The current issue of Sports Illustrated features a cover story on Purdue research that suggests some high school football players suffer undiagnosed changes in brain function and continue playing even though they are impaired. The research, lead by Weldon School Professors Tom Talavage and Eric Nauman and Weldon graduate student Evan Breedlove, could aid efforts to develop more sensitive and accurate methods for detecting cognitive impairment and concussions; more accurately characterize and model cognitive deficits that result from head impacts; determine the cellular basis for cognitive deficits after a single impact or repeated impacts; and develop new interventions to reduce the risk and effects of head impacts.