The Sports Legacy Institute is proposing a “hit count” for young athletes to limit their exposure to potential brain trauma.
SLI co-founder Chris Nowinski said the organization would like to see a standard in place by 2013. It would be similar to the pitch count limits established to protect the elbows of young baseball players.
Nowinski says it will probably be impossible to establish a specific number for hits that lead to brain trauma. But SLI plans to sit down with youth sports organizations and medical experts, including head trauma expert Dr. Robert Cantu, in the coming months to come up with a standard. A former player at Harvard, Nowinski says the group is not anti-football, but pro-children.
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