by Andrew Brandt/National Football Post
NFL faces heated questioning on head injuries issue
In the midst of last week’s Favrefest, there was an important congressional hearing about a topic that has become front and center. With Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith giving testimony, Congress focused on an issue that is vitally important to the health and safety of football players: head injuries and the brain.
The head injury hearing
The House Judiciary Committee convened to discuss head injuries and their connection — or lack thereof — to brain disease later in life. The hearings were spurred by, among other things, a study conducted at the behest of the NFL that reported a higher prevalence of dementia and brain disease among former NFL players than the general population. Although the study was conducted by the University of Michigan and reported by the New York Times, the league dismissed some of the methodology used to reach the findings but acknowledged the issue needs increased scrutiny. The hearings gave the issue just that.
The hearings put Goodell in a rare defensive posture, although there were no questions he could not have reasonably expected and prepared for. The problem for the commissioner was that he had nowhere to turn in this debate. READ MORE
