NFL’s concussion response is insulting.
Did anybody notice the Weird Science going on at the recent NFL owners’ meetings?
The world’s greatest scientific minds (#sarcasm) gathered to debunk the link between traumatic brain injuries and playing professional football (#clueless) while comparing the risk of getting whacked in the head repeatedly to possible side effects of taking an aspirin. (#seriously?)
“I believe this: that the game has always been a risk, you know, and the way certain people are,” Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay told SportsBusiness Journal. “Look at it. You take an aspirin; I take an aspirin. It might give you extreme side effects of illness and your body ... may reject it, where I would be fine. So there is so much we don’t know.” League, meet Denial. Again. “There’s risks to sitting on the couch,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said before the Super Bowl.
Sigh. The only risk I’ve experienced on the couch is getting slobber-faced by my Boxers Addie and Vinnie. Otherwise, it’s a safe place. Unlike a football field of organized mayhem.
It’s all so disingenuous, insulting and sadly predictable. Goodell and his 32 owners want to protect their fiefdom, and the marketing plan tends to go off the rails when former players are ravaged with various forms of dementia, and in extreme cases, killing themselves when the emotional and physical pain become unbearable.
Of course, it’s not the majority of retired players spinning into these cycles of despair. But there’s plenty of documented and anecdotal evidence that connects the
dots.
The brain dissections of nearly 100 deceased football players have revealed a direct correlation between concussions and degenerative brain disease. “The answer to that is certainly, yes,” Jeff Miller, the league’s senior vice president for health and safety policy, said during a round table discussion at the House of Representatives in March.
But just weeks later … amnesia. Maybe everybody overdosed on aspirin.
“There’s no research. There’s no data. … We’re not disagreeing,” said Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
Perhaps Jerry was on vacation in 2013, when the NFL settled a lawsuit filed by retired players accusing the league of covering up the risks of concussions. The tab: $765 million.
Irsay’s comments, Jones’ comments — there are oth-
ers, too — are shameful and despicable. NFL owners have made a ton of money over the battered bodies of the guns they hire. The average NFL franchise is worth nearly $2 billion.
Players know that this is kinda like the deal with the devil. There are inherent risks. But knowledge is power, and for the longest time, the NFL ignored and defied science. Then it didn’t.
Now it’s backtracking again.
It is a losing battle. Science always wins. And science is growing exponentially.
NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr. tweeted that he would donate his brain to science.
His revelation was part of a thread that included a link to an article on three former Oakland Raiders who also offered to donate their brain to science in honor of teammate Ken Stabler.
Stabler, who died last July, was diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). It’s a neurological disease linked to head collisions in football and other contact sports, causing debilitating and degenerative memory and mood problems.
Earnhardt missed two races during the 2012 season after a series of concussions.
Although an MRI revealed no damage, Earn-
hardt had been dealing with lingering headaches and went through a series of consultations before taking a break.
“It’s frustrating,” Earnhardt said at the time. “I really didn’t get to make the decision. I left it in the hands of the docs.”
And that’s how it should be. NASCAR reacted by instituting mandatory baseline concussion testing for its drivers in 2014. The NFL has a very rigid concussion protocol in place now. A player, a NASCAR driver, or anyone else playing contact sports should not be able hide concussion symptoms simply by counting his or her fingers.
The NFL shouldn’t hide from the truth either. My head hurts from the disingenuous drivel. I may need an aspirin.