Concussions pose a serious threat

On the night Brett Favre missed his first game in years because of a bruised shoulder, I turned to my husband, Grit, and asked, "Has he ever had a concussion?"

My husband said no.

But I guess I jinxed him because Favre suffered a concussion the next week. Will a concussion finally vanquish the indomitable Favre?

Only time will tell.

He had a great run of luck, but a concussion was among the factors that ended our oldest son, Steve's, football career with the San Francisco 49ers.

When questions about concussions come up, and they often do, Grit (he of the vintage helmet and hard-nosed football mentality), often tells the tale of two fingers.

In his day the coach would hold up two fingers and ask one of two questions: How many fingers or what is your telephone number.

If the player could repeat one of those he was back in the game.

Back then they termed it "getting dinged," and players joked about it.

Getting dinged was a rite of passage, a sign you were tough enough to play the game.

Adding to the dangers of those times, Grit's helmet wouldn't pass muster today. The one Grit had when he first started playing in 1954 had no bars across the front. We still have his old BYU helmet from 1958-59. It was updated with two bars across the front and suspension similar to a construction hard hat with no foam rubber and a thin plastic shell — a sad looking affair.

Too bad Tom Udall wasn't around then, as he is currently encouraging his fellow Senators to target some of the football helmet manufacturers.

Through modern technology, a concussion no longer is considered just "getting dinged," and neither is it a bruised brain.

It's a depolarization of the brain cells caused by violent shaking, for instance when the head is spun rapidly or accelerates and then is suddenly stopped.

This causes the cells to become depolarized, and in an unhealthy cascade, they fire all their neurotransmitters at once.

The brain is flooded with chemicals, and some of the receptors linked to learning and memory are deadened. This results in nausea, blurred vision, confusion, memory loss and possibly unconsciousness.

Sounds scary, and it certainly it can be.