Timeline

1939 – All football players are required to wear helmets. 

1964 – No football player may deliberately and maliciously use his helmet or head to butt or ram an opponent.

1973 – All football players are required to wear mouth protectors. 

1973 – All players must have a helmet “with a secured chin strap.”

1976 – All football players must have a helmet with a four-point chin strap fastened to participate in play. 

1979 – In football, striking a runner with the crown or top of the helmet added as a foul.

1982 – The NCAA adopts the Injury Surveillance System to provide data on injury trends in collegiate sports. A committee is tasked with recommending changes in rules, equipment and coaching techniques to help reduce injury rates.

1994 – The NCAA’s assistant director of sport scientists, Randall Dick, publishes an article that finds that “concussions accounted for at least 60 percent of head injuries in each of the sports monitored.” The NCAA adopts guidelines outlining protocols for returning to play after a concussion.

1999 – NCAA funds a long-term concussion study with researchers Kevin Guskiewicz, director of North Carolina’s Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center, and Michael McCrea, director of brain injury research at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

2002 – Steelers Hall of Famer Mike Webster dies. Dr. Bennet Omalu examines Webster’s brain and discovers damage that he attributes to repeated football collisions. He names it Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE.

2003 – Guskiewicz and McCrea publish The NCAA Concussion Study in “The Journal of the American Medical Association” on Nov. 19. That seminal study, covering 4,251 player-seasons and 184 concussions, laid the groundwork for additional research on sport-related concussions.

2007 – NFL holds its first concussions summit.

2006 – Injury Surveillance System data indicates that seven percent of all football injuries were concussions. In 2004, data showed that concussions were 22 percent of all game injuries in women’s ice hockey, 14 percent in women’s soccer, 18 percent in men’s ice hockey, seven percent in field hockey, and 6.3 percent in men’s soccer.

2006 – Eye shields must be completely clear to allow for quick medical diagnoses of student-athletes.

2008 – The NCAA makes the horse-collar tackle illegal, revamps illegal contact of an opponent and simplifies the chop-block rule. More emphasis is placed on eliminating hits on defenseless players and blows to the head. No player is permitted to initiate contact and target an opponent with the crown of his helmet, and no player is permitted to initiate contact and target a defenseless opponent above the shoulders.

2009 – It becomes mandatory for the conference to review any flagrant personal fouls for targeting defenseless players or using the crown of the helmet. 

2010 – The NCAA Division I Board of Directors and Division II Presidents Council adopts legislation requiring all members to have a concussion management plan. The Division III Management Council adopts a similar proposal in July.

2011 – The first in a series of lawsuits filed by former players against the NFL, alleging the league engaging in denial and deception on the subject of head trauma.

2012 – In football, the NCAA moved the kickoff location to the 35-yard line from the 30-yard line to encourage more touchbacks and limited kicking team players to be no more than five yards behind the kickoff line. The touchback spot on free kicks was also moved to the 25-yard line to further encourage touchbacks. 

2012 – The NCAA provides a $400,000 grant to the National Sport Concussion Outcomes Study Consortium to examine the effects of head injuries in contact and non–contact sports.

2012 – The Ivy League adopts practice rules in lacrosse and soccer to reduce contact.

2012 – The committee approved a proposal to allow a dislodged helmet (except if by a facemask or foul by the opponent) to be treated like an injury. The player that loses his helmet must be removed from play for at least one play to have the helmet checked and refitted by the team’s equipment staff. By rule, a player that loses his helmet must not continue to participate and that player may not be contacted by the opposition. 

2012 – The NFL funds ‘Heads Up Football’, an arm of USA Football designed to increase safety and raise awareness of head trauma in youth football.

2013 – The NFL announces new concussions safety measures, including the placement of an independent neurologist on the sideline for every game.

2013 – Penalty for targeting and contacting a defenseless player above the shoulders or initiating contact with the crown of the helmet increased to include the disqualification of the offending player. The disqualification is subject to instant replay in games where it is available. 

2014 – The NCAA and Department of Defense launches a three-year, $30 million longitudinal concussion study, overseen by the CARE Consortium, and an educational challenge, announced at the White House Healthy Kids and Safe Sports Concussion Summit.

2015 – NCAA Football Rules Committee allowed player tracking devices to be used for health and safety purposes. 

2015 – The NCAA’s five autonomy conferences pass concussion safety protocol legislation, requiring each of their 65 schools to submit for NCAA approval a policy for detecting a concussion and return-to-play protocol.