I listened to most, but not all, of yesterday’s day-long House Judiciary Committee hearing on football related head injuries. As it would be impossible to fully summarize seven hours worth of testimony and questions and answers, I won’t try to give a complete summary, but rather, some random observations from what I took away from the proceedings. (For a great summary, read Alan Schwarz in the New York Times; or, if you have the time, you can watch Panel 1 proceedings here and Panel 2 here.
Commissioner Roger Goodell might be feeling like he got a concussion yesterday. He failed to acknowledge that concussions result in dementia and Alzheimer’s. He took heat for not having Dr. Ira Casson, co-chair of the NFL’s committee on concussions present, despite apparent attempts by the Committee to have him there. (Dr. Casson has publicly denied any connection between concussions and depression, dementia, etc..) He was admonished at least twice for not answering the questions posed to him by Judiciary Committee members. And, he took the brunt of the scorn of Rep. Maxine Waters (D –CA) who threatened to revoke the anti-trust exemption which the “Eight Billion Dollar Industry” enjoys.
He gave a smarmy answer to the question of how he would now handle the Mike Webster case by stating that he was not Commissioner during that debacle, and that Webster would be eligible for the 88 Plan. (Webster , and after his death, his estate, had fought to get disability benefits, which the Bell/Rozelle Disability Plan, and their lawyers continued to deny and fight against, in spite of all of the Plan’s own doctors favorable opinions.)
Once again, NFLPA Union Chief De Smith voiced his position of the need to take care of those who played the game, and acknowledge that the Union had failed to properly do so in the past. He testified about the recently created committee to look into this issue, and stated that the Union’s medical director was now going to be present in various meetings. I have grown tired of his talk about taking care of retired players, and his strategy to undermine the new advocacy role of the NFL Alumni in his pre-position for upcoming CBA talks. I have yet to hear him say the words most retired players want to hear : “disability reform and pension improvement”. While acknowledging the union’s past failures toward retired players, he has not fired or demoted any of the Union’s retired player officials who were responsible for those failures or the fiduciary breach of duty with regard to the GLAs. He has not replaced the three Union appointed members of the Retirement/Disability Board – who might frequently cast their votes in favor of retired player’s claims, but have failed to speak out about the system’s failings.
George Martin, former NY Giant, and only in his second week as the new Executive Director of the NFL Alumni, made and eloquent and impassioned presentation to the Committee. For his detractors – from those in the Union – to those pushing for an independent group to represent retired players – he did not parrot any NFL company line. He spoke of a friend and former teammate, who enjoyed a very successful business career after the game, but has apparently fallen victim to the effects of too many hits to the head. As the League will not acknowledge that these problems are related to football; the Union will stand silently by; and the Plan’s disability attorneys would surely try to pin the problems on anything other than football ( All his overseas travel comes to mind as a good scape-goat) Martin will soon find that he has a huge job ahead of him in the role of #1 retired player advocate. I do believe that he is up to the task.
Maxine Waters (D-CA) is my hero! With a close second and third to Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) and Linda Sanchez (D-CA) they all “get it” and don’t seem to be content to let the status quo prevail. Dr. Kay Culverhouse was also fabulous, and told of how she had to help former players with tasks as simple as filling out an application. While most of the medical experts who testified were fabulous, and most of the Committee members are interested and sympathetic, it was striking to me that it was the women – both on the Committee, and those who testified who are most solidly in the corner of retired players!
A couple of Republican Congressmen questioned the priority the hearing was given, and expressed the opinion that Congress did not have any business intervening in this private business; however, it was quite apparent that the problem of football related head injuries is not limited to a thousand highly paid active football players, not even the 10,000 who used to play the game, but rather, this is an issue which influences and effects millions of Americans – from the millions of kids who play on Friday night, to the many thousands of girls who might suffer a head injury in their sports participation. As one Congressman commented : “I have never seen anyone on a soccer field wear a helmet.” In addition, the effects of TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) is noe effecting over 20% of our troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Chris Nowinski was articulate and entertaining as always; as were former NFL Players Merril Hoge and Tiki Barber. Hoge spoke of being forced to quite football after a particularly devastating concussion. He said that it took him two years to recover. He is now a well-spoken TV football analyst. Chris Nowinski mentioned that he was suffering the depths of depression and other effects of concussions for five years after he quit his job as a professional wrestler. (I nearly fainted when he testified – under oath- that pro wrestling is fake!) What I would like to know, and what I think should be the subject of further research is how were they able to recover? Was it the financial resources to excellent health care and rehabilitation? Was it the love, support and understanding of family and friends?
One of the witnesses scheduled to appear did not – Bernie Parrish – one of the most passionate and outspoken critics of the League and Union. I can only hope that he did not have some adverse health related problem after listening to Goodell and Smith testify.
Much of the testimony, and answers to questions, was focused on what the NFL has done in the past few years to change the rules to make the game safer; there was also talk about the tremendous improvements made to football helmets – however, as Ms. Waters correctly noted, it is the fragile brain smashing into the skull thousands of times which results in much of the damage. The research will continue. The NFL and the Union will continue to be concerned, and look into the issue.
What I failed to hear was anything about what will be done for the retired players – particularly those who played with flimsy helmets on Astroturf before the rules were changed. Although the amount of disability benefits a retired player might receive has been increased, there is no indication that it will be any easier for those suffering from the effects of concussions (or any other medical problems for that matter) to qualify for disability – especially football degenerative T&P disability.
For all the interest and passion expressed by many members of the Judiciary Committee on this issue, I realize that they have many other crucial and urgent matters pending before them. I can only hope that it will not be another two years before further hearings – and some needed reform – take place.
