CBS Sports: NFL, NFLPA announce largest youth helmet replacement program ever - ProFootball Weekly: NFLPA names DePaso general counsel - NBC Sports: Ricky Williams doesn’t believe there’s a link between concussions and brain damage - We've posted the entire 896-page NIOHS NFL Players Study - just CLICK HERE to read. - FOX sports: Former Giants WR Robinson dies at 50 - IT'S OFFICIAL: George Martin resigns from NFL Alumni - FOXsports: Junior Seau, 43, found dead in apparent suicide - Washington Post: Ray Easterling, former NFL player who sued league over concussion treatment, dies at 62

Open 24 HoursOver the past 24 hours, we’ve certainly had a lot of discussions around the old adage “Not seeing the forest for the trees.” In the old way of controlling their spin on all stories about football, the NFL managed to keep all of the television networks and most of the major print media on very short leashes because of their broadcast rights and access to players and managers for interviews. And then the Internet came along. Despite claims of a few who proudly proclaim they invented the Internet and Facebook, this new medium has not only moved the retired football players battle to a new and level playing field; it’s in a different league altogether. Just as the past two weeks have completely caught Tiger Woods and his team of old-school PR flacks like deer in the headlights, the NFLPA and the NFL and their old media machines have been hard-pressed to catch up with a new medium that they can no longer control. The Internet doesn’t belong to anyone and it belongs to everyone.

continue reading »