{"id":548,"date":"2015-01-31T20:58:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-31T20:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/?p=548"},"modified":"2017-08-11T11:32:29","modified_gmt":"2017-08-11T11:32:29","slug":"football-officials-alerted-to-brain-damage-concussion-80-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/?p=548","title":{"rendered":"Football Officials Alerted to Brain Damage, Concussion\u201480 Years Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contemporary experts of law and medicine in sport discuss an historical news period, 1928 to 1933, when football officials learned of brain risk to players, understood research questions\u2014and even devised a sideline concussion test<\/em><\/p>\n

By Matt Chaney<\/p>\n

Posted Saturday, January 31, 2015<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a92015 by Matthew L. Chaney<\/p>\n

During football season in 1928, late October, American sports pages headlined ominous findings of fledgling research on brain damage in boxers:<\/p>\n

\u201c’Punch Drunk’ May Apply in Other Sports\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerican Medical Association Publishes Article Raising Question\u201d<\/p>\n

The accompanying news report quoted Dr. Harrison S. Martland, of Orange, N.J., whose newly published case studies<\/a> of deceased boxers revealed a \u201cpunch drunk\u201d syndrome to become known as \u201cchronic traumatic brain injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

Utilizing microscopic pathology, Martland had identified diseased brain cells of boxers \u201cdue to single or repeated blows on the head or jaw,\u201d he said, warning that likely all athletes of contact sport were at risk.<\/p>\n

Research avenues were obvious and urgent for football leaders and officials of more activities in America.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe condition can no longer be ignored by the medical profession or the public,\u201d Martland said, long ago\u2014and wowing experts today.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Martland\u2019s observation was spot-on,\u201d said Bob Fitzsimmons, legendary sports attorney, during an email exchange this week. \u201cUnfortunately it took over 80 years to follow his advice, even though the problem was right before us all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf only the stakeholders in football would have heeded Dr. Martland\u2019s warnings in 1928\u2026,\u201d said Paul D. Anderson<\/a>, sports-injury lawyer and professor, \u201cthe science of football-related brain injuries would have been exponentially advanced and numerous lives could have been protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, the stakeholders and guardians of football were willfully blind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here is full text of the 1928 Associated Press report published in Sports sections nationwide:<\/p>\n

NEW YORK, Oct. 20 (AP)–The “punch drunk” condition of boxers has stepped into the medical field for determination whether others than boxers get it.<\/p>\n

The American Medical Association has issued in its Journal an appeal by Harrison S. Martland, M.D., of Newark, N.J., to find out the nature and extent of this state, which he says fight fans describe as “punch drunk, cuckoo, goofy, cutting paper dolls or slug nutty.”<\/p>\n

The symptoms in slight cases are a “very slight flopping of one foot or leg in walking, noticeable only at intervals, or a slight unsteadiness in gain or uncertainty in equilibrium.” In severe cases “there may develop a peculiar tilting of the head, a marked dragging of one or both legs, a staggering, propulsive gait.” Finally, marked mental deterioration may set in.<\/p>\n

“I am of the opinion that in punch drunk there is a very definite brain injury, due to single or repeated blows on the head or jaw. I realize that this theory, while alluring, is quite insusceptible of proof at the present time.”<\/p>\n

Dr. Martland suggests that if punch drunk exists in the form he suspects [then] it afflicts others than boxers and that establishment of the facts is important to courts and labor compensation boards in handling head injury cases. He foresees disadvantages in the field which may be opened for “so-called expert testimony” and says:<\/p>\n

“While most of the evidence supporting the existence of this condition is based at this time on the observations of fight fans, promoters and sporting writers, the fact that nearly one-half of the fighters who have stayed in the game long enough develop this condition, either in a mild form or a severe and progressive form, which often necessitates commitment to an asylum, warrants this report. The condition can no longer be ignored by the medical profession or the public.”<\/p>\n

The Martland story is a \u201cgreat\u201d artifact, said Fitzsimmons, who represented family members of Mike Webster<\/a>, the deceased, brain-damaged NFL lineman at center of landmark court action a decade ago. The Webster estate won $2 million in retroactive disability payments from the league and players union, setting legal precedent for claimants of brain injury from football.<\/p>\n

Harrison S. Martland<\/a> paved the evidential path. The pioneer sport neuro-pathologist, longtime medical examiner of Essex County, N.J., was also known for identifying disease states in workers of radium processing. Martland compiled boxing case studies until his death in 1954, and authorities of football like Fitzsimmons feel indebted.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch still needs to be done but I am encouraged by the numerous doctors and scientists who are now studying and researching CTE,\u201d Fitzsimmons said. \u201cAdvances are being made and hopefully treatment is not far off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two modern pathologists are prominent for their postmortem series on football players, beginning with former Pittsburgh ME Dr. Bennet Omalu, a friend and colleague of Fitzsimmons who\u2019s now a county medical examiner in California and subject of a feature film<\/a> in production.<\/p>\n

Following Webster\u2019s death at age 50 in 2002, Omalu<\/a> delivered the groundbreaking micro-autopsies identifying chronic traumatic encephalopathy<\/em>, or CTE, in brain tissue of the Steelers icon and more deceased NFL players.<\/p>\n

At Boston University, Dr. Ann McKee has found brain disease in 78 of 82 NFL players analyzed postmortem, damage of impacts including hallmark tauopathy. \u201cWe have known about CTE since the 1920s, when it was first associated with boxing,\u201d McKee said, speaking recently in Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cCTE results in memory loss, mood swings, change of behavior, and sometimes suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Lester Mayers<\/a>, a New York physiatrist and author of journal reviews<\/a>, is versed in the literature lineage of brain trauma in athletes dating to boxing\u2019s earliest. \u201cDr. Martland cautiously pointed out that evidence of [the boxing] affliction was anecdotal at that time,\u201d Mayers stated this week in email.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince then, many studies of professional and amateur boxers utilizing a variety of [research] techniques have found that greater than 50 percent suffer substantial brain damage and disability. The significance of these findings is that the extent of brain damage correlated best with the number of non-concussive impacts experienced by the fighters over their careers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere seems to be an obvious parallel with the current experience unfolding in football.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayers knows the football maw close range, as former medical director for athletics at Pace University, where he treated casualties of all games. Mayers doesn\u2019t see much if any wiggle room for football and its inherent violence, regarding improvement for so-called safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who watches football games at any level from the sidelines, junior through professional, will observe the constant occurrence of head impacts intrinsic to the game\u2014500 to 1,000 per season according to Helmet Impact Technology,\u201d\u00a0Mayers observed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that when the extent of resulting brain injury and disability is better documented in future studies that football participation will decline substantially, placing the future of the game at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some researchers, typically funded by football interests, say more studies<\/a> are needed to draw conclusions about collision risk for the brain. They note longitudinal studies have yet to be performed on living players\u2014without adding that football organizers have avoided exactly that research since Martland\u2019s call 87 years ago.<\/p>\n

Central New York clinical psychologist Dr. Don Brady<\/a>, PhD, PsyD, NCSP, researches sport concussion<\/a> and provides consultation for NFL retirees<\/a>, their families, and other athletes. Brady has studied the literature of sport-related concussion for three decades, devouring Martland but taking his review deeper, back to 19th century research. Dr. Brady rebukes the notion that accumulating discovery isn\u2019t documenting football danger.<\/p>\n

Information such as the 1928 Martland news \u201cserves to further thwart attempts by concussion revisionists<\/a> and manufacturers of doubt<\/a> to ignore, deny, minimize and sanitize the existence of adverse medical history accounts\u2026,\u201d Brady stated in email, \u201cthat pertain to brain injury or concussion in sports and other life aspects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cConcussion history literature of the 1800s and early 1900s is rich with documentation on the adverse effects of both sport and non-sport-related concussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorney Paul Anderson concurred, discussing historical information in context of present-day lawsuits by thousands of former NFL players and families.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Martland\u2019s [1928] statement is another bullet in the plaintiffs\u2019 chamber when they seek to prove the NFL knew or should have known<\/em> about the long-term, devastating effects of repeated blows to the head,\u201d Anderson, representing family of late college player Derek Sheely<\/a> in an NCAA lawsuit, wrote for ChaneysBlog.<\/p>\n

For more regarding what football organizers have known about brain trauma, and when, see below the annotated timeline of news articles from 1982 to 2001, first posted at ChaneysBlog in 2012.<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Public fallout for Dr. Martland in 1928 emanated primarily from boxing circles.<\/strong>\u00a0 \u201cHis brains are scrambled from taking them on the chin,\u201d cracked a dim pugilist, unwittingly affirming Martland theory [and, no, the doctor wasn\u2019t a boxer].<\/p>\n

Martland won more support than opposition for his conclusions about chronic TBI in boxers. A powerful opinion leader in Martland\u2019s camp was Dr. Morris Fishbein<\/a>, widely known official of the AMA, for his four decades in spotlight as editor of Journal of the American Medical Association<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Fishbein endorsed the boxing research in this installment of his syndicated newspaper column, \u201cDaily Health Talk\u201d:<\/p>\n

Punches in Prize Ring Often Injure Brain<\/p>\n

By Dr. Morris Fishbein<\/p>\n

Pugilists know the condition that results from\u00a0a terrific pounding in the prize ring in which the recipient of the mauling suddenly finds himself unable to move his legs, dizzy, or as it is commonly expressed, \u201cout on his feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Harrison S. Martland recently read before the Pathologic society of New York a discussion of the condition called \u201cpunch drunk,\u201d which the fighters themselves all characterize by the terms \u201ccuckoo,\u201d \u201cgoofy,\u201d \u201ccutting paper dolls,\u201d or \u201cslug nutty.\u201d<\/p>\n

He points out that the condition usually affects fighters of the slugging type who are usually poor boxers and who take considerable head punishment, seeking only to return a knockout blow.<\/p>\n

It usually takes the fighter one or two hours to recover from a severe blow on the head or jaw. If he has been \u201cpunch drunk,\u201d he may notice later a flopping of one foot or leg in walking, and sometimes mental confusion lasting several days.<\/p>\n

Dr. Martland is convinced that the condition called \u201cpunch drunk\u201d results from a definite brain injury due to a single or repeated blows on the head or jaw which cause multiple small hemorrhages in the deeper parts of the brain.<\/p>\n

In the late stages, therefore, the disease resembles the condition known as shaking palsy or Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

He has presented microscopic studies of the brains of persons who have developed this condition, showing the pathologic changes which occurred in the brain, and which substantiate his point of view.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, he presents the names of 23 fighters who have been \u201cpunch drunk,\u201d and their present condition indicates the permanence of the physical changes.<\/p>\n

The AMA and JAMA already stood opposed to boxing at outset of the Depression Era, and membership immediately adopted Martland studies for accruing argument.<\/p>\n

AMA ethical policy<\/a> then and now essentially outlines Hippocratic creed of Do no harm<\/em>, or When in doubt, protect the patient<\/em>. To recommend avoidance of pugilism, especially for children, amounted to simple rationale for America\u2019s leading medical body.<\/p>\n

But AMA and JAMA simultaneously supported dangerous football, curiously or hypocritically [see news timeline below for the dichotomy in recent decades].<\/p>\n

Fishbein himself publicized perhaps the first sideline concussion test, apparently referencing a 1933 NCAA publication detailing the protocol, Medical Handbook for Schools and Colleges: Prevention and Care of Athletic Injuries<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Fishbein addressed traumatic brain injury in football and symptoms to watch for, reporting the following in newspapers:<\/p>\n

Most serious of all [football] injuries are those affecting the brain and the skull. A concussion of the brain means that the brain tissue actually has been bruised, with possible small hemorrhages in the tissue.<\/p>\n

The first sign of such injury is loss of memory for recent events. The least important sign is a slight dizziness. But coaches and trainers should not, however, be unimpressed when a player comes out of a sudden impact with another player merely slightly dizzy or dazed.<\/p>\n

The first thing to do in any such accident is to put the player immediately at rest, to determine extent of the injury. When a player has had a head injury, he should be put into a reclining position, questioned as to the headache and dizziness and given the test as to his memory for recent events.<\/p>\n

If he cannot remember the names of his opponents, which side is on the offensive, the score, the day of the week, or similar matters, it is not safe to permit him to play again. If, however, he merely is dizzy, he should be permitted to stand and move about, to determine whether he has lost his sense of balance.<\/p>\n

Any sign of a loss of sense of balance is serious, and the player should be removed from the contest.<\/p>\n

Fishbein was channeling the NCAA publication, undoubtedly.<\/p>\n

Kansas City attorney Paul D. Anderson has studied the 1933 NCAA document. And he keeps seeing\u00a0perfect fits of additional information, then and now, like the historic news items about Martland, the AMA, and brutal sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe doctors [from 1928 to 1933] clearly identify a causal link between football-related head blows and punch-drunk syndrome,\u201d Anderson surmised.<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

A 2007 episode of Friday Night Lights<\/em> on NBC centered on a lawsuit against a high-school football coach, for failure to instill \u201cproper tackling\u201d<\/a> in a player who ended up paralyzed by a helmet hit. This TV show was based on fact, not fiction.<\/p>\n

Heads Up, football coaches and wives<\/a>, because you\u2019re legally liable for the theory of \u201chead up<\/a>\u201d or headless hitting by players, the alleged \u201ctechnique\u201d and accompanying rules proven inapplicable and unenforceable<\/a> since at least 1976.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, coaches are legally responsible for ensuring that headless hitting is applied in tackle football, which is, lest anyone forgets, a forward-colliding frenzy that pits large, helmeted combatants to ram each other<\/em>. No one can actually teach and instill Heads Up nonsense<\/a>, of course, revived by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell<\/a> and league offspring USA Football<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, coaches of all levels are integral to the show of \u201cproper technique.\u201d The vast majority serve public lip service, promoting Heads Up for every gullible news reporter, of the legion.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the unfortunate few coaches\u2014and their families\u2014become legal shields for King Football<\/a>, as targets for lawsuits. Individual\u00a0 homeowner\u2019s insurance<\/a> becomes exposed for paying potential settlement or damage award, among liabilities.<\/p>\n

Since 1971<\/a>, coaches<\/a>, colleges<\/a>, schools<\/a>, youth leagues<\/a>, local government<\/a> and helmet makers have been sued over \u201chead up<\/a>\u201d or \u201cproper contact\u201d\u2014and with no backing of the prime purveyors like Goodell, who quickly acknowledge lacking scientific proof<\/a> for Heads Up when pressed.<\/p>\n

Lawsuit plaintiffs\u2014from whom Goodell effectively insulates\u2014are player casualties<\/a> of football\u2019s predictable severe injuries, calamities occurring much more frequently<\/a> than reported by game-funded \u201cstudies\u201d<\/a> posted on a website from University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Contemporary plaintiffs include a former NAIA college player, Nathaniel Seth Irvin, whose lawsuit<\/a> alleges he suffers concussion damage \u201cas a result of bad coaching and improper helmet use\u201d during the 1980s, reports The Chicago Tribune<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In California, the mother of a quadriplegic former Pop Warner player is suing coaches<\/a>, their wives, and youth-league organizations. Crystal Dixon alleges in the court complaint<\/a> that her son, Donnovan Hill, was paralyzed in Pop Warner football for \u201ca negligent tackling technique he was taught and instructed to use by his coaches.\u201d Hill was 13 when paralyzed during a game in 2011.<\/p>\n

Defense attorneys replied<\/a>: \u201cTo encourage aggressive play in football is simply to encourage participants to play the game as it should be played.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such lawsuits<\/a> could also target football players and referees.<\/p>\n

I played and coached in college football 30 years ago, when the so-called anti-butting rule of the NCAA and national high schools\u2014supposedly banning the striking of a helmet facemask for initial contact\u2014was already a joke<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And we coaches at Southeast Missouri State didn\u2019t have to specifically instruct players to ram. We only lined them up to play the dumb game, which inherently dictates\u00a0head-on collision between opposing players, clashing from opposite directions. This is a very simple matter of modern football covering law<\/a>–ramming–because of natural physics and shatterproof head armor.<\/p>\n

The idea of chest-bumping and \u201cshoulder leverage\u201d in football with modern helmets isn\u2019t only impossible. It is quackery for the public presentation today. And every football official above low-informed knows it, especially coaches who played.<\/p>\n

Yet cultural authorities like the American Medical Association have espoused \u201chead up\u201d versions first devised by a coaches association in 1961, then pumped by AMA press releases in 1967\u2014despite medical literature\u2019s lacking a peer-reviewed article on the concept, still, much less one credible researcher to sign his or her name.<\/p>\n

No Heads Up theorist claims responsibility yet, not academically, scientifically or legally.<\/p>\n

That should say everything for anyone.<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Super Bowl City serves as \u2018Cautionary Tale\u2019 for subsidizing sports and more questionable entertainment ventures.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Read past the hype or rhetoric about being an \u201cNFL City,\u201d and Glendale, Ariz., is almost bankrupt for building stadiums and hosting events like the Super Bowl. And monetary shocks spread further, affecting greater Phoenix and taxpayers across the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo fiscal conservatives, Glendale serves as a cautionary tale for suburban cities across the United States that want to throw public money at professional sports projects,\u201d note Associated Press writers Josh Hoffner and Jaques Billeaud, for this week\u2019s must-read analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, it\u2019s a bad move for cities,\u201d said Kurt Altman, attorney for the Goldwater Institute. \u201cAs much as they say it\u2019s going to make the city a destination, it just doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

A mathematical reality confronts any region for public giveaways to the NFL and other sports like the NHL (the garage league utterly underwritten by American taxpayers):<\/p>\n

There can be no public payoff unless a sport franchise imports<\/em> new consumers and industry from out of state<\/em>. But that never happens<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The glittering civic toys of subsidized stadiums and entertainment districts merely steal in-state customers from local businesses, those paying full taxation and operating without government aid.<\/p>\n

Even a region\u2019s temporary injection of Super Bowl fans, corporate sponsors and major media produces negligible return for public coffers\u2014or just more red ink.<\/p>\n

In Glendale, the tax-paying<\/em> citizenry will lose millions this week over the Super Bowl, says Jerry Weiers, the mayor tasked with sorting out a sports mess left by predecessors in city government.<\/p>\n

The municipality is dropping \u201chuge amounts of money on overtime and police and public safety costs associated with hosting the Super Bowl but getting very little in return,\u201d report Hoffner and Billeaud.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Missouri, does Gov. Jay Nixon<\/a> get it about public subsidy for the NFL<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Jay Nixon proposes dropping a half-billion dollars in state resources<\/a> on yet another football stadium in St. Louis\u2014only 20 years after taxpayers opened a new dome for the Rams, a project still carrying millions in debt.<\/p>\n

Does the Missouri governor need help, or logic, to ascertain necessary and priority need for appropriating public assets?<\/p>\n

Supplement: News Timeline on Brain Trauma in Boxing, The NFL and NCAA<\/strong><\/p>\n

Articles from 1982 to 2001<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Matt Chaney, 2012<\/p>\n

1982, Dec. 4: \u00a0\u201cDangerous Games That People Play,\u201d by Ira Berkow, New York Times<\/strong>. News commentary discusses risk and injury of hazardous sports and activities in the\u00a0United States, citing a report of the American Medical Association [AMA]. Berkow notes, with boxing under renewed threat of elimination in\u00a0America, that brain injuries are well-known in football too, comparing the gridiron\u2019s \u201calmost casual list of the maimed\u2026 those [players] suffering the routine concussions, neck injuries and assorted broken segments of the anatomy.\u201d Berkow writes: \u201cThere are more deaths occurring in college football and in motorcycle racing and in sky-sailing than in boxing. Relatively few [authorities], it seems, have vigorously propounded abolishing any other sport besides boxing since 1905\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

1983, Jan. 14: \u00a0\u201cPhysicians\u2019 Journal Calls For a Ban on Boxing,\u201d by John Noble<\/strong>\u00a0Wilford<\/strong>,<\/strong>\u00a0New York<\/strong>\u00a0Times<\/strong>. News analysis discusses JAMA editorials urging ban of boxing in America, CAT-scan studies of living boxers revealing \u201cbrain damage,\u201d and response of boxing officials, including their proposals to reduce risks. \u201cEditorials in today\u2019s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association urged the banning of boxing in light of new evidence suggesting that chronic brain damage was prevalent among fighters,\u201d Wilford writes. In Britain, a study of living boxers, professional and amateur, determines chronic brain damage is \u201cmost predictable\u201d for a career in the ring.<\/p>\n

1983, Feb. 15: \u00a0\u201cThe Ring Commission Hearings,\u201d by Jim Lehrer, Monica Hoose, and Peggy Robinson. MacNeil\/Lehrer Report<\/strong>\u00a0[transcript]. PBS Television show addresses congressional hearings on boxing in Washington, with replays of day\u2019s lawmaker questions and witness testimonies on Capitol Hill. Discussion includes boxing deaths and more notorious beatings of the 1970s-80s, arguments on potential ban or government regulation of a continued sport, so-called safer boxing conducted as \u201ca science,\u201d and an AMA doctor\u2019s pointing to tackle football in America for producing severe head injuries as well. \u201cI think a similar kind of injury occurs in any contact sport,\u201d says Dr. Russell H. Patterson, Jr., neurosurgeon and AMA official. \u201cFootball is a good example, and we\u2019ve seen some serious head in juries in football. \u2026 The blow is the same whether it\u2019s in boxing or in football. It\u2019s just in boxing it\u2019s small, repetitive blows but maybe spread over many years and almost daily in its occurrence.\u201d Robert Lee, U.S. Boxing Commission president, says, \u201cThe past year, 1982, has been filled with controversy with all too many people calling for a ban on boxing. Yet how many of these same people call for a ban on high-injury sports such as skiing, football, hang-gliding, auto racing, scuba diving or mountain climbing?\u201d<\/p>\n

1983, June 12: \u00a0\u201cBoxing and The Brain,\u201d by David Noonan, New York Times<\/strong>. News analysis discusses the following: boxing hearings and debate; medical literature since 1928 and physiology of brain injury; child fighters such as a 13-year-old who died of brain injury; concepts of safer boxing like \u201cbody punching\u201d; noticeable speech difficulties of boxing great Muhammad Ali, age 41; and Dr. Ira R. Casson, a Long Island neurologist conducting a study series on boxers who would later work for the NFL. The known permanent brain damage of boxing includes \u201ca clinically diagnosed condition called dementia pugilistica, also knows as chronic encephalopathy of boxers and best known as punch-drunk syndrome,\u201d Noonan writes. \u201cAs the information about chronic encephalopathy in boxers has accumulated over the years, several distinct clinical symptoms and their apparent pathological causes have been identified.\u201d Casson\u2014who someday would lead NFL studies on brain injury\u2014views radiological imaging of Ali\u2019s brain, for Sports Illustrated<\/em>, and says, \u201cThat\u2019s the kind of CAT scan that I\u2019ve seen in a number of former and long-term boxers.\u201d<\/p>\n

1983, June 20: \u00a0\u201cDoctors Debate What To Do About \u2018The Sweet Science,\u2019 \u201d by Brenda C. Coleman, The Associated Press<\/strong>. News report discusses AMA proposal to eliminate publicly funded boxing, convention debate over the proposal, a new study that finds repeated blows causes brain damage in boxers, and similar research on college football players. \u201cAny sport whose objective is to injure another human being is an abomination,\u201d says internist Dr. William F. Dowda. \u201cThere\u2019s absolutely no moral justification for a sport that condones a brain concussion.\u201d Differing viewpoints were heard on convention floor, including from Dr. Russell H. Patterson, Jr., AMA official and chairman of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons [AAN], who says research shows brain damage is \u201cnot a problem\u201d among amateur boxers. \u201cPatterson also pointed to a study of 11 Eastern colleges that showed the incidence of accumulated head injury in football was at least as high as in boxing,\u201d Coleman reports.<\/p>\n

1983, June 23:\u00a0 \u201cAMA Delegates: Ban Amateur Boxing,\u201d no byline, Washington Post<\/strong>. News report discusses debate over the formal AMA call to eliminate boxing in municipal leagues, schools, colleges and more government entities such as the military, along with establishing federal regulation of professional boxing. \u201cThe AMA\u2019s action comes at a time of increased interest in boxing regulation following the death last November of South Korean fighter Duk Koo Kim of head injuries\u2026,\u201d The Post reports. \u201cI think their [AMA delegates\u2019] position is unreasonable,\u201d says Sig Rogich, chairman of the Nevada State Boxing Commission. \u201cI think if they\u2019re going to categorize risk factors in boxing as a professional sport, then they should use the same philosophy with other sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

1984, May 7:\u00a0 \u201cConcussion Routine in Other Sports; Boxing Safety Praised,\u201d by James Christie,<\/strong>\u00a0Toronto<\/strong>\u00a0Globe and Mail<\/strong>. Commentary discusses the following: growing outrage over boxing, led by doctors who want downsizing or bans in America, Canada and Britain; Canadian measures for \u201creasonably safe\u201d boxing, including sidelining knocked-out fighters for 30 to 60 days; and need for concussion protocol in other sports, particularly tackle football. \u201cThis is one of the biggest problems we\u2019ve had at the university level,\u201d says Dr. Bruce Stewart, neurologist and medical director of the Ontario Athletics Commission. \u201cPeople get knocked out routinely in football, get revived and could be back in for the next series of plays. What this does is demonstrate to me that in boxing we\u2019re being properly cautious about the welfare of our athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

1986, Nov. 7:\u00a0 \u201cJohns Hopkins Begins Boxing Study,\u201d no byline, The Associated Press<\/strong>. News report discusses pending research, a four-year study of amateur boxers and football players in select cities, for assessing brain damage among control groups and evaluating neuropsychological [NP] testing for possible method of early detection. \u201cA 14-member research team will travel to three or four cities in the South, Southwest and Eastern seaboard to locate boxers, football players and youths in the same age group as the athletes who do not play contact sports and can serve as controls in the study,\u201d The AP reports. \u201cCol. Don Hull, the president of the USA Amateur Boxing Federation, said information gathered from the study will be important to all amateur sports.\u201d Dr. Walter Stewart, epidemiologist at The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, says, \u201cWe are going to collect data and let the chips fall where they may.\u201d<\/p>\n

1986, Nov. 10:\u00a0 \u201cThe Agony Must End,\u201d by Paul Zimmerman, Sports Illustrated<\/strong>. News analysis discusses NFL injuries that \u201ccontinue at an unacceptable rate,\u201d including \u201cfractures, concussions and bruises that play havoc with America\u2019s No. 1 sport.\u201d While some football-funded researchers claim a safer tackle game at hand, designed to reduce head and spinal injuries in particular, the armored, high-speed violence of pro football\u2014collisions administered and absorbed, impacts head to toe, and other physical stresses that discombobulate\u2014is unprecedented danger for the SI writer Zimmerman, a former college player and game historian, and Miami Dolphins head coach Don Shula. \u201cSome of the collisions I\u2019ve seen are really severe,\u201d Shula says. \u201cI\u2019ve been happy for quite a while to be on the sidelines.\u201d Zimmerman has interviewed numerous muscle dopers in the NFL and NCAA, and blames anabolic steroids and other powerful prescription drugs, like pain-killing shots and pills, for bloodshed in the modern game. \u201cThe result is higher-speed collisions by larger people, a ferocity of hitting never before seen in football or any other sport,\u201d Zimmerman writes.<\/p>\n

1987, Feb. 26:\u00a0 \u201cBoxing Doctor Says Peril Exaggerated; Other Sports Said Riskier as Brain Study Launched,\u201d by Al Sokol,<\/strong>\u00a0Toronto<\/strong>\u00a0Star.<\/strong>\u00a0News analysis discusses the following: boxing controversy as medical associations recommend \u00a0downsizing or banning the sport; measures for less risky or safer amateur boxing; danger of tackle football, and a Johns Hopkins longitudinal study on young boxers that includes American football players as a control group. \u201cThe stand against boxing taken by both the AMA and the Canadian Medical Association comes partly from the intuitive sense that getting hit in the head by a punch is not healthy and partly from a growing body of scientific evidence,\u201d Sokol writes. Dr. George Ginter, a Kentucky anesthesiologist and pro boxer, says, \u201cI totally disagree with the American Medical Association\u2019s stand regarding the neurological damage resulting from boxing. College and pro football rank higher than boxing in terms of causing long-term disabilities.\u201d But Boston neurosurgeon Dr. Robert Cantu supported the AMA perspective, as vocal opponent of boxing and staunch football advocate himself, promoting ideas and rhetoric of \u201csafer\u201d tackle football in America\u2014and destined to someday lead an NFL-funded research team verifying brain damage in deceased football players, teens and older. Commenting on boxing in 1987, Cantu dismisses touted measures of \u201csafer\u201d pugilism. \u201cA doctor at ringside is like a priest at a hanging,\u201d Cantu says. \u201cNeither improves the safety of the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

1989, March 9:\u00a0 \u201cBoxing Causing Dozens of Military Hospitalizations Yearly, Study Finds,\u201d by Brenda C. Coleman, The Associated Press<\/strong>. News report discusses debate over injuries in Army boxing and research, which finds head injuries responsible for 68 percent of hospitalizations in the military sport. \u201cEvidence that boxing produces irreversible brain damage is now as indisputable as the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer,\u201d the researchers state. Navy boxing coach Emerson Smith disagrees, as chairman of a safety committee overseeing amateur fighting. \u201cSince they have mandated gloves and headgear that we did research on for all boxing programs in the United States, the injury statistics are far, far less than probably all your contact sports,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIn football, you have the kids that are paralyzed, the kids that die. I don\u2019t believe there\u2019s any high school or college\u2026 where you have contact sports where you\u2019ll eliminate all serious injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

1989, March 10:\u00a0 \u201cBoxing Safety Studies Disagree,\u201d by Steve Woodward,<\/strong>\u00a0USA<\/strong>\u00a0Today<\/strong>. News report discusses conflicting outcomes in studies on brain risks of young boxers, with results of research commissioned by the U.S. Amateur Boxing Federation portraying the sport in \u201csafer terms\u201d than the Johns Hopkins study, published by JAMA. Boxing advocates questioned the number of brain injuries cited in the JAMA article, suggesting it too high and wondering if many study subjects were unfit to box in the first place. Johns Hopkins researcher Dr. Walter Stewart responds thusly: \u201cClearly I would say that some people should not be boxing, just as some should not be playing football.\u201d<\/p>\n

1990, May 22:\u00a0 \u201cHead-High Tackles: How Long Can Footy Have Them?\u201d no byline, London Herald<\/strong>. News analysis discusses Britain\u2019s boxing controversy and increasing concern for brain injuries across contact sports, particularly rugby or Australian Rules football, where some clubs already employed \u201cbaseline\u201d NP testing. \u201cBoxing people, when confronted with the claim that their sport is unreasonably dangerous, inevitably point the finger straight at [rugby] football as a sport more likely to give an athlete brain damage,\u201d The Herald states. Rugby officials rebuke the allegations, noting their safety measures and declaring relative few concussions occur. An anonymous neurosurgeon, identified as a former rugby player, says high hits were the single threat and could be outlawed by new rules. \u201cThe real problem in Australian Rules is not the normal game; it\u2019s the excessive violence and shirtfronts. As long as everyone does things sensibly and the king-hits are kept out of football, the risks are minor.\u201d<\/p>\n

1991, Jan. 19:\u00a0 \u201cJabs Cause The Brain Damage,\u201d no byline, South Australian Advertiser<\/strong>. Aussie news commentary discusses the following: boxing as gladiatorial sport in western civilization, violence as public spectacle or popular culture; apparent Parkinson\u2019s symptoms in Muhammad Ali; crystallizing medical consensus that repetitive, sub-concussive blows cause long-term cognitive impairment; and injury comparisons, boxing and other activities such as American football. \u201cThe controversy over boxing is fueled more by emotional and moral questions than by any overwhelming death toll,\u201d the Advertiser piece opines. \u201cEven though more than 300 professional boxers have died in the past 20 years, a recent American survey put its fatality rate at .13 boxers per 1,000 participants\u2014compared with .3 for college football [players], 1.1 for scuba divers, 5.1 for mountaineers, 5.6 for hang gliders, 12.3 for sky divers, and 12.6 for horse racing [jockeys]. The recorded [boxing] injury rate also is low. In the United States a two-year study of 6,000 amateur boxing bouts revealed an injury rate of 1.43 percent, compared to a rate of 4.75 percent for professional boxing and 46 percent for high school football, a figure which would probably translate quite comfortably to Australian Rules or rugby in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

1992, December 7:\u00a0 \u201cToon Out,\u201d by Albert Kim, Sports Illustrated<\/strong>. News report discusses sudden retirement of NFL receiver Al Toon and his \u201cpostconcussion syndrome,\u201d other cases of severe brain injuries in pro football, and ever-increasing awareness within the sport of potential long-term dysfunction for casualties. \u201cAlthough there is no evidence to show that concussions [in football] can lead to permanent brain damage, most medical experts believes that repeated blows to the head can have dire consequences,\u201d Kim reports. Richard Weiss, team doctor for the Buffalo Bills, says, \u201cThink about boxing. Suffering a large number of concussions over a period of years more than likely leaves some permanent residue.\u201d The \u201cnormally articulate and quick-witted\u201d Toon, as Kim describes, is subdued, groggy and suffering memory loss a few weeks following his ninth diagnosed concussion in eight NFL seasons. \u201cThere are some inherent dangers in playing football\u2026,\u201d Toon says. \u201cBut when you get something like this [concussion syndrome], you\u2019ve got to take it more seriously. You\u2019ve got to think past just, Can I play on Sunday?\u201d<\/p>\n

1994, Jan. 28:\u00a0 \u201cNeurologist Discusses Concussions on The Gridiron,\u201d by Noah Adams, All Things Considered<\/strong>[transcript]. National Public Radio show discusses growing attention to concussions football as Super Bowl nears, including public speculation of long-term brain damage to players, with interview of Dr. Peter Tsairis, team neurologist for the New York Giants. \u201cAre there retired players who\u2026 have permanent damage because they had too many concussions?\u201d Adam poses to Tsairis, concluding the show. \u201cI don\u2019t know how many of these players go on to develop dementia,\u201d replies the Giants doctor, \u201cwhich is a term that we use where there\u2019s permanent structural change on a molecular level to the\u2014to the brain that they cannot remember certain things, when they lose their memory. And you see this a lot in boxers who\u2019ve gone on after their years in boxing and developed dementia problems. We don\u2019t have that much experience with football players who\u2019ve had multiple concussions. I don\u2019t know of any article that\u2019s been written on the subject. I know it\u2019s been done with boxers, but not with football players.\u201d<\/p>\n

1994, Jan. 28: \u201cThat\u2019s Enough for Buffalo Linebacker Cornelius Bennett,\u201d no byline, Agence France Presse<\/strong>. International news report discusses injuries for Super Bowl teams, including Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman\u2019s widely publicized memory loss of a concussion sustained during the previous week\u2019s NFC title game. The report states: \u201cWhen told a boxing trainer would suggest six weeks of rest after a concussion, Aikman said, \u2018Did you tell him I have a Super Bowl to win? I\u2019m not given the luxury of waiting til then.\u2019 \u201d Jim Kelly, Bills quarterback, admits \u201csecond thoughts\u201d about his brain injuries, especially given the decades of publicized concussions to NFL quarterbacks. \u201cI\u2019ve had six or eight of them and it\u2019s a scary, scary feeling,\u201d Kelly says. \u201cYou don\u2019t know where you are at. The emptiness in your mind, let alone your gut, comes when you wake up trying to figure out why everybody is staring at you. It makes you wonder, \u2018Is the game worth it?\u2019 But it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

1994, Oct. 29: \u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Illinois<\/strong>\u00a0Firm Gives Aikman New Protection,\u201d by<\/strong>\u00a0Lorraine<\/strong>\u00a0Kee,<\/strong>\u00a0St. Louis<\/strong>\u00a0Post-Dispatch<\/strong>. News commentary discusses star names who\u2019ve suffered concussions in NFL, past and present\u2014including Toon, Merrill Hoge, Roger Staubach, Harry Carson, Joe Montana, Aikman\u2014and a doctor\u2019s linking football to boxing for brain trauma and damage. \u201cOf course, concussions aren\u2019t news to these guys [NFL players],\u201d Kee writes. Aikman says, \u201cYou have to be somewhat concerned by concussions, but it\u2019s something you just have to deal with. I don\u2019t want it to get out of hand. I want to live a normal life after pro football.\u201d Dr. Kenneth R. Smith, neurosurgeon at St. Louis University Hospital, says, \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like boxing injuries; if you get knocked out a lot of times, your brain will eventually have some diseased process going on. Usually, when the natural nerve cells die, they do not recover.\u201d The specialist adds that multiple impacts to head and spine \u201ccould produce a permanent injury and a whole series of these could lead to a possible degeneration later on in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

1994, Nov. 1:\u00a0 \u201cNot Just Boxers [Who] Can\u2019t Answer The<\/strong>\u00a0Bell<\/strong>,\u201d by Stephen Brunt,<\/strong>\u00a0Toronto<\/strong>\u00a0Globe and Mail<\/strong>. Canadian news commentary identifies hypocrisy in supporters of tackle football, including American neurologists, who condemn boxing for brain damage while claiming to see little or none in their nationalistic collision sport. \u201cProfessional boxing exists on the verge of extinction\u2026,\u201d Brunt writes. \u201cWhat is thriving, though, is the greatest sports-entertainment complex in the world, the game that owns Sunday afternoons, NFL football. \u2026 What\u2019s the difference between that and being knocked out in a boxing match?\u201d Brunt notes lengthy layoff for concussed athletes in boxing, unlike football, where \u201cafter a quick whiff of smelling salts\u201d the injured return to contact, then the writer poses: \u201cDoes a 300-pound lineman making full, head-to-head contact have as much brain-jarring impact as a perfectly timed blow delivered with a gloved fist? You\u2019d have to think so. Does the football helmet offer sufficient protection? Obviously not sufficient to prevent players from routinely having their bell run\u2026 And when that same helmet becomes the top of a projectile hurtling through space, it also contributes to the damage done.\u201d Football supporters criticized boxing for intent to injure, implying sanctity of their sport, but \u201cwatch [NFL lineman] Bruce Smith bearing down on [quarterback] Joe Montana,\u201d Brunt intones, \u201cand then try to convince anyone that his purpose is anything other than doing as much damage as possible. Just as in boxing, there is a direct reward for disabling a foe\u2026\u201d In conclusion, Brunt heckles American medicine and science for obvious see-no-evil perspective regarding NFL dangers: \u201cSo where is the AMA now, why isn\u2019t professional football being cast as the last refuge of barbarianism, the way boxing is? Probably because football is not a fringe activity run by the Don Kings of the world, but a mainstream colossus. Probably because football is so tied to corporate and academic institutions and is run by bright, white lawyers. \u2026 Probably because the same people who would be doing the condemning have a brother or father or son who has at some level been involved in the game. In other words, probably because of divisions of taste, and class, and money\u2014not [violent] content.\u201d<\/p>\n

1994, Nov. 5:\u00a0 \u201cStaff Is Ready for Severe Hits: Impact of Concussions Isn\u2019t Lost on Vikings Doctors,\u201d by Curt Brown,<\/strong>Minneapolis<\/strong>\u00a0Star Tribune<\/strong>. News report discusses concussion awareness in an NFL franchise, including for symptoms like headache, blurred vision and memory loss, knowledge expanding among medical staff, coaches and players of an NFL team in 1994\u2014tumultuous year of publicized brain-injury cases for the league, especially of star quarterbacks flattened on television. \u201cIf I could give players any advice, I\u2019d say don\u2019t ignore the signs,\u201d says Hoge, a year after retiring for multiple concussions, such as the re-bleed or \u201csecond impact\u201d brain injury that rendered him comatose, hospitalized in ICU. A concussion \u201ccan clear up and you can function normally,\u201d Hoge continues. \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re right. This is messing with your brain. You can damage your life. You can go into a coma. You can even die from it.\u201d Longtime Vikings team physician Dr. David Fischer says: \u201cPerhaps awareness has been heightened with fans and players, but our medical staff has always been fairly sensitive to post-concussion syndrome.\u201d Research remains fledgling regarding long-term effects of brain impacts football, with the NFL just committing itself to studies, but some 65 years of medical literature continues documenting brain damage of boxing, like \u201cchronic encephalopathy,\u201d through cellular pathology of deceased athletes and longitudinal study of the living\u2014and the Vikings doctor knows as much, among several NFL team physicians speaking publicly. \u201cIn boxing, surely we\u2019ve seen how repetitive head trauma can cause all types of long-term problems,\u201d Fischer says. \u201cBut how many blows it takes, what severity over length of time, we don\u2019t know. Dennis Green, Vikings head coach, says, \u201cConcussions are not new to football, but we have a fair understanding of when a guy is safe to return and when he isn\u2019t. It\u2019s up to the doctor if he can or can\u2019t go.\u201d<\/p>\n

1994, Nov. 20:\u00a0 \u201cDazed and Confused: Merril Hoge and Other Veterans Are Finding Out Why Concussions Have Become Serious Head Games,\u201d by Jerry Crasnick,<\/strong>\u00a0Denver<\/strong>\u00a0Post<\/strong>. News analysis discusses the following: brain concussion as \u201cthe most highly publicized injury of the 1994 season\u201d; NP testing\u2019s employ around the league, along with balance assessment of players, more intuitive methods to detect concussion symptoms; widespread concern, or talk, for guarding against dreaded \u201cSIS,\u201d second-impact syndrome; rhetoric on brain damage of tackle football; NFL concussion tracking and data compiled annually at the University of Iowa; and insider agreement that modern football is highly dangerous, with large, helmeted athletes sprinting and colliding in open field. \u201cSometimes the damage the brain sustains is permanent\u2026,\u201d Hoge says. \u201cTwenty years down the line they can\u2019t come in and give you a new joint. It\u2019s irreversible.\u201d Cris Collinsworth, former NFL player turned TV commentator, says: \u201cOnce you get out of football, you look back and say, \u2018I can\u2019t believe I ever did that.\u2019 It\u2019s insane. My wife tells me all the time that she\u2019s glad I don\u2019t play anymore.\u201d Greg Aiello, NFL director of communications, says league rate of concussions isn\u2019t changing despite public spotlight on the issue. \u201cObviously, it\u2019s something we\u2019d like to reduce,\u201d Aiello says. \u201cBut if all the media attention suggests there\u2019s been a sudden increase in concussions, that\u2019s inaccurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

1994, Dec. 19:\u00a0 \u201cThe Worst Case\u2014Doctors Warn That Repeated Concussions Can Lead to Permanent Brain Dysfunction,\u201d by Michael Farber, Sports Illustrated<\/strong>. This news analysis of the time\u2019s most-read sports magazine discusses football brain trauma and potential or known brain damage in players of the American game, particularly in the NFL. \u201cPeople are missing the boat on brain injuries [in football],\u201d says neurologist Dr. James P. Kelly. \u201cIt isn\u2019t just cataclysmic injury or death from brain injuries that should concern people. The core of the person can change from repeated blows to the head.\u201d Farber writes: \u201cSome [NFL] veterans have gone through the neuropsychological sideline drills so often that even new concussion can\u2019t make them forget.\u201d Farber reports: \u201cOn Dec. 9, [Jets team internist Dr. Elliot] Pellman, Dr. Andy Tucker of the Cleveland Brows and Dr. Ira Casson, a New York neurologist, met with league officials, including commissioner Paul Tagliabue, to discuss concussions and suggest ways to cut down on their frequency.\u201d Elsewhere, Dr. Cantu, neurosurgeon and NCAA-funded researcher of catastrophic brain and spinal injuries in American football, blames players who do not employ \u201cproper contact\u201d or \u201cproper technique\u201d for impacts\u2014or Cantu\u2019s controversial theory for colliding in the modern game without using heads, by avoiding contact of high-tech helmets built for ramming without skull fracture, but incapable of preventing brain trauma: \u201cWe know that people who have a concussion tend to have more concussions,\u201d Cantu says. \u201cWhy? Two logical reasons. The first is that certain people can take a blow better than others; you see that in boxing all the time. But of equal, if not more, importance is how you play the sport [football]. If you keep playing like a kamikaze, if you tackle with your head, there\u2019s more of a chance of being concussed than if you block or tackle with the shoulders.\u201d Neuropsychologist Ken Kutner, PhD, says lingering \u201cpostconcussion syndrome\u201d is more widespread among active and former players than is generally believed: \u201cI counsel several [New York] Giants, past an present, but they don\u2019t want their names known,\u201d Kutner says. Meanwhile, Dr. Joe Maroon, Steelers surgeon, sees the possibility that football players could suffer \u201ccumulative effect\u201d from concussions, but Dr. Joe Torg doesn\u2019t, Eagles doctor: \u201cI know of no football player who has had residual neurological impairment from repeated insults to the head,\u201d Torg says.<\/p>\n

1995, March 4:\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t Ban Boxing\u2014Just Make It Safer,\u201d by Joan Ryan, San Francisco Chronicle<\/strong>. News commentary discusses tenants of so-called safer boxing designed to save the blood sport from extinction or banishment, including \u201cscientific\u201d or finesse punching, larger gloves, stringent selection and review of referees, and stringent medical restrictions for fighters, assuring their fitness. \u201cDon\u2019t let them in the ring if they don\u2019t belong there. You\u2019d reduce about 85 percent of the problems,\u201d says neuropsychologist Matthew Bowen, who boxed as an amateur. Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson doesn\u2019t care about a person he faces in the ring: \u201cI try to catch my opponent by the tip of his nose,\u201d Tyson says, \u201cbecause I try to punch the bone into his brains.\u201d Ryan, the pundit and confessed boxing fan, comments that \u201cin the wake of yet another fighter leaving the ring on a stretcher with a blood clot in his brain, as happened to Gerald McClellan a week ago, I\u2019m having a tough time arguing against those calling for drastic reforms or an outright ban of the sport.\u201d However, \u201cbanning boxing altogether is unrealistic,\u201d Ryan writes. \u201cPlus, if we ban boxing for being too violent, we\u2019d have to consider banning football, too. The incidences of flagrant violence have risen so high in the NFL that agent Leigh Steinberg recently gathered some of the country\u2019s top brain doctors for a seminar with quarterback Steve Young, Troy Aikman, Warren Moon and other football clients who have sustained multiple concussions.\u201d<\/p>\n

1995, April 3:\u00a0 \u201cInformation That Should Make Their Heads Spin,\u201d by Bill Plaschke,<\/strong>\u00a0Los Angeles<\/strong>\u00a0Times<\/strong>. News commentary discusses new NFL initiatives and proposals, fostering \u201cincreased research and awareness of football head injuries,\u201d that include the following: establishing a league committee of experts for brain-injury research and recommendations for prevention; reviewing helmet technology and banning dangerous models; mandating all rookies undergo \u201cbaseline\u201d NP assessment for concussion monitoring throughout their careers; and establishing a league-wide \u201cconcussion grading scale\u201d and \u201ctesting\u201d so injured players can be diagnosed and sidelined until recovery. \u201cIf boxing can have these worldwide standards and rules that can keep certain fighters out of danger, it would seem that football could, also,\u201d says Dr. David A Hovda, neurosurgeon and consultant on boxing\u2019s health reforms. \u201cThis is a problem that needs to be addressed and studied now.\u201d Another neurologist agrees, Dr. Janet Chance, who says: \u201cHead injuries [in football] are a huge problem, and a poorly understood problem. There are some questions here that absolutely need to be answered.\u201d But Dr. Elliot J. Pellman, Jets team doctor and chairman of the new NFL concussion committee, is unsure about for rapid progress because of monetary expense, time constraint and internal resistance: \u201cPlayers run the show. If they don\u2019t want to do something, it\u2019s not going to happen,\u201d Pellman says. \u201cWe suggest these things and owners are going to look at us like, What difference does this make?\u201d Plaschke states: \u201cIt is this sort of attitude that may eventually drive an ex-player to his grave from Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Many doctors now believe this occurs more frequently in those who have suffered multiple concussions.\u201d The writer concludes: \u201cThe players still don\u2019t scare and the owners still don\u2019t care. You wonder what has to happen before they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

1995, Oct. 20:\u00a0 \u201cA No-Brainer: Football Leads to Concussions: Al Toon Will Attest That Symptoms Can Remain for Years,\u201d by T.J. Simers,<\/strong>\u00a0Los Angeles<\/strong>\u00a0Times<\/strong>. News profile discusses life for former NFL receiver Al Toon with post-concussion syndrome, three years after football retirement, as he still experiences problems such as \u201cemotional volatility.\u201d Toon, a successful businessman, says, \u201cThere was a time when I thought of suicide. The act itself was never considered, but life was very frustrating.\u201d Toon says there are more former players like him: \u201cVery, very commonplace. You play the game of football, people get hit in the head. It\u2019s no fluke.\u201d Dr. Daniel Kelly, neurosurgeon at UCLA, believes that concussion management, if effective, would likely sideline many more players than what occurs, and for longer: \u201cThere are a lot of things we do not know yet, but the simplest thing would be to have [diagnosed concussed] players sit out a month,\u201d Kelly says. \u201cOf course, if you did that, you would probably have the quarterback, the running back and the tight ends sitting on the bench.\u201d Leigh Steinberg, sports agent, says: \u201cWe won\u2019t know for years what that impact of this will be. We may have an epidemic of Alzheimer\u2019s and attendant problems 20 years from now with some of these players.\u201d<\/p>\n

1996, July 9:\u00a0 \u201cConcussion Potentially Most Dangerous Sport Injury: Blows to The Head Cause Brain Damage and The More Hits an Athlete Takes The More Chance of Permanent Injury: Little Research Conducted on Returning After Concussions,\u201d by Shaun Powell, Newsday, New York, reprinted in Canada by The Vancouver Sun<\/strong>. In-depth news report discusses problems of concussion and more brain injury among athletes, young and old, including the following: no \u201cfirm\u201d RTP protocol among various approaches for treating the concussed, disagreement marked by no consensus in defining the condition, and wide opinions regarding length of time needed for complete recovery; woeful injury reporting in American football, all levels, especially for subpar concussion diagnosis and recording overall; skull-preserving helmets that cannot prevent brain trauma while likewise encouraging head-on collisions; brain disease such as Alzheimer\u2019s and Parkinson\u2019s in former athletes of contact sports; mounting adverse research findings for contact sports, especially tackle football. \u201cThe attention given head injuries in recent years has put the sports world on alert and confirms the fears of medical experts. The concussion finds itself at the forefront of sports injuries,\u201d Powell reports. \u201cWe are years behind when it comes to brain injury and what we can do to diagnose it and take care of it,\u201d says Jets internist Dr. Elliot Pellman, chairman of the recently minted NFL Committee on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. For Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach, concussions figured \u201cin my decision to retire,\u201d he says, estimating he sustained 18 to 20 in football from high school to the NFL.<\/p>\n

1996, Oct. 31:\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cExperts Warn of Brain Damage,\u201d by Sabin Russell, San Francisco Chronicle<\/strong>. News analysis discusses concussions suffered by the 49ers\u2019 star quarterback Steve Young, growing medical opinion that football\u2019s brain dangers are underestimated, and continued speculation on brain damage of postconcussion syndrome and\/or multiple concussions in football. \u201cThe risk of serious brain injury with a concussion is very, very low. But when it does happen, it is very severe,\u201d says Dr. Gordon Matheson, Stanford professor of sports medicine. \u201cIn the scheme of things, they [concussions] may be very minor. But they may also affect a player over the long haul,\u201d says neurologist Dr. Janet Chance. Russell reports: \u201cDr. Lawrence Pitts, a University of California at San Francisco neurosurgeon, said ongoing neuropsychological surveys of athletes will ultimately determine whether or not repeated concussions cause permanent damage. Although there is ample [research] evidence that boxers can be permanently damaged in their sport\u2026 no one can claim football players have a similar problem. \u2018It is very uncommon to see a football player knocked unconscious,\u2019 he said. \u2018In boxing, it\u2019s a different matter.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

1996, Nov. 15:\u00a0 \u201cConcussion Policy Should Be A No-Brainer,\u201d by Paul Woody,<\/strong>\u00a0Richmond<\/strong>\u00a0Times Dispatch<\/strong>. News analysis discusses controversial segment of concussion \u201creturn to play\u201d protocols, length of layoff for the injured athlete, a sidelining that could be minutes in football or months in boxing. Woody notes that 49ers quarterback Steve Young suffered two diagnosed concussions within 15 days, prompting the question whether the NFL star came back too soon, or dangerously, following the initial brain trauma, continuing: \u201cIn boxing in Virginia and most states, a fighter who even takes a technical knockout must wait 30 days before boxing again. If there is a knockout [unconsciousness], the boxer\u2019s waiting period is 60s days.\u201d But the NFL dismisses such boxing RTP protocol for the concussed in pro football, while apparently speaking for football at-large, juvenile and college levels that will follow same philosophy: \u201cWe have a committee of team and outside doctors who have been meeting and studying concussions for the past two years,\u201d says NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. \u201cThey say it doesn\u2019t make sense to have a rule to keep a player out for a specified period of time. Concussions are too complex. They have to be considered on a case-by-case basis.\u201d An independent analyst disagreed, Dr. Michelle Miller, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical School, who believed boxing RTP parameters should be adopted by football: \u201cI don\u2019t know that it\u2019s coming any time in the future, but it\u2019s needed,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

1996, Dec. 1:\u00a0 \u201cHeady Concerns: Concussions No Longer Comedic Material in NFL,\u201d by Jonathan Rand,<\/strong>\u00a0Kansas City<\/strong>Star<\/strong>. News analysis discusses multiple concussions to star NFL quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Steve Young, and insider perspective on potential brain damage of football players, related to boxing, by Dr. Joseph Waekerle, Chiefs team physician, member of NFL concussion committee, and renowned trauma-care specialist. \u201cIt\u2019s a big problem because football has approximately 250,000 concussions every year,\u201d Waekerle says. \u201cOne in every five high school players has a concussion on a yearly basis. Now, we\u2019re beginning to understand the potentially serious effects of concussions, especially repeated concussions.\u201d Noting conclusions about second-impact syndrome or brain re-bleeding and susceptibility for multiple concussions, Waekerle says: \u201cThe third [vulnerability] is the chronic thing\u2014all this becomes cumulative. A great example would be a boxer. That may occur to other professional athletes who suffer many concussive syndromes.\u201d<\/p>\n

1996, Dec. 20:\u00a0 \u201cHeads, You Lose: Football Concussions Hit Players at All Levels,\u201d by Angelo Bruscas,<\/strong>\u00a0Seattle<\/strong>\u00a0Post-Intelligencer<\/strong>. News analysis discusses concussion debate in football, talking points to endure decades into future, including in regard to cultural awareness, modern helmets, risk-taking athletes, soft concussion definition, and gigantic athletes. \u201cThe whole subject of concussions has been taken way too lightly,\u201d says Leigh Steinberg, sports agent who\u2019s organized educational seminars for players and encouraged media to cover of the issue. \u201cWhen Monday Night Football opens with two helmets crashing together and when videos of hardest hits are huge sellers, there\u2019s a level at which concussions are glamorized and the subject is treated as fun without a consciousness of real ramifications.\u201d Pediatrician Dr. Stephen Rice believes football\u2019s ever-increasing sizes and modern equipment create action of terrible risks and casualties, by emboldening players to act as missiles like never before: \u201cDid all this happen before and we were just missing it all? \u2026 Now you could run into a steel wall and nothing would happen to you. \u2026 In the days when players wore only leather helmets without facemasks, no one struck people with their heads. There was no protection.\u201d Rice notes the fact modern helmets do not prevent concussion \u201cbecause the helmet doesn\u2019t stop the brain from moving around inside the skull.\u201d<\/p>\n

1997, Jan. 1:\u00a0 \u201cQB Concussions: A Heady Issue,\u201d by Thomas<\/strong>\u00a0Boswell<\/strong>,<\/strong>\u00a0Washington<\/strong>\u00a0Post<\/strong>. News commentary discusses NFL brutality ravaging quarterbacks, suggesting football stars could end up punch-drunk permanently, and endorses controversial countermeasure to arbitrarily monitor tackler intent and punish \u201ccheap-shot\u201d or \u201cdirty\u201d hits. \u201cThis season, football\u2019s been getting its bell rung with regularity,\u201d Boswell writes. \u201cEvery time a popoular quarterback gets his brain scrambled the game suffers a blow, too. As our gridiron heroes reach middle age, do we want them to remind us of addled boxing pugs? Do we want Troy Aikman to tremble like Muhammad Ali or Danny Wuerffel to be as bizarre and bitter as Joe Frazier?\u201d Boswell reports a coach\u2019s allegation of bounty-type hits on Wuerffel, star quarterback at University of Florida: \u201cObviously [Florida State] had some late hits [on Wuerffel],\u201d says UF coach Steve Spurrier. \u201cObviously they could have pulled off. The intent of the hits was a little different than the other teams we play. Obviously somebody told them to try to knock him out of the game.\u201d Spurrier suggests responsibility lies with the Florida State \u201ccoaching staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

1997, June 10:\u00a0 \u201c<\/strong>Carson<\/strong>\u2019s Crusade Begins, Puts Focus on Head Injuries,\u201d by Randy Lange, Bergen Record<\/strong>. News profile discusses cognitive and emotional struggles of former All-Pro Giants linebacker Harry Carson, who\u2019s become one of the first players, like Al Toon, to openly discuss his post-concussion dysfunction and dark thoughts such as suicide. \u201cA lot of players are hesitant to talk about the brain and being brain-damaged. It\u2019s one of those things you don\u2019t want to be associated with,\u201d Carson says. \u201cI think probably there are a whole bunch of players walking around who are experiencing mood swings and sensitivity to bright lights and loud noises, who are having headaches, and a whole host of other symptoms. \u2026 There was a time where I was depressed about it, and bad thoughts came to my head. I didn\u2019t know what was going on, and I didn\u2019t have anybody to talk to. Suicide? I thought about it. I was living but I didn\u2019t have a life. My head was kind of in a fog. My daughter Asia kept me up. I told myself, \u2018You do that, what\u2019s going to happen to her?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

1997, July 13:\u00a0 \u201c\u2018Iron Mike\u2019 Webster Works on Strategy for Health Since Retirement; He Has Struggled With Troubles,\u201d by Terry Shropshire,<\/strong>\u00a0Akron<\/strong>\u00a0Beacon Journal.<\/strong>\u00a0News profile discusses the Hall of Fame lineman\u2019s descent into increasingly publicized problems after retiring from the NFL, including poor health, debt, pending divorce and homelessness. \u201cAs good as times got, they got bad,\u201d says Pam Webster, estranged wife of the Steelers great. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone through times where we didn\u2019t have enough money for toilet paper. There were times we didn\u2019t have heat in the house. \u2026 Mike has always been a loner by nature. But there were times that people should have been there for him.\u201d Mike Webster says: \u201cI lived in the car for about a year and a half out of the last five years. \u2026 My issues are my issues and I\u2019ll handle my issues.\u201d Doctors speculate Webster suffers from congestive heart failure, but he and others worry about his brain, possible symptoms of post-concussive syndrome or Parkinson\u2019s. \u201cHe\u2019s really had trouble concentrating and focusing on certain things in order to function at an optimum level,\u201d says Dr. Jerry Carter, personal physician. Webster acknowledges mind disturbances: \u201cSome of the things I think about, horrify me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

1997, Sept. 22:\u00a0 \u201cUse Your Head,\u201d by Joan Ryan, The Sporting News.<\/strong>\u00a0News analysis discusses NFL forces keeping brain-injured players on the football field, beginning with competitive intent of both the player and his team, such as the controversial case of 49ers quarterback Steve Young. \u201cIt\u2019s tough for someone like Steve to sit out when he feels fine,\u201d says Leigh Steinberg, the star\u2019s agent. \u201cBut you don\u2019t know how much long-term damage you\u2019re causing by continuing to play. Maybe it\u2019ll cause Alzheimer\u2019s. Maybe senility.\u201d Dr. Larry Bedard, of the American College of Emergency Physicians, doubts effectiveness of so-called concussion management and RTP in sports: \u201c[Concussions] tend to be misdiagnosed and minimized. Athletes are trained to tough it out. But there may be no such thing as a mild concussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

1999, Nov. 21:\u00a0 \u201cNFL players roughed up to know it hurts,\u201d by Bill Gleason, South Bend Tribune<\/strong>. News commentary discusses postconcussion syndrome and the multiple concussions suffered by \u201cpunch-drunk\u201d NFL players, while quoting football writer Jerry Magee, who recently endorsed boxing\u2019s lengthy layoff for such athletes in his column for Pro Football Weekly. \u201cIt also must be said that boxing, for all its abuses, is more mindful of the well-being of its participants than is the NFL,\u201d Magee states. \u201cIn Nevada a boxer who is knocked out cannot fight again for at least 45 days. In the NFL quarterbacks or players at any position who suffer concussions can play again within days. On a recent Monday evening, there was Troy Aikman quarterbacking the Dallas Cowboys only eight days after suffering the sixth concussion of his year. Many people who cover the NFL for newspapers, radio, and TV are around NFL players who are suffering through \u2018post-concussion syndrome.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

1999, Dec. 10:\u00a0 \u201cA Hard-Headed NFL Makes for Soft Skulls,\u201d by Tim Green,<\/strong>\u00a0USA<\/strong>\u00a0Today<\/strong>. Guest news commentary by former NFL player discusses regular concussions in the league and endorses mouthpieces for helping prevent brain trauma, while noting longtime nicknames for head-injured players include \u201ccardboard head\u201d and, for those exhibiting lasting impairment and susceptibility, \u201cpaper head.\u201d Green writes: \u201cI\u2019m not such a paper head as to think that mouthpieces will eliminate concussions. They help. And, if the NFL is as serious about safety as I think, there will be fewer\u2026 cardboard heads.\u201d<\/p>\n

2000, May 15:\u00a0 \u201cTrying to Leave Concussions\u2019 Dark Ages: Neurologists start to take sports hits more seriously,\u201d by James C. McKinley, Jr., New York Times<\/strong>. News analysis discusses continuing problems of non-uniform concussion diagnosis and return-to-play protocols in the NFL and sport at-large, noting that only in \u201cthe past 15 years\u201d are neurologist beginning to understand brain trauma and \u201chow multiple concussions can lead to permanent damage.\u201d Mark R. Lovell, a Detroit neurologist serving on the NFL concussion committee who designs NP testing for teams, dismisses concussion guidelines by the American Academy of Neurology: \u201cWe don\u2019t know whether being knocked out briefly is any more dangerous than having amnesia and not being knocked out,\u201d Lovell says. \u201cWe see people all the time that get knocked out briefly and have no symptoms. Others get elbowed, go back to the bench and say, \u2018Where am I?\u2019 \u201d League committee chairman Dr. Elliot Pellman dismisses standard guidelines for all cases as nonsense amid hype about brain injury in football: \u201cYou really have to hope that the doctors who deal with this have a lot of experience with it, use the tools available and are not affected by the outside din,\u201d Pellman says.<\/p>\n

2000, September:\u00a0 \u201cLower Cognitive Performance of Older Football Players Possessing Apolipoprotein E4,\u201d by Kenneth C. Kutner, David M. Erlanger, Julia Tsai, Barry Jordan, and Norman R. Relkin, Neurosurgery.<\/strong>\u00a0Clinical study discusses possible genetic link to brain trauma and long-term damage in control groups involving 53 active \u201cprofessional football players,\u201d presumably of the NFL, and provides direction for priority research questions such as whether football impacts, both concussive and subconcussive, cause cerebral disease or what is known from boxing cases as CTBI, \u201cchronic traumatic brain injury.\u201d In review of literature available, the authors state: \u201cTo our knowledge, no previous published study has systemically evaluated the cognitive status of professional tackle football players. At least two different mechanisms may contribute to the development of chronic cognitive dysfunction in football players. First, cognitive impairment secondary to concussion may be cumulative. Football players occasionally experience concussive events through typical contact sport collisions, i.e., head-to-head, head-to-body, head-to-ground, and head-to-goal post collisions. Second, football players may experience subconcussive events through these same collisions during play and practice\/training sessions. For professional boxers, CTBI has been associated more strongly with career length than with the number of knockouts and concussions, suggesting that subconcussive blows are an important primary environmental mechanism of neurological dysfunction.\u201d<\/p>\n

2001, April 17:\u00a0 \u201cConcussions Make Stars See Retirement,\u201d by Jonathan Rand,<\/strong>\u00a0Kansas City<\/strong>\u00a0Star<\/strong>. News analysis discusses retirement of Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman, who sustained 10 diagnosed concussions in 12 NFL seasons, and includes comments by league medical officials on state of league knowledge or study in brain trauma of players, which the NFL contends typically clears in days to a week, outside exceptional cases like Aikman and fellow quarterback Steve Young. \u201cFor whatever reason, they take much longer to get better,\u201d says Dr. Elliot Pellman, Jets internist and head of league brain committee and research. \u201cYou also notice the injuries they are getting are the result of lesser blows. \u2026 Why are these individuals more susceptible to post-concussion syndrome? You look at them and there\u2019s no long-term damage. There\u2019s no scientific evidence that can tell you they shouldn\u2019t go back and play. Others say, \u2018Even though I can\u2019t prove it, intuitively there\u2019s something wrong. You shouldn\u2019t go back.\u2019 What you see publicly is that debate going on.\u201d Dr. Joseph Waeckerle, Chiefs physician and league committee member, says: \u201cThere\u2019s no gold standard to diagnose concussions or predict whether someone will have another concussion.\u201d Leigh Steinberg, agent for Aikman and Young, expresses frustration with the NFL\u2019s \u201cslow\u201d pace for research and answers. \u201cI think the years have not brought any greater focus. The denial by the NFL continues,\u201d Steinberg says, urging standardized NP testing and development of concussion-resistant helmet technology. Pellman responds to Steinberg: \u201cThat\u2019s a lawyer talking about medicine. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s ever that easy,\u201d Pellman says. \u201cI\u2019d like to see better helmets and better equipment, and that\u2019s the kind of work we\u2019re trying to do now and are actively promoting to helmet manufacturers. But neither we [researchers] nor the NFL are helmet manufacturers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Chaney is a writer, editor, teacher and restaurant cook in Missouri, USA. Chaney\u2019s 2001 MA thesis at the University of Central Missouri involved electronic search for thousands of news reports on performance-enhancing drugs in American football, a project inspired by his experience of injecting testosterone as a college player in 1982 (Southeast Missouri State). Email him at\u00a0<\/em>mattchaney@fourwallspublishing.com. For more information, including about Chaney\u2019s 2009 book\u00a0<\/em>Spiral of Denial: Muscle Doping in American Football, visit the homepage at\u00a0<\/em>www.fourwallspublishing.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contemporary experts of law and medicine in sport discuss an historical news period, 1928 to 1933, when football officials learned of brain risk to players, understood research questions\u2014and even devised a sideline concussion test By Matt Chaney Posted Saturday, January 31, 2015 Copyright \u00a92015 by Matthew L. Chaney During football season in 1928, late October, … Continue reading Football Officials Alerted to Brain Damage, Concussion\u201480 Years Ago<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[260,3,2,4],"tags":[166,167,129,144,145,50,159,172,124,148,160,162,143,141,142,40,169,62,154,157,158,8,150,104,147,170,140,146,58,89,12,98,152,151,67,173,161,87,55,5,101,156,59,168,149,155,163,108,164,165,171,70,153,27],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ywFp-8Q","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=548"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1611,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548\/revisions\/1611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}