New York Giants Not Taking Chances On Quarterback Manning’s Head Injury

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Posted on 18th August 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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I have to applaud the New York Giants for how thorough the team is being checking out whether quarterback Eil Manning has a concussion.

Manning got an ugly, bloody gash on the side of his head Monday night in a collision while playing against the New York Jets at the team’s first game at the new Giants stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands. Manning, who had to get 12 stitches in his head, was pinned between the Jets’ Calvin Pace and Jim Leonard. Manning lost his helmet and got a three-inch wound on his left temple at the pre-season game.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704868604575434272702902404.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_editorsPicks_1

Since the incident, the Giants have made Manning go through a battery of tests to determine if he sustained a concussion, even though the quarterback doesn’t have any symptoms of brain damage.

According to The New York Times, Manning on Tuesday went to the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan to have a CT scan, and diffusion tensor imaging.    

 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/sports/football/18giants.html?ref=sports

 Today, Wednesday, Manning showed up for team practice, and stretched. But he is slated to undergo an Impact Test, a computerized evaluation of memory, brain processing and visual motor skills, according to The Times.

http://online.wsj.com/article/APa1087c10e0434a85839c5cf851944f5b.html?mod=WSJ_NY_LEFTAPHeadlines

During a conference call Tuesday, Giants coach Tom Coughlin told reporters, ”They’re not going to leave any stone unturned. They’re going to go ahead and do all the tests and MRIs and all those things.”

At this point, Giants officials say that Manning may not be able to start playing again immediately not because of any concussion, but because his stitches are getting in the way of his helmet.   

Pittsburgh Steelers Fans Welcome Back Ben Roethlisberger With Cheers, Not Jeers

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Posted on 1st August 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Pittsburgh Steelers fans are either very forgiving, have short memories or approve of taking advantage of young drunk women in the bathrooms of bars.

In any event, the fans welcomed shamed quarterback Ben Roethlisberger –  some even seeking his autograph – back to team practice with cheers and open arms Saturday, according to The New York Times.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/sports/football/01steelers.html?ref=sports

An apparently grateful, or relieved, Roethlisberger didn’t give fans the shirt off his back, but he did give them the shoes off his feet. Literally. That anecdote is in the first paragraph of  The Times’ story, which is headlined “For Roethlisberger, Feelings of Anxiety Fade With The Sound of Cheers.”

Roethlisberger’s practice at camp Saturday was essentially his first public appearance since the quarterback was suspended for six games. He got that suspension after being accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a Georgia bar in March.  He was not criminally charged in that incident, but he faces a lawsuit from a woman who alleges he raped her in Lake Tahoe, Nev.

I believe, and have blogged here on this topic, that Roethlisberger’s behavior changed for the worse as a result of his past brain injuries, which included brain trauma he sustained in a motorcycle accident where he wasn’t wearing a helmet, to the several concussions he sustained while playing for the NFL. 

The Times esimated that 10,000 fans showed up at St. Vincent College, where the Steelers train, and they roared when Roethlisberger came out onto the field.

Instead of jeers, one many yelled out to Roethlisbeger, “You’re the man,” The Times reported.

After the practice Roethlisberger told The Times, “It was good to be out here. I walked out, and they cheered pretty loud. It was neat to hear everybody cheering and seeing my jersey (on fans).”   

Some of the fans wearing Roethlisberger’s jersey were women, old and young alike.

The quarterback, in addition to his supension, also had to undergo a behavorial evaluaton. His team mates say that he’s acting more “personable.” The question is whether this is an act, or a real change in Roethlisberger.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will visit the Steelers practice as part of his training-camp  tour, , and The Times says the scuttlebutt is that Goodell may cut the quartereback’s suspension to only four games instead of six. 

New York Times Misses The Real Story Of Ben Roethlisberger, By Ignoring His Brain Injuries

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Posted on 30th July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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It’s the brain injury, stupid.

That’s what I would say to The New York Times regarding its profile Friday of disgraced Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. The story, headlined “A Reputation In Ruins,”  traces Roethlisberger’s life from high school to  the NFL, interviewing his friends and associates.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/sports/football/30quarterback.html?_r=1&ref=sportsThe

The article is about Roethlisberger’s fall from grace, from being a hero with two Super Bowl titles and a $102 million contract to a man acting like a thug, accused of sexually assaulting a very drunk, defenseless woman in the bathroom of a Georgia nightclub. Roethlisberger wasn’t charged in that case, but he was suspended for six games and ordered to undergo a behaviorial evaluation.

I have written several blogs about how Roethlisberger’s history of brain injury is a textbook explanation for his recent change in behavior, his despicable actions. The quarterback was in a near-fatal motorcycle where he cracked his helmetless head in 2006.  And Roethlisberger has sustained several concussions while playing.

http://www.tbilaw.com/blog/2010/03/football-and-brain-damage-the-cautionary-tale-of-steelers-quarterback-roethlisberger.html?preview=true&preview_id=326&preview_nonce=a274bf3c9d

Yet, I read The Times story several times and saw two references to Roethlisberger’s motorcycle accident, and nothing about his concussions. And the idea that his brain injuries may be a factor in his behavior isn’t even raised by The Times.

The Times makes a big point of the fact that as Roethlisberger emerged as a star football player in high school, the team’s quarterback, he developed a sense of entitlement. His classmates described him as “cocky,” and not exactly a team player. He would miss practices.

Doesn’t that description apply to a good number of young rising-star athletes who make it to professional sports, not only football but baseball and basketball as well? What’s so shocking about a super star athlete being cocky? That’s the equivalent of a dog-bites-man story for sports.

Anyway, when Roethlisberger first came to play for Pittsburgh he was polite and low-key, a guy who didn’t even drink alcohol, according to those who knew him.

“But Roethlisberger’s behavior, by many accounts, changed after he won his first Super Bowl, in February 2006,”  The Times wrote. “Four months later, he sustained head injuries in a motorcycle crash. He was not wearing a helmet.”

I’d submit that the brain trauma from the accident and concussions had a lot more to do with Roethlisberger winding up being accused of sexual assault this year — and being sued by a woman who alleges he raped her in Lake Tahoe – than the Super Bowl win going to his head.

But you’d never know that from The Times’ story. That one paragraph I quoted here is the only mention of brain injury in the story.        

    

   

NFL Owns Up To Long-Term Dangers Of Concussions In New Locker Room Poster

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Posted on 28th July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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I wonder to what extent the National Football League has really changed its stance on concussions. 

The league, long criticized for downplaying and denying the long-term damage of of concussions, is making a poster for team locker rooms that will spell out rather frankly the dangers of brain injury, according to The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/sports/football/27concussion.html?ref=football

The paper published a picture of the league’s new poster with the story it published Tuesday, which was headlined “NFL Asserts Greater Risks of Head Injury.”

The poster, which The Times says will also be given to players in a brochure form, boldly notes the connection of concussions to depression and the early onset of dementia. It also warns that repeated concussions “can change your life and your family’s life forever,” according to The Times.

And the poster also has photos depicting kids playing sports, reminding the pro players that “other athletes are watching.”

 The idea of  creating the new poster comes from the NFL’s new head, neck and spine medical committee, with the support of league commissioner Roger Goodell, The Times reported.  And the text was written by the medical committee along with the players’ union and the Centers for Disease Control. 

But Times reporter Alan Schwartz also noted that the NFL is still giving former players who have symptoms of early-onset dementia a hard time over disability payments. The older players have been deemed ineligible for the richer disability payments that players with on-field injuries receive.

 

Critics Blast NFL For Releasing Flawed Helmet-Safety Results

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Posted on 26th July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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The National Football League has been trying to show the public and Washington that it is taking brain injury seriously, rather than denying any responsibility or liability for ex-players who end up having some form of dementia  later in their lives. 

After trying to rehabilitate its image, the league then made a big blunder. In this case, the NFL is being taken to task for releasing data on tests conducted on the safety of helmets, data that has been roundly criticized as deeply flawed. The New York Times wrote about the situation on Sunday, in a story headlined ”Releasing Disputed Data on Helmets Put the Heat on NFL.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/sports/football/25nfl.html?_r=1&ref=football

Last Friday the league and the players’ union sent a memo to officials, players and the media that said that three of the 16 helmet models tested had done the best, in terms of protecting players. Two of the three that performed well were made by the official NFL licensee, Riddell, and the third was done by Schutt.

The problem is that just a few months ago the NFL’s helmet testing was blasted by a congressman as inaccurate and infected –  and NFL officials agreed with him. The ongoing flap over the NFL’s seeming indifference to player brain injury ultimately led to the resignations of the heads of  the league’s brain injury research committee.

The new leaders of that committee, Dr. Hunt Batjer and Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, at a hearing in March said they would essentially throw out the work of the men they had succeeded. That was supposed to have included the helmet testing results.

Instead, six pages of test results were released last week. They were carefully worded, according to Times reporter Alan Schwartz, to explain that the results “could not be extrapolated to collegiate, high school or youth football.”

One flaw of the helmet tests, according to The Times, is that they only simulated ”the highest 1 percent of forces to cause concussions.” 

The NFL didn’t make any friends in Congress releasing the helmet test results. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., immediately wrote a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Weiner had grilled Batjer and Ellenboger in a recent hearing in Manhattan that touched on the testing , whose methodology has been criticized.

According to The Times, Weiner wrote, “Yesterday’s announcement of the results of the NFL helmet testing study is a disturbing step backward.”       

Not exactly what you want to have a congressman telling you.

NFL Vet Kyle Turley, Showing Signs Of Brain Damage, Crusades To Make League Help Players Like Himself

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Posted on 13th June 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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 Former Kansas City Chief Kyle Turley was the Ben Roethlisberger of his day. After sustaining several bad concussions playing, Turley began having what you could call anger-management issues and acted erratically.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2009/09/18/kyle-turley-experiencing-potentially-serious-brain-issues/

He will always be remembered as the player involved in the infamous helmet-throwing incident when he was playing for the New Orleans Saints in a game against the New York Jets in 2001. Trying to protect the Saint’s quarterback,  Turley pushed  Jets safety Damien Robinson to the ground, ripped off his helmet and threw it across the football field. 

http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2010/05/20/helmet-tossing-kyle-turley-goes-country-to-settle-scores/

Turley was tossed out of the game, fined $25,000 by the Saints and ordered to take anger management courses.

Today it would hard to find any former player more active than Turley in the battle to make the National Football League really try to help present and former players who have brain injury.

 It makes sense that Turley is championing this fight,  because it looks his concussions have had a permanent impact on his brain. Last August he collapsed in a club, and later went in and out of consciousness. Now doctors suspect he may be showing the first symptoms of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a degenerative neurological disease that contributed to the deaths of ex-NFL players Andre Water and Justine Strezelczyk.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ms-thegameface091809

Turley is a textbook case of how concussions might impact a player’s behavior, and not for the better. The helmet- tossing incident was not his only embarrassing moment in football.    

 After suffering a severe concussion in 2003 when he was playing for the Los Angeles Rams, Turley went into the locker room, took a shower and was sitting by his locker naked when team owner Georgia Frontiere came in. He stood up and gave her a big hug, standing there stark naked.  

 In a recent exclusive interview with the blog Arrowhead Addict,  Turley offered some talk about his problems after sustaining head injuries, why he’s donating his brain to research on head trauma, and about how the NFL has failed for so long to admit the relationship between football-related-brain injury and later brain disease.

http://arrowheadaddict.com/2010/06/08/aa-exclusive-interview-with-former-chief-kyle-turley/

Turley testified before a Congressional committee last fall about his experiences, and lack of proper care, after sustaining numerous head injuries while playing for three NFL teams.  He didn’t like what he heard when he was in Washington from the NFL and still doesn’t think the league is taking its responsibility to stop brain injury and help players very seriously.  

Turley, who is now pursuing a music career in Nashville, told Arrowhead Addict that he agreed with prior remarks by Terry Bradshaw, namely that the NFL has been reactive, not proactive, in terms of dealing with the repercussions of player brain trauma.

At the hearings on the NFL and brain injury, Turley recalled watching a league doctor deny that football was the cause of long-term brain injury in players.

 ”So many guys have gone without being approved for disability and having the ability to get treatment,” he told the blog. “Guys have died, guys that were great players in this game, you know Andre Waters and Justin Strzelczyk and a few other guys that have had the same, I mean, Mike Webster had the same brain trauma as Justin Strzelczyk and Andre Waters and these others. The long-term effects from playing the game of football. There’s no question that there’s a direct relationship….To deny that this evidence exists and deny that there is any relation to these issues from football was offensive and shows exactly the NFL’s stance on the matter.”

Turley is one of a number of  ex-NFL players who have agreed to donate their brains to the Boston School of Medicine, which is creating a bank of brains to examine as part of its research on head injury and future brain disease. That research may spare potential future players, like his 1-year-old son, from the  brain trauma and the anger-management problems that Turley has lived with, he said.  

 ”I’ve suffered some issues with my feelings with my head injuries from football and its been difficult for me to deal with certain things and it has caused me to have take different medications and all kinds of other things that I don’t want my son to have to do,” he told Arrowhead Addict.

  The NFL in April donated $1 million to help fund BU’s brain-injury research. Whether it was a PR stunt or genuinc gesture  on the part of the league remains to be seen.  

 Besides, Turley pointed out that $1 million is not a lot of money for the NFL to ante up.

“If they want to make a dent in this thing the NFL’s going to have to commit some serious dollars to this research so that they can come up with solutions and not just play this fame,”  Turley said in his blog interview.   

 

Women Lead The Charge In Battle Over The NFL and TBI

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Posted on 12th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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 The New York Times during the past week has done a series of stories about the parties leading the fight to win compensation for retired National Football League players who have contracted early dementia.

 In a story in the Sunday Times, headlined “In the Fight to Address Head Trauma, Women Lead the Way,” sports writer Alan Schwartz continued his in-depth coverage of the issue with a lengthy profile of the women who have taken up the cause.  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/sports/football/11women.html?ref=sports

 He starts out writing about Eleanor Perfetto, who has brought a workman’s compensation claim on behalf of her husband, Ralph Wenzel, in California that could set a precedent in terms of the league’s liability. She is seeking compensation for her spouse’s early-onset dementia, which she claims was caused by his injuries during seven seasons as an NFL lineman.

 Perfetto has a PhD in public health, and is a senior policy director at Pfizer.

 Next on his Schwartz’s list is Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, a California Democrat who — like Perfetto – testified during last fall’s hearings before the House Judiciary Committee on pro football and concussions. 

 At the hearings Sanchez blasted the NFL’s lenient policies on concussions, which sparked some changes. For the Sunday Times story, Sanchez offered a quote that will ring true for any woman who has ever competed in a male-dominated industry.

 “People underestimate you, and it makes you very powerful,” Sanchez told The Times. “The NFL is so male and macho and testosterone-dominated, I don’t think they figured that women were going to be a force to be reckoned with in this thing, and they’re finding out the hard way.”

 Perfetto and Sanchez aren’t the only women who have been vocal participants in the football-concussion debate. There is also Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at the Boston University School of Medicine, who has linked brain damage in ex-players to football.

 The Times also cites former Tampa Bay Buccaneers president Gay Culverhouse, who blasted the NFL during the congressional hearings and even started a foundation to help out players.

 The story also talks about the wife of former NFL tight end John Mackey, Sylvia Mackey. She almost went bankrupt when he came down with early-onset dementia. She went on to convince the NFL and the players’ union to create a plan to assist families like hers.

 The final female advocate on behalf of NFL players in The Times story is Kwana Pittman. She is the niece of ex-NFL player Andre Waters, who killed himself in 2006. Pittman got her family to agree to have Waters’ brain matter analyzed. The testing found extensive brain damage, bringing the issue of football and the long-term impact of concussions into the national spotlight.    

Seeking Clean Slate, NFL Picks New Chairmen For Concussion Panel

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Posted on 18th March 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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The National Football League, under pressure to devise a policy on concussions that will safeguard players, Tuesday shook up its committee on head injuries. It appointed two new co-chairman to head that panel.

As The New York Times put it, with its actions this week the NFL appears to be “distancing” itself from its lax and rather embarrassing past record regarding concussions. We agree. For example, the league didn’t fare very well discussing its head-injury policies during hearings before the House Judiciary Committee in October. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/sports/17concussions.html?ref=sports

Seemingly looking for a fresh start, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell named Dr. H. Hunt Batjer, chairman of neurological surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Evanston, Ill., and Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, chief of neurological surgery at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, to head the NFL head, neck and spine medical committee.

That’s the new name for what had formerly been called since its 1994 founding the mild traumatic brain injury committee.

Batjer and Ellenbogen will replace Dr. Ira Casson and Dr. David Vann, who left as co-chairmen last fall. Casson had been skewered during the hearings in Washington for his stubborn refusal to agree that there was a connection between head injuries and higher raters of dementia among retired NFL players.

And there was another piece of news Tuesday. It was disclosed that Dr. Elliott Pellman, who had remained a member of the NFL brain injury panel after stepping down as its chairman in 2007, has resigned as even a member of the group.

An NFL spokesman told The Times that the committee purview had been broadened to include the neck and spine because they areas tied into brain injury.

In a statement, Ellenbogen seemed to make it clear that he considers player head injuries a serious issue.

“I am humbled and honored to be participating in a program by the NFL that recognizes the widespread problem of concussion, which occurs in a wide spectrum of our population, from student-athletes to soldiers to professional athletes,” Ellenbogen said. “I hope through our actions, research and advocacy, we can improve the prevention and treatment of this public health issue for athletes in all sports and at all levels of play.” Batjer and Ellenbogen didn’t wait too long to take action. They are adding Dr. Mitchel Bergen, chairman of neurological surgery at U.C. San Francisco, to the committee. Berger is not a mere academic: He was a defensive end at Harvard University and even tried out for the Chicago Bears in 1974.

Women’s Soccer Champ Chalupny Takes Leave Over Concussion-Related Issues

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Posted on 12th February 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Interestingly, this week I attended a sport and concussion lecture where both the doctor who was giving the lecture and one of the attendees both had daughters who were soccer goalies. Both had had problems with repeat concussions, from getting kicked in the head.

Not attending such lecture, but perhaps noticing all the press about concussions and the NFL, is the captain of the U.S. Women’s national soccer team, who announced today that she is taking an indefinite leave of absence and won’t play in an upcoming tournament in Portugal. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/2010-02-11-800829453_x.htm

Lori Chalupny, a 26-year-old St. Louis native, said she is taking a respite to deal with concerns regarding concussions, so she won’t be at the Feb. 24 Algarve Cup. http://www.globe-democrat.com/news/2010/feb/12/lori-chalupny-will-not-play-us-algarve-cup-matches/


“I am taking some time off so I can get some additional testing done for these concussion-related issues,” Chalupny said in a statement released Thursday by the St. Louis Athletica of Women’s Professional Soccer, the team she plays for.

“I need to go through this now to ensure my health for the future. I certainly don’t like the idea of missing a tournament like the Algarve Cup, or missing any time with Athletica,” Chalupny said. “I just need to get some rest and take care of issues.”

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/soccer/story/E62EAB88FC10F3CF862576C8000B8FFA?OpenDocument

The Athletica’s training camp starts March 1.

Chalupny took a time out for four months in 2006 after sustaining a concussion while playing in a tournament in China. She was accidentally kicked in the head by a player in a game against France at the Four Nations tournament in China.

During the U.S. soccer team’s opening match against Norway in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Chalupny was accidentally punched in the jaw. She was benched the rest of that game, but played in subsequent Olympic games. The U.S. team won a gold medal.

Chalupny was also a member of the 2007 U.S. Women’s World Cup team.

Rest and no return to play are always the safest course with sport concussion. How long and how many concussions begin to leave cumulative disability, is still unknown. That is why we strongly believe in continuous testing until complete resolution of symptoms before returning an athlete to play. The harder challenge is how to make these determinations with accidental concussion, where there is less risk of a repeat blow to the head, but perhaps a greater risk of long term consequences.

Olympic Sports Like Snowboarding and Skiing Rival Football In Terms of Injuries

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Posted on 8th February 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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A year ago, Natasha Richardson reminded all of us that sport concussions happen in sports other than football and that average people can suffer, not just famous athletes. With the Winter Games approaching it will be world class athletes who may stir up the conversation again, but in a newer sport, one without a tradition of safety: snowboarding.

There are already worries that snowboarders in Vancouver will be cracking their heads as they compete in the counterculture sport, as The San Francisco Chronicle called it, which was admitted to the Olympics in 1998.

The Chronicle noted that “maneuvers in the halfpipe have grown from exhilarating to terrifying in the four years since Shaun White won the gold in Turin, and the champ’s face smacked against the lip of the pipe at the Winter X Games last weekend, sending his helmet flying.” http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/07/SP921BR2N0.DTL

The International Olympics Committee is criticized for not setting safety standards for snowboarding, and letting the International Skiing Federation govern it.

The Miami Herald also weighed in on the issues, in a story headlined “Winter Olympics Flirting With Danger.” http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/olympics/story/1467130.html

The article cites snowboarder Kevin Pearce, who hit his forehead on the wall of a half-pipe and sustained traumatic brain injury. He is now at a long-term rehabilitation facility.

“Combine snow, ice, expressway speeds, six-story heights,” The Herald writes. “Think NASCAR on a slippery track or gymnastics with a helmet but without a mat. Imagine plunging down a slope as hard as concrete in a skinsuit or sliding down a roller coaster on a steel cookie sheet or flying through the air without a parachute.”

Not only snowboarders but skiers face serious injury, prompting some to call for safety reforms.

Will snowboarding reform? Will the thrill of the daredevil be replaced by some common sense about permanent damage to the minds of these young people?

We have been discussing the different trends of two of America’s most popular sports with respect to head injury risk in recent weeks. Today, at http://subtlebraininjury.com.blog we talk about the NFL’s growing commitment to player brain safety. Last week we talked about NASCAR’s preference for ratings rather than safety. The NFL seems to have learned that protecting its assets (the players) is more important than making the sport more sensational. NASCAR has clearly not.

We can only hope that the leaders of this Olympic sport show plan ahead rather than react to some tragedy.
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