The conversational spark yesterday was a new poster that hangs in every NFL locker room, with the big, bold headline: "CONCUSSION." The line below says, "A must-read for NFL players . . . Let's take brain injuries out of play." The poster goes on to detail the dangers of hiding concussion symptoms from the team medical staff. It is as bold a step as the NFL has ever taken in trying to change the culture of hiding brain trauma from the doctors.
But after a player reports a concussion, well, what then? The player wants to play. The coach wants to know when. The athletic trainer lives his life in between the two of them - and with concussions, the balancing act can be treacherous for everyone, because there still is so much medicine does not understand about brain trauma.
Into that uncertainty, Burkholder has now stepped with a unique, structured approach to figuring out when it is safe for a player to return. He said he adapted a program devised at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and presented his work at a national conference of athletic trainers this June.
The baseline neurological testing that has been done on athletes for about 15 years is just the start for Burkholder. He has come up with five phases of testing, all of which must be passed by the player before he can return.
"I started doing it last year," he said. "Before that, I never had a systematic rehab approach to concussions. We just let them rest, and when they said they felt better and they passed the [baseline] test, we put them back in. Now, I make them go through these five phases.
