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.

 

Attorney Gordon Johnson
Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
g@gordonjohnson.com :: 800-992-9447 :: Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.

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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.    

Attorney Gordon Johnson
Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
g@gordonjohnson.com :: 800-992-9447 :: Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.

http://subtlebraininjury.com :: http://brainanatomyguide.com :: http://car-accident-rain.com :: http://tbilaw.com
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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.

Attorney Gordon Johnson
Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
g@gordonjohnson.com :: 800-992-9447 :: Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.

http://subtlebraininjury.com :: http://brainanatomyguide.com :: http://car-accident-rain.com :: http://tbilaw.com
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