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.   

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.        

    

   

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.