With football season just around the corner, the proliferation of concussion talk will surely weigh heavily on sports writer’s fingers. So, I\u2019ll weigh in on a few of the more intriguing articles. Here go.<\/p>\n
George Will Opines on the Concussion Crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>George Will is the<\/em> leading conservative columnist, with views, which at times, go against the pompoms of the Obama Administration. He also holds a prominent position in baseball, sitting on Major League Baseball\u2019s Competition Committee.<\/p>\n So when ole\u2019 George speaks, people should listen.<\/p>\n He argues<\/a> that the increased violence of the game is not because of the lack of rules; rather, it\u2019s the players who are getting bigger, faster, stronger, and the human body is genetically incapable of adapting to the \u201cgame\u2019s kinetic energies.\u201d<\/p>\n The NFL\u2019s problem, according to Will, is not so much the lawsuits, but the gladiatorial-thrill of watching the spectacle of the player\u2019s brain being destroyed with each concussive and sub-concussive blow.<\/p>\n For those that are aware of the anatomical forces that are at play with each hit, the game has taken on a new visual imagery. The way I watch the game has changed dramatically, with each blow\u00a0 — whether it is the lineman in the trenches or the receiver getting slammed over the middle — I picture the brain rattling around the skull, like Jell-O in a glass jar.<\/p>\n As a member of the MLB Rule Committee, Will says, \u201cthe problem is not the rules; it is the fiction that football can be fixed and still resemble the game fans relish.\u201d<\/p>\n So take solace my NFL and CFB fans, the \u201cmost powerful journalist in America\u201d<\/a> agrees: the inherent violence of the game cannot be changed.<\/p>\n Though rule changes will be effective at the peewee to high school level, the NFL would be wise to take the conservative, hands-off approach, if it wants to remain the most watched sport in America.<\/p>\n Another Hall of Famer Will Join the Concussion Litigation Battle<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>Richard Dent<\/a> recently told the Chicago Sun-Times<\/a> that he intends to file a lawsuit against the NFL. \u201cI think it\u2019d be nice if all the players could go up under one and represent all the players.\u201d<\/p>\n This, of course, doesn\u2019t come as a surprise and exemplifies why more recognizable players will likely be joining the concussion lawsuits. These guys have played a team sport all their lives and some see this as one last fight to get \u201ctheir little piece [of the NFL\u2019s multi-billion dollar] pie.\u201d Moreover, former players see their brothers suffering from degenerative brain disease, though some aren\u2019t currently facing cognitive disorders, a growing majority fear they might be staring down the barrel of a Colt .45 some day.<\/p>\n So, why not try to cash that final check? The players would be wise to stick to the talking point that this is not about a \u201cmoney grab.\u201d They will have a tough time convincing a jury — who probably made a quarter of the life earnings the players have — that they deserve more money. Rather, it should be about ensuring they are provided with lifetime cognitive treatment.<\/p>\n Another common theme among former players is a potential emerging figure in the concussion lawsuits: the team physicians. Dent told the Sun-Times, \u201cYou look at your report, and you don\u2019t see certain information, like meds that were given to you,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you remember. Teams pass out [meds] and pass beer out, too.\u201d<\/p>\n This is no secret. Several former players have written<\/a> about the beer and pills being passed around on the plane rides home. And, it\u2019s also no secret that the doctor-patient relationship<\/a> is often a conflicted one.<\/p>\n However, none of the recent concussion-related lawsuits \u2013 at least yet \u2013 has targeted a team doctor, save the members of the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee. Many former players I have spoken to often ask, \u201cWhy aren\u2019t the doctors and trainers being sued? They were the ones that told me I could return to play after I answered the three common questions, who, what and where.\u201d<\/p>\n The plaintiffs\u2019 lawyers\u2019 current theory is that the NFL was the mastermind that created \u201cjunk science\u201d and failed to implement adequate return-to-play guidelines. In other words, the NFL dictated how the teams, doctors, and trainers would handle concussions.<\/p>\n Whether the plaintiffs\u2019 lawyers\u2019 theory should be tweaked to add the teams and team doctors is a route that some litigants should be discussing. Once, and if<\/em>, a team doctor is discovered to have played a role in the alleged concealment about the risks of concussions, you can bet he\u2019ll be added to the growing list of defendants.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With football season just around the corner, the proliferation of concussion talk will surely weigh heavily on sports writer’s fingers. So, I\u2019ll weigh in on a few of the more intriguing articles. Here go. George Will Opines on the Concussion Crisis George Will is the leading conservative columnist, with views, which at times, go against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1002"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1007,"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions\/1007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}