Experts urge new rules to prevent heatstroke in linemen - ESPN

As football practices ramp up amid hotter-than-normal temperatures for much of the country, two organizations are calling for a different approach to prevent heatstroke in linemen, who make up 90% of heatstroke deaths in high school and college.

The National Athletic Trainers' Association and National Federation of State High School Associations urged coaches to adopt preventative tactics such as excluding linemen from mile runs, serial sprints and other preseason performance testing during the first few weeks of the season. They also cautioned against using exertion drills as punishment, which were cited as a factor in 37% of football heatstroke deaths.

Within the past two months, two 14-year-old high school linemen — in Arkansas and Louisiana — have been hospitalized due to heat-related incidents, according to local media reports and social media posts.

The average number of deaths per year has remained steady over the past few decades despite greater awareness and other improvements, according to Scott Anderson, director of special projects for the College Athletic Trainers Society and former head athletic trainer for the University of Oklahoma.

«If we look from about 2000 to present, they've gone from about 2.1 per year to 2.6 per year,» he said. «So the bottom line is we're not preventing fatalities.»

Linemen are particularly vulnerable to heatstroke because of their size and weight.

«We need big, strong individuals to play the position. The characteristics that make them successful are the same characteristics that put them at risk,» Anderson said.

The National Federation of State High School Associations told its state associations in June that prior guidelines calling for wearing cooler and lighter clothes at