League of Denial is a League of Criminals—The Outrageous Brain Injury Cover-Up of the National Football League

October 14, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Editors' Note: For more analysis on this story, see "NFL Concussion Settlement: $765 Million to Suppress the Truth About Brain Injuries" and "NFL Capitalist Concussions."

 

From a reader:

After watching the Frontline documentary League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis, I wanted to wring the necks (figuratively speaking) of Paul Tagliabue and Roger Goodell, the former and current commissioners of the National Football League. They, along with a bunch of NFL doctors, not only withheld information that they knew football concussions can cause Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)1 from the public, but they lied to their football players in telling them that there were no long-term effects from concussions, as long as they were treated properly.

The day after the documentary aired on PBS, most media outlets gave glowing reviews and recommended that it be watched, but they failed to say what was needed to be said: "These guys are criminals because their football players are dying because of brain disease that was caused from brain injuries while playing football." The documentary compared the NFL to the tobacco industry that also withheld information from the public the fact that smoking tobacco causes cancer.

I can't get into everything that was in this documentary. (You can watch it at "League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis.") However, the outrageous way the NFL dealt with people who were bringing to the light of day the relationship between playing football, concussions, and this deadly disease was despicable. Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian-born forensic pathologist, was the first to discover CTE, when he examined the brain of Mike Webster, who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Dr. Omalu told Frontline that the NFL "insinuated I was not practicing medicine; I was practicing voodoo." When Dr. Ann McKee, lead researcher on the brains of former NFL players at the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy,2 went to the NFL with her findings, the "Good Ole Boys" of the NFL disrespected her and ignored her presentation. The way Dr. McKee put it is: "Sexism plays a big role when you're a doctor of my age, who's come up in the ranks with a lot of male doctors. Sexism is part of my life. And getting in that room with a bunch of males who already thought they knew all the answers, more sexism. It was like: 'Oh, the girl talked. Now we can get back into some serious business.'"

Besides hiding and denying the truth about concussions, the NFL viciously attacked those who were trying to bring this out into the open. Dr. Omalu and Dr. Mckee were the focus of their attacks. After Junior Seau, who played for the San Diego Chargers, committed suicide, his son was prepared to give his dad's brain to Dr. Omalu to test for CTE. The NFL went to Junior Seau's son with slanderous lies about Dr. Omalu and forced Junior Seau's son to give the brain to the National Institutes of Health instead of to Dr. Omalu. The NIH did discover that Junior Seau had CTE. This prompted Dr. Omalu to say: "CTE has dragged me into the politics of science, the politics of the NFL. You can't go against the NFL. They'll squash you."

The documentary ends with Harry Carson, who played for the New York Giants, saying "The NFL has given everybody 765 million reasons why you don't want to play football." He was referring to the $765 million payout of the NFL to former players. This statement by Carson has the potential to send shockwaves throughout the football world and beyond. You got an inkling of this questioning about the future of football in many of the reviews of the documentary, where the reviewers were convinced that these football players are dying because of the head injuries they received while playing football, but claim that they think nothing would change because football and the violence of football is so deeply embedded in the American culture and that football brings in billions of dollars to the NFL and colleges. Bob Avakian put it this way, "football is an important part of the cultural realm, and it has mass influence in this society. The Super Bowl (the national championship of American professional football) is a major event, for example—watched by literally hundreds of millions of people, if not more, around the world, as well as in the U.S. And football certainly does have a major influence, particularly on guys and "guy culture"—which is not a healthy culture—it's a male chauvinist culture, for short, which incorporates the celebration of violence, real as well as ritualized violence" (See "Tim Tebow and the 'Tuck Rule,'" Revolution #258, February 5, 2012.)

Despite all the doubts that football could change, an NFL-affiliated doctor told Dr. Omalu: "If 10% of mothers in this country would begin to perceive football as a dangerous sport, that is the end of football." The cats have now been let out of the bag, so who knows where this may go? Stay tuned.

 

1. "Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes (and others) with a history of repetitive brain trauma, including symptomatic concussions as well as asymptomatic subconcussive hits to the head. CTE has been known to affect boxers since the 1920s. However, recent reports have been published of neuropathologically confirmed CTE in retired professional football players and other athletes who have a history of repetitive brain trauma. This trauma triggers progressive degeneration of the brain tissue, including the build-up of an abnormal protein called tau.  These changes in the brain can begin months, years, or even decades after the last brain trauma or end of active athletic involvement.  The brain degeneration is associated with memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, and, eventually, progressive dementia." (Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy) [back]

2. Dr. McKee has examined 46 brains of former football players. 45 have CTE. [back]

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