One of the major issues that have plagued the NFL to a greater degree over the last several years has been head injuries that have seen concussions be at the forefront.

This has been something that the league has taken a more concerted effort in addressing over that span. However, Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk is reporting that there was a continued rise in diagnosed concussions this past season.

The NFL says players were diagnosed with concussions a total of 281 times in 2017, which is the most the league has seen since it began tracking concussions consistently across the league six years ago.

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What has been most concerning about this increase in head injuries is that much more came in practices and not in the games themselves. There were 45 that occurred in practices in the preseason and 11 during the regular season, which were both the highest totals that the league has documented. On top of that, the 46 concussions in the preseason games and 179 in regular season action were also but an increase from the previous years' totals.

The game of football is a violent sport that puts physical health at danger on every play, but there is a clear need to change things up drastically to decrease the number of head injuries that occur every season. The NFL has become more aware and thorough with the handlings of these situations, but it is still too often the case of teams not going through the protocol during the game.

The 2017 season has seen several players not correctly diagnosed during a game and allowing them to play when they shouldn't be on the field. This has become an evergrowing problem that the NFL has had much difficulty in looking for alternate methods to decrease the number of head injuries. Hopefully, these increased numbers will push the league to take even more action to find a solution.