling for parents of youth football players. Read More: [The Tragic Risks of American Football](http://time.com/magazine/us/3397061/september-29th-2014-vol-184-no-12-u-s/) Not that Dr. Whitlow wants people to pull their kids from the peewee leagues or ban high school football just yet. “The high school athletes weren’t experiencing any of the classic symptoms of concussion—dizziness, nausea or double vision,” he says. “While the changes in the brains are concerning, because there were no symptoms of concussions, we don’t yet know how important these changes are.” Dr. Whitlow sees the results of the study as only the first step in identifying a potential problem with allowing youth players to continue to play ball. He and his team want to determine whether these changes in the brain are permanent or transient and whether they are associated with subtle changes in neuro-cognitive functions. “Once we can identify risks, we can intervene to reduce those risks,” he says. Interventions could include improvements in technology and helmet safety, identifying maneuvers that could be particularly dangerous, making changes in the diagnoses of head injuries and identifying subtle changes that could be harmful. So what’s a parent to do? Dr. Whitlow suggests they get involved in their kids’ practices. “You have to put these risks in the context of the health-related benefits of playing sports. The take home message is that parents need to use common sense. The best thing for parents to do is know what is going on on the field, know the symptoms of concussions, get to know the coaches, find out if there is a trainer on the field who can diagnose concussions.” He also directed parents to [SaveInjuredKids.org](http://saveinjuredkids.org/how/reduce-head-injury/) for ideas on how to reduce head injuries and to learn to identify the signs of concussion. “Football is the great American pastime,” said Dr. Whitlow. “I think it’s going to be around for another hundred years and what we’re trying to do is make it safer.” [Got Kids? Special Offer for Families from TIME](https://subscription.time.com/storefront/subscribe-to-time/link/1025583.html) ## Transcript I describe it to people like an ocean. Like the waves, sometimes the waves come in and they're small and you can stand up. And sometimes they come crashing in no matter how hard you try to hold your ground. There's just nothing you can do. In early June, I went to Tipton to do a story about Chad Stover, a football player from Mattel, and it's affected me in ways I never could have imagined. [ MUSIC ] In Tipton Missouri, football is king. It's a small ad town. You know, everybody knows everybody. [ MUSIC ] In a small community like this, football players are, are also your basketball and your baseball players, for the most part. From the time he was little bitty. That's, that's what he always wanted to do. Football is a great game. At it's best it can bond small towns, particularly on the high school level. It's also a violent game. After we've experienced what we've experienced, we truly realized the depth. The ramifications that can come from just a hit. It's scary. The 2013 Tifton football season was, you know, kind of middling. They were, they weren't that great but they made the playoffs. And they were about to play Sacred Heart and it was Halloween night. Towards the midpoint of the first half, Cad was on defense and had a nasty head to head hit. It was quick and nobody as far as I could tell really noticed it, and he continued to play. There were just under seven minutes left in the second half. Chad dives, makes a fairly fundamental play, but the thigh of the running back hit Chad's head. Twice is asked, are you okay? Twice he says, I'm good, and he goes back into the huddle. I remember looking at the play clock and thinking [ MUSIC ] We're almost done. And my mom actually turned and looked at me and said season's almost over, time to move on, we're almost done Chaddy. Chad came out of the huddle. As he was almost lined up he collapsed into the arms. One of his best friends. [ MUSIC ] Petis County ambulance, what's the address of your emergency? Jennie Jaynes football stadium. Got a, we've got a kid down on the field. OK. Yeah, they said them need them now. We've got them on the way already. I knew immediately that something was terribly wrong. I wanted to run. I just wanted to get there as fast as I possibly could. And I had his helmet off. I had a tear running down the side of his face. And I just wanted him to know that I was there. And that I was with him. So I got on my knees and I kissed his head, and I told him it's all right Chadie mama's here. And I remember told, someone told me, he can't hear you and I told them I don't care. I just want him to know I'm here. And I said. Stayed right there with him. Chad was air lifted to the trauma center at the University of Missouri, he fought for two weeks little signs of hope here and there but his condition never really. [ UNKNOWN ] improved, after two weeks in the hospital, Chad [ UNKNOWN ] passed away. He was 17 years old. [ MUSIC ] This is Chads's bow he got last year Chad got to go one time with it We're spending a lot of time with each other now, knowing how valuable the time is and what memories we can make, we try to make them now [ MUSIC ] What happened to Chad and our family hopefully, never happens to anybody else. When he left that day, he was in such a great mood. he was going to play football, and we never dreamed we wouldn't see him here again. This shouldn't be just another sad story. It should spark a conversation [ UNKNOWN ] We don't blame anybody, or even the game of football for that. [ MUSIC ] Chad lives on. He lives on in our memories. He lives on in everything that we do. And maybe he can make a difference. [ MUSIC ] At the top, the NFL is more popular than it's ever been. But on the youth level, we're seeing declines of participation. people, parents, kids are afraid about concussions and, and safety risks in football. The big question is going forward, if precautions aren't taken 20, 30, 40 years from now, who's gonna be playing this game? Will we still have Friday night lights? 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