In the ferociously competitive team sport that is modern politics, opposing players are constantly butting heads and trying to draw blood.

But in a rare meeting of minds, three MPPs from rival parties have teamed up to reduce the risk of head trauma among young athletes across Ontario.

They will celebrate a shared victory Tuesday if, as expected, the legislature votes to enact Rowan’s Law, named after 17-year-old Rowan Stringer, who died in 2013 after returning to the rugby field too soon following a concussion.

The story of how three lawmakers quietly joined forces behind the scenes to pass Rowan’s Law is about an unusual collaboration on concussion. As parents themselves, they understood the trauma that families go through when brain injury intrudes on the playing field.

But beyond the human casualties, they also know only too well how easily bills “die on the order paper” — a parliamentary phrase that refers to proposed legislation falling off the agenda when the house adjourns.

And they are acutely aware of how verdicts from coroners’ juries — like the one that produced 49 recommendations in the aftermath of Rowan’s death — can be studied to death and fade from memory.

Together, the MPPs resolved to shake up the process to produce results.

Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod rallied to the cause of Rowan’s Law after the rugby player’s death in her Ottawa-area riding. When her initial efforts bogged down in political inertia, she reached out to the NDP’s Catherine Fife, a former school trustee from Kitchener-Waterloo.

They made for an unlikely tag team — a fiercely partisan Tory and New Democrat — but MacLeod says they found common ground on concussions and set partisanship aside: “We’re sort of the same generation, and we’re both mothers,” she explains.

Liberal MPP John Fraser, who also represents Ottawa South, rounded out their tri-partisan squad. They fanned out among their separate caucuses, and their private lobbying efforts paid off when the entire legislature gave unanimous consent to ensure Rowan’s Law would get on the agenda this time.

Social media — usually a battleground among politicians — gave us a glimpse of their partnership when the NDP’s Fife proclaimed it had been “great working” with her two teammates. MacLeod replied with her own Twitter shout-out:

“You rock sista.”

The campaign for Rowan’s Law gained momentum just as MacLeod was going public with her own private bout of depression.

“I was looking inside myself. . . . It became my purpose, it became my raison d’etre — I was relentless,” MacLeod told me. “This bill is not controversial, it doesn’t cost money, and it will bring people together.”

Unlike the usual clutter and clauses that weight down legislation, Rowan’s Law is uncomplicated: It calls on the government to set up a panel of experts to study the inquest jury’s detailed recommendations, notably a legal framework to ensure youth sports are governed by concussion protocols, with coaches, players and parents informed of the perils of head trauma.

The legislation, like the jury recommendations, is good as far as it goes. But more could be done.

In a column last summer, I wrote about the absurdity of asking young boys and girls to risk concussions by heading the ball in soccer games — using their bare, unprotected skulls like baseball bats to whack a 16-ounce projectile hurtling halfway across the field at high speed, or knocking heads when opposing players vie for the ball.

It’s not just outright concussions but undetectable sub-concussive injuries that can have a cumulative effect over a player’s lifetime. Children are less skilled and experienced in judging the impact and trajectory of a ball; they are less dexterous and less reactive; and they have weaker neck muscles compared to adults.

While nothing has been done in Canada, the U.S. took action last November in response to years of legal challenges from parents: Children under the age of 10 are now banned from heading the ball, while players from age 11 to 13 can only do so in practices, but not in games.

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The U.S. Soccer Federation agreed to the changes in the wake of persistent litigation, not legislation. But that shouldn’t stop our own lawmakers and experts from taking the issue to heart.

And being more mindful, as Rowan’s Law takes root, of how heading risks injuring the brains of our young athletes.