cowboys injury report

cowboys injury report

The Impact of Injuries on the Dallas Cowboys

1. Introduction

Are these injuries really that detrimental to the team’s prosperity? Using the Dallas Cowboys as one of the NFL’s most viable franchises, we can assess how injuries impact the success of a team. This study will focus on the methodologies we used for assessing the injuries and the subsequent impact on seasons. In this investigation, we are concerned with the amount of wins over an NFL season. In comparing injuries to the amount of success, we need to assess which players were injured and correlate that to their impact on the team. We are defining the severity of injury as whether a player was placed on Injured Reserve (IR) or not. This helps eliminate ambiguity regarding the extent of an injury.

The initial motivation for this study was to evaluate our methodologies for assessing the amount and severity of injuries in the National Football League (NFL). We began tracking the injuries at the beginning of the 2002 football season for all 32 teams. After flipping through the data, we realized that we may have a unique perspective on injuries in the NFL. Every year, owners, coaches, and players lament about injuries that derailed a team’s success. The player needs surgery but might delay it until the offseason, possibly impacting the next season. The coach loses his future Hall of Fame Pro Bowl player for the season.

2. Current Injuries

Next, we can see from the position of player v win % when affected by injury shown in chart 1.2. The chart displays the average win % across all weeks from a single position affected by injury. Chart 1.3 also shows this same data from the win/loss record affected by injury of a specific position. These two charts combined are the most extensive part of the data. It shows that more important positions, i.e. QB and Defensive positions, suffer most in win % and overall team success when affected by injury. This is statistically found to be significant at the 5% level compared to positions such as Kickers and Tight Ends, which had very little affect on win % when injured. The average win % difference across all positions from when not affected by injury is -21.7%. This is a massive negative effect on team success rate due to the relative frequency and importance of the injured positions.

2. Current Injuries Over the past 10 seasons, the Dallas Cowboys have been affected by a plethora of injuries across the entire team ranging from small minor injuries to season and/or career-ending injuries. The overall data study is particularly intriguing, focusing on total injury per week v team win %. This data studied the 10 seasons all together rather than individual seasons. The most important part of the chart seen in 1.1 shows the relative consistency in negative affect injuries have had on the team. There is only a single point on the graph that shows an increase in win % when affected by injury. The increase from the 1-week total of 16 injuries in week 9 seasons 2004 to an 18% win. But effect is nulled due to the record being 1-1 from the two games that were affected by the 18% win rate, regression analysis study based on the win % per week and total injuries reveals a beta coefficient of -0.056. This number is important due to the fact that it reveals a weekly rate of decrease of 5.6% in wins when affected by injury. Furthermore, it shows that injuries negatively affect the overall team win % at a relatively same consistent rate across the 10 seasons.

The following text is one of the many analyses that were reached based upon a statistical data run, correlating weeks of injury and its relative importance to post season NFL success. This specific data analysis targets the overall negative impact that injuries have had on the success rate of the Dallas Cowboys over the last 10 NFL seasons. More specific studies were also drawn based on position of player and overall team success rate from week of injury. The specific data represented below is between September 2003 and December 2009, due to the fact that in the author’s original copy this was the most recently compiled data.

3. Consequences for the Team

Given that physical preparation is a key injury moderator, injured players may become isolated from the team in order to focus on rehabilitation. This has been described as a fate worse than death for an athlete with a strong athletic identity. Rehabilitation can also be hindered if a player returns to the team environment prematurely after an injury, due to medical staff pressure or a player’s result on re-establishing their role in the team. This was common in the era of event closure rehabilitation (injury-specific retraining until a pre-injury standard is reattained) where a player would be essentially unavailable to the team until they were ready to reassume their normal role. Finally, the injured player may perceive a loss of interest in him by team peers, particularly if the injury is of a chronic nature. With strong evidence that social support is a positive injury modifier, the player may suffer ill effects on this front.

Injuries can have far-reaching consequences for a team. These go beyond any decrease in playing standard during the injured player’s absence. Repercussions at the team level can range from increased risk of injury for other players, to poorer teamwork, team confidence, and heightened anxiety. Increased injury risk occurs because as players are forced to compensate for the injured player’s role, they undertake unfamiliar tasks for which they may be ill-prepared. This may be exacerbated if the nature of the injured player’s role requires specialized physical or positional attributes.

4. Strategies for Recovery

Now that rehabilitation is nearing completion, our concern is to develop plans for the most effective return to previous or new levels of performance with the lowest risk of re-injury. While the athletic or kinetic chain model of recovery describes a more anatomically based pathway for recovery, it is more recently acknowledged that psychological, social and other non-physical factors have a great impact on the rehabilitation process and return to function of the athlete. Specific individual characteristics such as the athletes’ willingness to succeed and confidence levels, as well as social factors like available support systems and access to healthcare, greatly influence the rehabilitation process. Identification of these factors and their impact on a given injury and patient can affect the overall rehabilitation process and should be addressed with athletes to maximize recovery effectiveness. We must strongly consider the concept that effective rehabilitation extends to more than the restoration of normal function – it largely should be aimed at full psychological and sociological re-integration to pre-injury standards. This will minimize chances of early retirement from the sport and re-injury by not exposing the athlete to unnecessary physical or mental stress in attempts to reclaim a previous level of performance, and not compensating for the injury in daily activity or alternative forms of exercise. Former criterion-based systems of rehabilitation progression are now outdated and while it is still important to set goals, it is necessary to recognize fluctuations in the rate of progress and to prevent stagnation in any phase of rehabilitation. A recent consensus statement by leading sports medicine and sports science groups provides a model of rehabilitation based on current best evidence in the field that suggests an evidence-based approach is aimed not only at immediate and continuous functional improvement, but also at factors that will enhance the health, well-being, and sporting and physical activity performance of the athlete. An often overlooked progression to normal physical activity is that during sporting activity itself and may require specific interventions to simulate the demands of the athletes’ specific sport. Development of information and an understanding of recent advances and stages of recovery will guide our decision making in planning specific interventions for the recovery of Dallas Cowboys athletes.

5. Conclusion

The amount of research that has been achieved concerning this topic is considerable. With the expanded consciousness into diagnosing and treating concussions as well as the immersion into new technologies that can detect potential damaging hits to the head before they happen, the future looks brighter than the past. There is definitive proof that the creation of the NATA has brought better care to employing proper care and prevention and aiding correct diagnoses. The integration of the ATC into the NFL and all levels of athletics has also possibly been the best change in terms of prevention and care. This is the ultimate goal for the NFL and with the right steps being taken there is only room to grow. Although this essay has provided us with much proof that the safeties are not up to par, with the way concussions and TBI are being treated and detected and the essential integration of those who specialize in those fields, the NFL can only improve. The NFL will always be a dangerous sport where injuries will occur. The steps the league is taking and the intelligent minds that are working to create better concussion preventing technologies and detection devices, there is hope for the NFL and safe play in the future. The league is facing a trend where more and more parents are not allowing their children to play football and it is getting harder to find young kids to pick up the game. The new research has proven that TBI and repeat concussions cause greater damage than previously thought, but with the steps and changes that are taking place now, one day that may change. With the rate of advancement and cognitive knowledge we are learning about these injuries, and a continued effort to apply it to the field and research more, the safety and care of those who suffer similar injuries as the ones we have studied here will have a much brighter future in the game of football.