In the wake of last week's seemingly inadvertent admission of a football-CTE link by an NFL official, and with research suggesting brain trauma was far more widespread among non-NFL veterans than previously believed, folks connected to the NFL are not keeping their thoughts to themselves.
Exhibit 1: John Mara, owner of the New York Giants, not only acknowledged the admission of the previously denied football-CTE link (although somehow claiming that the admission wasn't new), but declared that link to be teh most important issue the NFL faces, adding "and I don't think anything else comes close." Mara acknowledged the research indicating CTE in 32% of a sample of non-NFL football players in making his statement.
Exhibit 2: Kevin Turner, a former University of Alabama and NFL player who had been particularly active in supporting the settlement reached between the NFL and a large body of former players suffering from brain trauma-related maladies, died today after his six-year struggle with ALS.
Exhibit 3: Bruce Arians, coach of the Arizona Cardinals, has apparently had enough and decided it is time to end this whole foolishness once and for all. You're one of those parents who doesn't want your child playing football? You're a fool. Mr. Arians (and that is more respect than you deserve), there are worse things than being a fool. There is, for example, being a damned fool. And you, sir, are a damned fool. And yes, I am using that word theologically. This after Dallas Cowboys owner and noted intellect Jerry Jones declared "absurd" any notion that football could possibly have anything to do with concussions or CTE or any harm to his lil' ol' players, later attempting to walk his remarks back to the now-discredited position that "more research is needed."
Exhibit 4: Of course, Arians's employers had their credibility taken down several more notches today by the New York Times. You might remember the careers of, say, Steve Young and Troy Aikman, two of the top quarterbacks of the 1990s. You might also remember that both of them suffered a series of rather frightening concussions, career-ending in Young's case. Somehow those rather famous and highly-documented concussions never made it into the much ballyhooed report the NFL issued in 2003, declaring that (much like Jones above) football and brain trauma were unrelated. As a side note, the Times also documented that during that period of the NFL's history, quite a few of their owners and executives decided that it was a good idea to get advice from the same people who made Big Tobacco the moral exemplar of American goodness and decency that they are today. More than a few people have compared the NFL's moral compass in the brain-trauma era to to that of Big Tobacco or, more recently, the fossil fuel industry. Well, that might have been more true than anyone realized. Wonder if we'll find out that they've also consulted with attorneys for Exxon-Mobil as well.
Exhibit 5: Meanwhile, it is becoming increasingly apparent to NFL players that nobody else -- not the NFL, not the NCAA at an earlier stage, and certainly not football fans -- is going to look out for their interests, so they'd damned well better start looking out for themselves. The latest to start speaking out is DeAndre Levy, a linebacker for the Detroit Lions. Whie in injury rehab last season, Levy started to look around and do that dangerous thing called "thinking." Then he started asking questions. Really good questions. Questions about why the NFL continues to emply some of the most discredited and frankly reprehensible representatives of the hardcore denialist era of the NFL. This isn't Levy's first time speaking up on the issue of brain trauma, nor is he necessarily the first to question the continuing presence of those hardcore denialists in the NFL (and as a side note, it turns out that some current NFL players actually did go see the movie Concussion.) This is the only thing that is going to get any movement at this point. Owners, despite Mara's protestations, are still going to put their interests first, and fans clearly aren't going to do a damned thing. Players are going to have to look out for themselves. Some, like Chris Borland, will decide it's not worth the risk; some, like Levy, will choose to stick around, at least for a few years. But nobody else is going to give a damn for the current guys on the gridiron, so it is absolutely right and good for the players to start demanding a seat at the table, along with the suffering former players, survivors of deceased former NFL players, and the parents of those kids who die playing football.
Exhibit 6: The Onion is still on the case.
This could be an active off-season indeed.
Steve Young in 1999 (one among many); and...
Troy Aikman...several times.
But not if you read that 2003 NFL report on how football doesn't cause concussions.
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