Talk to any of the dads in the spectator stands at a local high school football game, and you’ll likely find one that still complains about a bum knee or sore shoulder from an old football injury.

Unfortunately, with such a high-impact sport, injuries are inevitable, even when precautions are taken. Yet a potentially life-changing injury that often goes unnoticed, even by the players, is a sports concussion.
“What we used to call ‘getting your bell rung’ or ‘seeing stars,’ that’s all brain injury. And it’s cumulative,” says Geoffrey Lauer, executive director of the Brain Injury Alliance of Iowa.

Lauer says athletes can suffer from a concussion during a game but not realize it, because the symptoms can be subtle. Concussions don’t always cause a player to “black out” or lose...