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This NFL preseason has already had more concussions than the last NBA and MLB seasons combined

(Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

The NFL regular season is still a few weeks off — but here’s a stark reminder that the league’s concussion crisis isn’t going away.

Courtesy of Forbes, this chart shows the striking fact that through just training camp and half of the preseason, the NFL has already suffered more concussions than Major League Baseball and the NBA did in their last complete seasons, combined.

concussions chart

(Dan Diamond/Forbes)

Data from the independent @NFLConcussions twitter feed indicates that 16 of these concussions occurred in training camp practices and the remaining 19 have happened in preseason games.

In recent years, the NFL has made some efforts to reduce the risk of concussions, but stats like this show the huge disparity that exists between football and other sports in terms of head trauma — and hint at how difficult it’s going to be to eliminate it from an inherently violent game.

Further reading: Playing football is even worse for players' brains than we thought

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