NFL Exec admits to link between Football and CTE

[Used 2 B Hu]

Can't believe no threads on this yet...and when I googlied it, it wasn't from a major news source and was halfway down the page below articles from 2009:

http://newschannel20.com/news/conne...head-trauma-link-during-congressional-hearing

Appearing before a congressional committee Monday, Miller, the NFL's senior vice president for health and safety, was asked about a connection between hits in football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. His answer was "certainly yes."

The NFL has not previously linked playing football to CTE directly.

Isn't this a big deal? Where is everybody?

 

[Used 2 B Hu]

Miller appeared at a roundtable discussion of concussions before the House Committee on Energy & Commerce and cited the work of Boston University neuropathologist Dr. Ann McKee. She has found CTE in the brains of 90 former pro football players.

90 players!!!

This shit is huge, right???

 

[Broncosr0k]

Isn't this a big deal? Where is everybody?

It isn't news. I have assumed there was a link for a few years now. Kind of like cigarette companies admitting their product is addictive and unhealthy after decades of research showing that was the case. Should we really be surprised when a multi-billion dollar machine denies any links to anything negative?

 

[Yankee Traveler]

It was on CNN too.

Now all they have to do is admit that weather conditions can have an affect on footballs.

 

[shopson67]

NFL is already in full denial mode, distancing themselves from this guy.

NFL distances itself from CTE statement

 

[Used 2 B Hu]

Another article that gives more details:

NFL exec admits to CTE-football head trauma link

He hedged a bit at first when questioned:

Miller began by referencing the work of Boston University neuropathologist Dr. Ann McKee, who has found CTE in the brains of 90 former pro football players.

“Well, certainly, Dr. McKee’s research shows that a number of retired NFL players were diagnosed with CTE, so the answer to that question is certainly ‘yes,’ but there are also a number of questions that come with that,” Miller said.

Of course, they're still trying to claim it's no big deal:

Last month, [Dr. Mitch] Berger, chair of the department of neurological surgery at the University of California-San Francisco [and also on the NFL's head, neck and spine committee] , repeatedly said that while the types of degenerative changes to the brain associated with CTE have been found in late football players, such signs have also been found “in all spectrums of life.”

So because other types of head trauma can cause CTE, helmet collisions in the NFL somehow aren't causing CTE?

 

[mcnabb7542]

It was on CNN too.

Now all they have to do is admit that weather conditions can have an affect on footballs.

I don't think it will go that far but it is showing some of these walking away at an early age are taken their profits and finding safer jobs.........

Got a feeling the new retirement age is 30!

 

[Used 2 B Hu]

It isn't news. I have assumed there was a link for a few years now.

But to have an NFL exec admit it, that was big, right? No wait, he didn't really admit it:

NFL is already in full denial mode, distancing themselves from this guy.

NFL distances itself from CTE statement

Big tobacco wrote the script, the NFL is following it pretty well.

 

[MarkOU]

It's always been implied football will give you brain damage. I liken this moment to Big Tobacco admitting that smoking is bad for ya.

Now initially we will get the lawsuits from former NFL players but then thats it, now that it will no longer be implied, you play football at your own risk.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

It's always been implied football will give you brain damage. I liken this moment to Big Tobacco admitting that smoking is bad for ya.

Now initially we will get the lawsuits from former NFL players but then thats it, now that it will no longer be implied, you play football at your own risk.

Bingo and bingo.

As long as Big Tobacco denied the cancer link they were liable for everything. As soon as the admitted, it became do so at your own peril. Your choice.

So the NFL has done similar. All the guys who came before this announcement still have legal recourse.

But whoever plays now and ends up with it did so at their own peril.

So it it is a dollars and cents issue. Liability shifts to the doer away from the enabler.

 

[Used 2 B Hu]

Now initially we will get the lawsuits from former NFL players but then thats it, now that it will no longer be implied, you play football at your own risk.

But whoever plays now and ends up with it did so at their own peril.

So it it is a dollars and cents issue. Liability shifts to the doer away from the enabler.

The issue for the cigarette manufacturers was, "if we admit it, people will stop smoking" and yet that hasn't exactly happened.

The issue for the NFL is, "if we admit it, little boys will stop playing football," and that's probably just as unlikely as everybody quitting smoking.

Sure, there might be pressure from parents to keep their sons out of organized football, but I think this will hardly put a dent in participation. Football is such an ingrained part of our culture.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

The issue for the cigarette manufacturers was, "if we admit it, people will stop smoking" and yet that hasn't exactly happened.

The issue for the NFL is, "if we admit it, little boys will stop playing football," and that's probably just as unlikely as everybody quitting smoking.

Sure, there might be pressure from parents to keep their sons out of organized football, but I think this will hardly put a dent in participation. Football is such an ingrained part of our culture.

As soon as they put the warning labels and unsightly pictures on cigarette packages, it was no longer their fault if somebody chose to take it up.

Exact same thing here.

No new legal liabilities once they fess up to "the link". No more guys able to say they didn't know and so on.

All about the $.

Folks still smoke and new ones start every day. Same for playing football. Popular and many will choose to risk it....

 

[DirtDirtDirt]

As soon as they put the warning labels and unsightly pictures on cigarette packages, it was no longer their fault if somebody chose to take it up.

Exact same thing here.

No new legal liabilities once they fess up to "the link". No more guys able to say they didn't know and so on.

All about the $.

Folks still smoke and new ones start every day. Same for playing football. Popular and many will choose to risk it....

I love the idea people try to sell that CTE will prevent kids from playing football

In reality, less kids will play football and every other sport, because parents would rather have video games babysit their kids.....Kids dont get off their fat asses anymore, thats why less of them will play football.....But this will all be explained away years down the road as a direct result of head injuries

 

[gohusk]

It's always been implied football will give you brain damage. I liken this moment to Big Tobacco admitting that smoking is bad for ya.

Now initially we will get the lawsuits from former NFL players but then thats it, now that it will no longer be implied, you play football at your own risk.

Well that's not what the NFL was saying for the long time. They actually aggressively tried to discredit research that said it for a long time.

 

[Rockinkuwait]

I love the idea people try to sell that CTE will prevent kids from playing football

In reality, less kids will play football and every other sport, because parents would rather have video games babysit their kids.....Kids dont get off their fat asses anymore, thats why less of them will play football.....But this will all be explained away years down the road as a direct result of head injuries

Well I think if football compared to other sports shrinks for kids to play we can attribute a lot of that to this.

Look at baseball with kids... it's been falling off, and soccer has been exploding as kids think baseball is boring. And for sure the NFL doesn't want to have that same situation. I wonder if in the next year or two we will be seeing a major change in safety gear... Maybe that new VICIS helmet being mandatory and the NFL abandoning a major endorsement deal to get the safest equipment.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Can't believe no threads on this yet...and when I googlied it, it wasn't from a major news source and was halfway down the page below articles from 2009:

NFL exec admits to CTE-football head trauma link during congressional hearing


Isn't this a big deal? Where is everybody?

Not really...everyone that has paid any attention at all to brain trauma knows that blows to the head are a factor in CTE. The NFL has instituted new rules on how and where players can hit, they have effectively agreed alreay.

What else is there to really learn from this admittance?

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Well I think if football compared to other sports shrinks for kids to play we can attribute a lot of that to this.

Look at baseball with kids... it's been falling off, and soccer has been exploding as kids think baseball is boring. And for sure the NFL doesn't want to have that same situation. I wonder if in the next year or two we will be seeing a major change in safety gear... Maybe that new VICIS helmet being mandatory and the NFL abandoning a major endorsement deal to get the safest equipment.

We're not going to see the effects of it for maybe 10 yrs and even then it will be mostly a depth issue at the smaller college programs but the decline in participation is already underway. My boss has 3 boys grade school age and all play football as he did...private school, a pretty strong football program...league wide they have experienced a shortfall in depth...varsity is now bringing up 8th graders on a regular basis.

He said Lacrosse is growing in participation league wide as parents look for alternative sports, but apparently it's not much safer.

 

[Rex Racer]

you play football at your own risk.

Sadly, this is a concept that is lost on too many people.

Anyone who isn't/wasn't aware that smashing your head into and against other solid objects could lead to brain damage probably already has brain damage

 

[Lakers+USC=#1]

Trust me, this will never be a problem with the NFL, as far as losing popularity with the kids.

 

[Rockinkuwait]

The big one is how or if this affects NCAA and high-school levels. I've been amazed that the only lawsuits I've seen are against the NFL. I understand why the NFL doesn't want to point the finger down (that's their feeder system), but I wonder how long until players who didn't make it to the NFL start suing schools or the NCAA for the same reasons.