Last night, my wife and I watched the movie 'Concussion' about an immigrant medical examiner doctor who stumbled upon concussive brain disease when he did the autopsy on Iron'Mike Webster, who played 17 years in the NFLwith the Steelers, earning 4 super bowl rings in the process.
He simply wasn't himself as he struggled to adjust to life with bad investments, unpredictable moods and anger outbursts. In the book entitled, 'League of Denial' the autopsy found that Mike Webster revealed chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE The doctor who performed the autopsy was a Nigerian-born doctor named Bennet Omalu, who decided to study Iron Mike's brain even using his own money to do so when county funds to do so were cut.
In the city of Pittsburg where the gridiron god's reign, it isn't easy to go against them. Once Dr. Omalu discover the findings of Mike Webster's brain disease he thought the NFL would embrace those results and do something about the problem, but this was not the case and instead, the NFL formed their own committee to study this syndrome. The committee formed by the NFL interviewed their own 'experts' and T sent its findings to the medical journal Neurosurgery.s. "They publish in that journal repeatedly over the period of several years, papers that really minimize the dangers of concussions. They talk about [how] there doesn't appear to be any problem with players returning to play. They even go so far as to suggest that professional football players do not suffer from repetitive hits to the head in football games." (http://www.npr.org/2013/10/07/229181970/when-it-comes-to-brain-injury-authors-say-nfl-is-in-a-league-of-denial) Another article elaborates further on how the NFL manipulated data to come up with a far different conclusion than Dr. Omalin. It was later discovered that the NFL formed committee actually withheld data that didn't agree with it's own conclusion.(http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/25/sports/football/nfl-concussion-
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In a few weeks, the Minnesota Vikings will be showcasing their new Billion dollar stadium for these titans of football, and we, as loyal fans will run to the nearest living room and absorb every hit, every catch and every victory without realizing the profound consequences those hits are having on the long-term health of these players.
For example,Dave Duerson was a long times safety, a defensive back for the Chicago Bears- and had the reputation for being a ferocious hitter was a successful businessman after football who was on the committee giving out disability payments to retired players who believe that Duerson was a shrill to the league and the unions trying to keep players from getting the money, until that is, when he left a suicide note and shot himself in the chest so his brain could be studied. According to Fainaru-Wada, Duerson words tell all about his own affliction:
"My mind slips. Thoughts get crossed. Cannot find my words. Major growth on the back of skull on lower left side. Feel really alone. Thinking of other NFL players with brain injuries. Sometimes, simple spelling becomes a chore, and my eyesite goes blurry ... I think something is seriously damaged in my brain, too. I cannot tell you how many times I saw stars in games, but I know there were many times that I would 'wake up' well after a game, and we were all at dinner."
And then on the last page, it's almost as if he had remembered something that he had forgotten: "Please, see that my brain is given to the NFL's brain bank."
Fainaru-Wada: Indeed, his brain was studied, and it was found to have CTE.
Sadly, we live in a society where we would rather sacrifice the pensions of hard working middle income earners just so we can write a billion dollar check for the most prestigious game in town- the NFL and we do so to keep 32 NFL families wealthy and happy.
It also seems we would rather laugh or make fun of someone who displays the behavioral symptoms and treat it as though it were a mental disorder while denying the root cause of those behavioral problems. We would rather treat it with medications rather than listen to the stories of those who are afflicted by the unexplained behaviors of a concussion. Keeping it in the dark spreads untold misery to loved ones tormented by a family member with this brain disease.
The movie ' Concussion' was an eye-opener for me, and one that should change the way we play the game of sport. While it might not be as exciting to see head slams banned from the game, it is a necessary step we must take for the long-term health of the sport; if we fail in this area, then it will only be a matter of a decade before mothers decide that football is a much too dangerous of a sport to play and will forbid their son's from playing this sport- at that point there won't be enough profit to sustain it, and the sport will become extinct.
research-tobacco.html?_r=0
In a few weeks, the Minnesota Vikings will be showcasing their new Billion dollar stadium for these titans of football, and we, as loyal fans will run to the nearest living room and absorb every hit, every catch and every victory without realizing the profound consequences those hits are having on the long-term health of these players.
For example,Dave Duerson was a long times safety, a defensive back for the Chicago Bears- and had the reputation for being a ferocious hitter was a successful businessman after football who was on the committee giving out disability payments to retired players who believe that Duerson was a shrill to the league and the unions trying to keep players from getting the money, until that is, when he left a suicide note and shot himself in the chest so his brain could be studied. According to Fainaru-Wada, Duerson words tell all about his own affliction:
"My mind slips. Thoughts get crossed. Cannot find my words. Major growth on the back of skull on lower left side. Feel really alone. Thinking of other NFL players with brain injuries. Sometimes, simple spelling becomes a chore, and my eyesite goes blurry ... I think something is seriously damaged in my brain, too. I cannot tell you how many times I saw stars in games, but I know there were many times that I would 'wake up' well after a game, and we were all at dinner."
And then on the last page, it's almost as if he had remembered something that he had forgotten: "Please, see that my brain is given to the NFL's brain bank."
Fainaru-Wada: Indeed, his brain was studied, and it was found to have CTE.
Sadly, we live in a society where we would rather sacrifice the pensions of hard working middle income earners just so we can write a billion dollar check for the most prestigious game in town- the NFL and we do so to keep 32 NFL families wealthy and happy.
It also seems we would rather laugh or make fun of someone who displays the behavioral symptoms and treat it as though it were a mental disorder while denying the root cause of those behavioral problems. We would rather treat it with medications rather than listen to the stories of those who are afflicted by the unexplained behaviors of a concussion. Keeping it in the dark spreads untold misery to loved ones tormented by a family member with this brain disease.
The movie ' Concussion' was an eye-opener for me, and one that should change the way we play the game of sport. While it might not be as exciting to see head slams banned from the game, it is a necessary step we must take for the long-term health of the sport; if we fail in this area, then it will only be a matter of a decade before mothers decide that football is a much too dangerous of a sport to play and will forbid their son's from playing this sport- at that point there won't be enough profit to sustain it, and the sport will become extinct.
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