(WFRV) – Because of the number of high-profile NFL players who suffered season-ending knee injuries this year — Micah Parsons and Tucker Kraft, for example — it may have felt like ACL injuries were happening more often. But the data says otherwise.
At the NFL’s end-of-season injury briefing, Executive Vice President of Player Health and Safety Jeff Miller said ACL injuries reached a seven-year low this season, down about 25%.
Miller said the decline was driven largely by fewer non-contact tears, which is significant given how frequently ACL injuries occur without contact.
“In terms of knee injuries, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are frequently non-contact injuries,” said Dr. Jared Levin.
Levin, an orthopedic surgeon and clinical instructor in Cleveland with more than 25 years of experience treating athletes, said ACL tears often occur during routine movements rather than collisions.
“It involves someone decelerating quickly or landing from a jump awkwardly,” Levin said. “The foot is planted, and forces from the rest of the body cause the knee to shift out of place.”
Levin said the perception that ACL injuries are constant in the NFL is tied to the demands of the sport.
“When you put high-level athletes in a competitive environment — running, jumping, pushing maximum effort — you’re testing the limits of what the human body can endure,” Levin said. “These injuries, unfortunately, are going to happen.”
Strength and conditioning specialist Scotty Smith of Green Bay said fatigue and training habits play a major role in injury risk.
“I’ve compared it to a pilot who has to log hours,” Smith said. “You can’t fly a plane for so many hours without taking a break. In athletics, we just pound time and minutes.”
Smith said many athletes still train under the mindset that quantity outweighs quality.
“We’re made to believe that if we don’t do more, we’re falling behind,” Smith said. “But better is better. We have to focus on the quality of the minutes, not just the total amount.”
Even as ACL injuries declined at the professional level, experts say the trend is moving in the opposite direction for young athletes.
The National ACL Injury Coalition reports ACL tears among teen athletes have increased by nearly 26% since 2007.
“We are seeing an increase in these types of injuries at a younger age,” said Roland Schmidt, lead athletic trainer at Wrightstown High School and medical coordinator at the Bellin Health Titletown Sports Medicine Clinic.
Schmidt said education is critical in reducing preventable injuries.
“I think education is a key component,” Schmidt said. “Athletes need to understand the severity of an ACL injury. This is a long-term injury with a recovery process that can take several months.”
A study published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport found only one in five high school coaches uses some form of injury prevention program, despite evidence showing such programs reduce ACL injury risk.
“What we can do is take measures to help prevent those injuries,” Schmidt said. “Proper warm-ups and dynamic movement patterns prior to activity are key.”
While the NFL’s record-low ACL injury numbers are encouraging, specialists say the rise in youth injuries highlights the need for better training, recovery and injury prevention at earlier levels of competition.
