The (National Football) League of Denial
The NFL is under fire for not providing athletes with proper concussion treatment.
December 2015
Owen Butler '19
The concussion issue in the NFL has been going on for 25 years. It began after the autopsy of “Iron” Mike Webster by Dr. Bennet Omalu in 1991. In the autopsy, Dr. Omalu discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE in his brain. CTE is caused by repeated head traumas and is a form of dementia. Concussion, a new movie that will be released this Christmas, is about Dr. Omalu, who is played by Will Smith.
The NFL has been denying the relationship between CTE and playing football, although there has been a report of this connection in the lawsuit of Mike Webster. The report admits that there is a link between permanent brain damage and football. The NFL has tried to bury this information because it would cost them billions of dollars.
The NFL put together a committee in the 1990’s to study this connection. The committee members didn’t have the proper medical qualifications for this job and didn’t think this link was a problem. There have been multiple studies that have shown that this was not the case. At that time, a doctor for the NFL said, “If 10% of the mothers would perceive that football was dangerous, that would be the end of football.” This shows that the NFL is denying the research at that time.
In 2006-2007, the new commissioner, Roger Goodell, issued a public denial that said, “The concussion problem is under control.” This was not the case, however, because CTE was still a major problem in football players at that time. As the public became aware of this issue, Goodell came before the U.S Congress and said that the NFL has always been studying the problem. As of December 10 this year, Goodell said the study is still ongoing and denied the connection between the concussion and CTE in football players.
|
The commissioner has instituted new rules to try to prevent head injuries and has formed a new concussion committee, that actually has qualifications, to study long-term brain damage in football.
The problem with football in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s is that the TV viewers loved the violence of the game. The NFL realized this and marketed this violence to make more money. The players didn’t realize the danger of continuous head traumas.
|
The NFL actually gave the players a pamphlet that said that the players would be able to return to a game even if they have acquired a concussion. This increased the amount of players with CTE because they suffered, even more, head injuries. Hopefully this concussion issue will be resolved soon and the players of the NFL will be safer as a result.