As I write, the city is abuzz with all things red and gold. Everyone's hoping for another Big Game win and a chance to converge on downtown to support their Chiefs.
Me? Not so much. Every time I see a promo for a football game I get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach? Why? I'm glad you asked.
Last week I watched a PBS Frontline documentary, "League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis." It was full of helmet crunching footage, sad, sad stories of retired football players, decades of denials from the NFL and a grim prognosis for all football players and the sport itself.
In 2002, Pittsburgh Steeler player Mike Webster died, eleven years after he left professional football. He was fifty years old. Dr. Bennet Omalu, the neuropathologist who performed the autopsy, said that if he hadn't know how old Mike was, he would have guessed he was in his seventies.
Pictures of his legs during the autopsy were horrifying. For lack of a better description, they looked like Cabbage Patch doll legs...puffy, bloated and certainly not normal. Mike's forehead was permanently affixed to his skull, the result of scar tissue built up due to the numerous concussions he sustained during his 17 years in the pros. Towards the end of his life, Mike was unable to focus, had trouble finding the right words, experienced fits of rage and exhibited other signs of dementia. Eventually, he ended up living in his car.
In 1997, believing his deteriorating condition was a result of his years in the NFL, Webster filed a lawsuit against the League's retirement players board. His lawyer sent Webster's medical records to four different doctors for review. They all concluded that Webster had sustained traumatic brain damage as a result of his 17 years in the NFL. The NFL had his medical records evaluated by another doctor, Dr. Ed Westbrook, who concurred with the other findings.
The NFL had no choice but to acknowledge that Webster's condition was a result of the beatings he took during his professional career and agreed to pay him a monthly disability stipend.
The NFL did not make the information public. For decades.
In the mid-90's, the NFL established the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee (MTBI), headed by a rheumatologist(!). Half of the doctors on the board are NFL team doctors. Over the next fifteen years, the Committee would conduct "research" that would state that there was no relation between hitting your head and later health problems.
After Webster's death in 2002, a close examination of his brain led to a dark discovery. Dr. Omalu, after sectioning and staining tissue from Mike's brain, discovered the presence of tau protein in areas of the brain not generally associated with dementia or Alzheimer's. The presence of tau protein destroys the integrity of surrounding brain cells.
Omalu classified the condition as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). He published his findings in the journal Neurosurgery. The MTBI attacked Omalu's article, claiming that there was no evidence that Webster's brain was abnormal.
In 2005, another Steeler's player, Terry Long, died after drinking anti-freeze. Omalu examined Long's brain and found the same tau proteins. The MTBI again refused to acknowledge Omalu's findings, accusing him of "practicing voodoo."
Omalu was summoned to speak with an NFL doctor. During the course of their discussion, Omalu was asked several times, "Do you know the implications of what you're doing?" several times. Finally, Omalu says, "Why don't you just tell me."
"If ten percent of mothers in this country would begin to perceive that football was a dangerous sport, that is the end of football."
As a mother, I am incensed to think that an organization as large as the NFL would dare to put their billions of dollars in assets and profits before the health and well-being of a child. Their lack of response and blatant denial of concussion repercussions is heinous.
Part ll to follow...
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