Dave Pear's Blog

When I played football for the University of Washington Huskies and then went into the NFL first through the Baltimore Colts, on to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and eventually with the Raiders, we all wore Riddell helmets. Little did I know that Riddell was an official paying sponsor of the NFL and was the supplier of choice for each of the teams for many years. This relationship made a lot of money for Riddell because kids playing Pee Wee, high school and college football were led to believe that Riddell was the best protection money could buy. And why not? All their heroes in the NFL were wearing them.
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Here’s one of my Topp Raiders cards with that older 70′s helmet – definitely not close to anything like the young players have today. (And the older guys from the 50′s and 60′s played with those leather “helmets”!) We were all coached to use our heads and helmets as part of our play and most of the older players still talk about stingers and having their bells rung several times in every game. And the League even went so far as to create their MTBI (MILD Traumatic Brain Injury) Committee headed for years by their own appointed Dr. No: Dr. Ira Casson who continued to spew their propaganda all the way up to Congress as recently as a couple of years ago.
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Our friend, George Visger, played for two years with the 49ers, ending his short career with a Super Bowl ring and 9 subsequent, life-changing brain surgeries that followed. And no disability or pension benefits because he only played for two years so he didn’t even meet the Disability Plan’s 4-year hurdle that all pre-93 players needed to qualify! Do you think his helmet was good protection?
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Bowing to heavy pressure in recent years, the League has been making changes to the rules to protect its players from the effects of concussions. They also fired Dr. No and replaced him with a real expert and advocate in the field: Dr. Rich Ellenbogen. But what about all those decades of denial while continuing to misinform its employees with fake studies? And they did that while also sending a false sense of security to school and college players making it all look and sound eerily like the long era when the tobacco industry was telling the public that cigarette smoking was harmless.
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And that is why Heidi and I decided to join a lawsuit that holds the League and Riddell responsible for hiding and perpetuating the long-term damages from concussions. The suit was officially filed this week and we’ve just uploaded a full copy to Scribd for easy viewing and to make it downloadable for printing. You can also click the Enlarge icon in the center of the menu at the bottom of the viewing screen to go Full Screen for easier reading (just hit the ESC key to close):
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Full Concussion and Helmet Lawsuit Filing Aug 3 2011
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NOTE: I’m not a lawyer and I am not here to solicit your business. But if you want more information, my contact person on this lawsuit is:
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Jason Luckasevic
Goldberg, Persky & White
e-mail: Jluckasevic@gpwlaw.com
1030 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
(412) 338-9460 – direct
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Well, the floodgates are opening wider and wider. Sports Legacy Institute and Boston University held a press conference this past Monday to announce their findings on the late Dave Duerson’s brain examination. To no one’s surprise, they discovered the presence of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in his brain.
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Former NFL player Dave Duerson found to have had brain damage

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Over the past few weeks, there have been some amazingly honest discussions during live NFL game broadcasts. So what’s been different from past coverage? Mainstream NFL announcers and commentators have begun to bring up those elephants in the room. And slowly, the conversation has also started shifting to include retired players who are now being vindicated by a growing wave of documented cases and scientific data on the long-term effects of concussions as a direct result of their past careers on the field. While concussions have always been a part of this physical sport, almost everyone also agrees that any dramatic changes or rules will likely make the game something completely different from what it has been.

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Alexander Hamilton US Customs House

With the growing firestorm from DeMaurice Smith’s recent comments about retired players’ relations, we forgot to mention that the Congressional Judiciary Committee held a Forum this past Monday (May 24th) in New York City on Key Issues Related to the Identification and Prevention of Head Injuries in Football. Among the people speaking were Dr. H. Hunt Batjer and Dr. Richard Elenbogen, the two newly-appointed co-chairs of the NFL’s “Mild” Traumatic Brain Injury Committee – er, wait – they changed it to the NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee! So what happened to concussions and brain injuries? Did they just magically disappear? We almost miss Dr. No!

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All we can say is, WOW! The New York Times just published a powerful piece by Deborah Blum yesterday that puts a final nail in the NFL’s Dr. No’s arguments about concussions. This piece says it all.

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Wow! Is it just us or did January whiz right by and now we’re already heading into February and the Superbowl? Here’s a roundup of some items to close off the month.

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Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) is holding the second Judiciary Committee Hearing on concussions at the Wayne State School of Medicine Conference Center in Detroit Michigan on Monday Jan. 4, 2010 at 1:00 pm EST. This hearing appears to be much more wide-ranging and the scheduled testimony includes independent doctors and even World Super Welterweight boxing champ Thomas “Hitman” Hearns is testifying, along with Rev. Al Sharpton. Bernie Parrish, Hall of Famer Lem Barney, Kyle Turley and George Martin are the retired players slated to testify this time.

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This blog has only been up for almost two years. But Dave’s been personally at his battle for over 25 years. And guys like Bernie Parrish have been at it for well over 40 years – long before most of today’s players were even born (well, maybe not Brett Favre…). There’s no doubt that this past year has been an interesting one. It’s been full of a lot of ups-and-downs with a lot of side trips that can get a little distracting at times. With the economy tanking and people losing their jobs all over the country, it’s hard not to get frustrated occasionally. Tempers can flare and passions will rise. But there’s no doubt that the issues which have always been most important to the retired players are gaining more visibility than ever because of everyone’s collective efforts.

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More good news – and a little fun – to exercise your brain as the end of the year approaches.

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Dr. NO!

THIS JUST IN: The NFL’s Dr. No – Dr. Ira Casson – has just resigned along with his co-chair from their MTBI Committee. Following the release of a leaked memo sent out to all the teams, NFL Commissioner made his usual non-statement about making “progress.”

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Here’s the headline from USA Today:

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Dr. NO!

Lead story for Friday morning: NFLPA Executive Director DeMaruice Smith calls for ouster of Dr. No. – Ira Casson. New York Times‘ Alan Schwarz writes:

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