Congress Looks into Brain Injuries among Football Players
Nov 2nd, 2009 • Posted in: NewsCritics say NFL has not done enough to help former players with debilitating mental and emotional conditions
WASHINGTON
The National Football League (NFL) and its union last week agreed to cooperate with a congressional call for an independent review of the effects of head injuries on current and former players.
Questions about players’ vulnerability to dementia and other neurological problems were the focus of a congressional hearing last week that included testimony from doctors and former players.
NFL commissioner Robert Goodell said he would make the organization’s records available for the inquiry, reports the Reuters news agency.
When pressed, Goodell would not say whether he believed there was a link between football and mental and emotional problems among players, but he did say that he could think of “no issue to which I’ve devoted more time and attention,” asserting that the NFL is “changing the culture of the game for the better,” notes the New York Times.
At issue, reports CNN, is whether the league does enough to protect players and to provide care for former players now suffering from debilitating brain injury.
“Surely, an $8 billion a year industry can find it within its budget to make sure players are adequately protected and that any victims of long-term brain disease are fairly compensated,” said Michigan Rep. John Conyers, the Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee, reports CNN.
In an editorial, the Boston Globe says it supports an independent probe: “Congress should demand that the league, which has tended to discount the lasting effects of hard blocks and tackles, pay for an independent study of the game’s effect on players’ brains. The federal government should also commission its own research on the sport at all levels.”
As reported in previous issues of Newsline, various critics have claimed that football — both professional and amateur — produces more brain injuries than is widely assumed and that coaches have not always exercised adequate caution in returning head-injured players to the lineup.
Sources: New York Times, Oct. 28 – Reuters, Oct. 28 – CNN, Oct. 28 – Boston Globe, Oct. 28.
For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Oct. 5 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 5, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Feb. 5, 2007 — Related Newsline story, June 28, 2004.
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