Football Targeting Is a Bad Thing

Eliminating or reducing targeting from football reduces concussion risk, according to a new study.

The study, “Risk of Concussion After a Targeting Foul in Collegiate American Football”, was published online on February 4, 2022 in Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine.

“The targeting rule was adopted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 2008 to discourage dangerous contact during collegiate American football competition. Although targeting rules have been emphasized as a means to reduce concussion rates, there is currently no evidence that targeting plays are higher risk for concussion than other plays in American football,” the researchers wrote.

They sought to compare the rate of concussion occurring during targeting versus nontargeting plays in collegiate football.

They gathered data on concussion occurring in games in the 2016-2019 Pac-12 Conference and classified them as having occurred during either a play where a targeting penalty was called and all other plays. Then targeting plays were further categorized to either those in which the call was upheld or overturned after replay review.

The researchers reviewed 538 games with 68,670 plays. There were 213 concussions, 15 during plays where targeting was called and 198 on other plays and 141 targeting penalties were called.

The incidence of concussion was 106.4/1000 plays for targeting plays (including 141.2/1000 upheld targeting fouls and 53.6/1000 overturned targeting fouls) and 2.9/1000 plays for nontargeting plays.

The risk of concussion during targeting plays was 36.9 (95% CI, 22.4-60.7) times greater than that for all other plays. The risk of concussion during targeting plays upheld was 49.0 (95% CI, 28.5-84.2) times greater than that for all other plays.

“Concussion risk was significantly higher during plays in which targeting was called, especially those in which targeting fouls were upheld,” the researchers reported.

“This study supports eliminating or reducing targeting from American football. The results of this study suggest that players should be screened for concussion after targeting plays are called.”

Study authors included Douglas F. Aukerman, M.D, of the Samaritan Health Services in Corvallis, Oregon., Adam D. Boher, Ph.D. of the University of Colorado Boulder,, Sourav K. Poddar, M.D. of the University of Colorado School of Medicine in aurora, Colorado, Russell Romano, M.A. of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, David J. Petron, M.D., of University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Jamshid Ghajar, M.D., of Stanford University, Stanford, California, Christopher C. Giza, M.D., of the University of California, Los Angeles, Angela Lumba-Brown, M.D., of Stanford University School of Medicine, Matthew B. McQueen, Sc.D. of University of Colorado, Boulder and Kimberly G. Harmon, M.D., of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.