NFL Declares Concussions Now Officially Real
Alan Schwarz from the New York Times covered the new NFL concussion policy and those fancy new posters that they’re going to be hanging up in the lockers from now on.
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N.F.L. Asserts Greater Risks of Head Injury
By ALAN SCHWARZ
The National Football League is producing a poster that bluntly alerts its players to the long-term effects of concussions, using words like “depression” and “early onset of dementia” that those close to the issue described as both staggering and overdue.
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The poster, soon to be hung in locker rooms leaguewide, becomes by far the N.F.L.’s most definitive statement on the cognitive risks of football, which it had discredited for most of the past several years as academic studies and reports of deceased players’ brain damage mounted.
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The new document also warns players that repeated concussions “can change your life and your family’s life forever,” a clear nod to retired players’ wives who have spoken out on the issue, occasionally before Congress. A draft of the poster also features photographs of unnamed youngsters in various sports with the reminder, “Other athletes are watching.”
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Click HERE to read the rest of the Times’ article from Alan Schwarz. You can also read Alan’s earlier story on the recently-released NFL study on helmet safety – click HERE.
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Dave also finished a recent interview on disability benefits (or the complete lack of) with Fred Wallin from KCAA in Loma Linda, California (click on the PLAY› arrow to listen – approx. 40 min.):
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And with Fred’s mention of the Buccaneers early in his interview, it makes a perfect intro to a really in-depth series in the Tampa Tribune that followed the ’79 team through their injuries from the field to life today.
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Broken Bucs: 1979 success came with costly toll on health
By JOEY JOHNSTON | and IRA KAUFMAN |and MARY SHEDDEN | The Tampa Tribune
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Published: July 25, 2010
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TAMPA – They were two seasons removed from a 26-game losing streak that made them a national laughingstock. And if you listened to preseason predictions, the 1979 Tampa Bay Buccaneers weren’t going to be anything special.
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But rocket-armed quarterback Doug Williams, future Hall of Famer Lee Roy Selmon and tight end Jimmie Giles suddenly made pirate helmets and Creamsicle jerseys cool.
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The team’s surprising emergence won these punch-line pirates a division title and brought them within 10 points of a Super Bowl appearance. They were young, agile and determined.
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In November 2009, the former teammates reunited at Raymond James Stadium for a halftime celebration of the 30th anniversary of their winning season and Selmon’s induction into the team’s Ring of Honor.
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Read the rest of this series – click HERE. Be sure to check out the sidebar sections on Anatomy of a Concussion and the Former Player Survey Results.
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And George Visger just sent in a recent piece he found about a study on the long-term link between brain trauma and traumatic epilepsy:
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New study finds that traumatic epilepsy following head trauma can develop years later
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A new study published in this week’s medical journal, Neurology (July 20 issue) finds that traumatic epilepsy can develop years after brain trauma takes place.
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“Not only do combat veterans with a penetrating traumatic brain injury have high rates of epilepsy, but the development of epilepsy can occur decades after their lesion,” said lead researcher Jordan Grafman, a senior investigator at the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
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Equally disturbing is the finding that even when epilepsy develops soon after their brain injury, the seizures can become more severe over time.
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Read the rest of the post on Michael Kaplen’s Brain Injury Blog – click HERE.
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John Hogan
July 27th, 2010 at 6:01 AM #
Once again, active players will benefit but nothing for retired players who are too late for the “warning” posters, changes in rules, or new and improved helmets.
Most disturbing to me were Larry Lamade’s comments to Doug Ell indicating that they are still trying to find ways to avoid paying disability benefits to retired players who are suffering the effects of TBI and concussions.
John Hogan
Disability Attorney
Dave Pear
July 27th, 2010 at 10:15 AM #
The NFL has no intentions of ever paying their long, long, long overdue medical bills to retired players and their families.
NFL lawyers such as Doug Ell (Groom Law Group) and Larry Lamade (Akin Gump) are paid to find ways to avoid paying disability claims to retired players who are disabled.
The Groom Law Group created and designed the current NFL disability debacle for retired players and they still (to this day) represent the NFL, NFLPA and the Retirement Board. They wrote their own “devious” and illegal disability plan that violates ERISA Law.
On December 19, 2007 Larry Lamade (partner with Akin Gump) sent me an email saying, “I have represented the league for over 30 years and continue do so today.” “The Commissioner’s (Roger Goodell) office has asked me to assist you in obtaining information that you have been seeking…”
However, on 4/28/2008, our editor catches the law offices of Akin Gump sending an anonymous email from “Catherine.” You decide for yourself if this cowardly and unwanted email is a prank or a veiled threat?
Read the post:
“Just When You Think It’s a Slow News Day…”
At a PR stunt in 2008 which Roger Goddell organized and attended in Dallas, he was asked if he was the Chairman of the Disability Board by a former player – he wasn’t even sure! Read about that comment HERE.
That is the commitment of the Commissioner. Read that post and you decide.
Regards,
Dave & Heidi Pear
Dan Bunz
July 27th, 2010 at 12:32 PM #
I just wish there was a way we could work with the NFL to resolve the retired players’ lack of medical coverage and poor retirement plan.
Dan Bunz
San Francisco 49ers & Detroit Lions
1978 – 1985
Tweets that mention Concussions are Now Officially Real - Dave Pear's Blog -- Topsy.com
July 27th, 2010 at 12:56 PM #
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Cliff Newell
July 27th, 2010 at 5:22 PM #
Hi Dave,
Thanks for sending your columns. I wonder how the NFL thought it could get away with its snow job for so long? They made things worse for everybody.
Cliff Newell
Lake Oswego Review
Greg Davis
August 9th, 2010 at 12:30 PM #
Dave,
I just heard from my attorney in reference to my Workers’ Comp case of three years, this line struck me: “Please understand that we had an insurance company that went bankrupt and we are dealing with a State Agency now.” Let’s see: A State Agency in California – a state that is now $50 Billion +/- in the red and has been compared economically to Greece.
Perhaps if I was a City Commissioner in Bell making $800K+ a year, I would fare better. Or maybe that’s why I may never get treatment. I fully believe if I had walked into an NFL facility and tripped over the plug to the Coke machine, I probably would have gotten better treatment. Maybe a Sky Box and lifetime season tickets to boot, to say nothing of the $10K a month settlement for wrongful suffering. Go figure.
I just can’t seem to get that Mantra out of my head, “Are you hurt or are you injured?”
Greg Davis
Atlanta Falcons, New England Patriots, Arizona Cardinals
Minnesota Vikings, San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders
1987 – 1998