{"id":578,"date":"2015-02-28T02:51:21","date_gmt":"2015-02-28T02:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/?p=578"},"modified":"2017-08-11T11:31:42","modified_gmt":"2017-08-11T11:31:42","slug":"nfl-deaths-reflect-inept-care-and-record-keeping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/?p=578","title":{"rendered":"NFL Deaths Reflect Inept Care and Record-Keeping"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since\u00a01960 at least 16 NFL players have died of injury, a game-related condition or a possible link to football, impacted by inadequate medical management. Meanwhile, “public football” stokes a hot Q&A with Irv Muchnick, the iconoclastic sports journalist whose new book chronicles fall of the game as we know it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Matt Chaney<\/p>\n

Posted Saturday, February 28, 2015<\/p>\n

Copyright\u00a0\u00a92015 by Matthew L. Chaney<\/p>\n

In 1960 America, a football player was not only exposed to lethal injury and illness of the extreme sport. Once a casualty, he was vulnerable to shoddy medical response as well, beginning in professional football.<\/p>\n

A worst-case scenario unfolded October 9th in the new American Football League, amid a sweltering Sunday on the Texas seaboard, where the Houston Oilers hosted the New York Titans\u2014the NFL\u2019s Tennessee Titans and New York Jets franchises today, respectively.<\/p>\n

Air temperature topped 90 degrees with dense humidity<\/a> for the 1 p.m. kickoff at Jeppesen Stadium<\/a>, and early in the game Howard Glenn, an offensive guard for New York, was struggling to stay on his feet.<\/p>\n

Teammates thought heat was affecting Glenn in the first quarter, when he complained repeatedly in huddles. Titans offensive tackle Ernie Barnes urged Glenn<\/a> to stay in the game since coaches wouldn\u2019t allow him to stop and sit. Team trainers would support the coaches, Barnes reminded\u00a0his buddy, and no doctor made the road trip from New York.<\/p>\n

Collisions on the field were viscous, meanwhile. Football\u2019s head-on contact had steadily increased since advent of hard plastic helmets<\/a> during World War II. Face bars became standard by the mid-1950s, when physics, technology and human will converged to make head bashing commonplace in the game.<\/p>\n

In 1960, Howard Glenn donned a double-barred face mask on his helmet<\/a>. The muscular 6-foot-2, 245-pounder fired low<\/a> into foes at scrimmage, neck forward and face-first\u2014in the law of modern football\u2014and sometime around halftime at Houston, two opposing linemen smashed Glenn between them.<\/p>\n

Clearly injured, Glenn rose unsteadily. No stretcher was available on the Titans sideline so a teammate helped him\u00a0off the field, but head coach Sammy Baugh<\/a> ordered Glenn\u00a0back to the huddle, witnesses later told The Houston Chronicle<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Accounts vary whether Glenn played in the second half, which he basically spent on the sideline. A spectator recalled seeing Glenn wandering near the Titans bench in a daze, unattended<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No one realized Glenn\u2019s neck was broken, with a fractured cervical vertebra just below his brain.<\/p>\n

Trainers helped Glenn to the locker room after the game. He undressed and sat nude on a metal folding chair, clutching a towel and quivering in labored breaths. A teammate, Art Powell, yelled at the trainers: \u201cWhy in hell don\u2019t you get a doctor to him?\u201d<\/p>\n

Glenn deteriorated rapidly. The Associated Press would report he became \u201cbelligerent in the clubhouse then hysterical\u201d as he fell from the chair, convulsing.<\/p>\n

Two Houston doctors were summoned and Glenn was finally taken to a local hospital at 5:30 p.m., while rest of the New York team headed for the airport.<\/p>\n

Within an hour Titans players learned Glenn had died, as their plane sat on a runway, and tackle Ernie Barnes wept in his seat. The two young black men had bonded as friends in Glenn\u2019s short time with the team, especially for art, a mutual love. Now Barnes remembered their final scene together: Glenn stricken on the locker room floor as teammates rushed out from showers, dripping wet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe news shook my heart,\u201d Barnes later wrote<\/a>. \u201cThe hurt deepened and all I could see in my mind was Glenn\u2019s body lying in the water on the cement floor. He died a lonely death. It took time and reasoning for me to get over Howard\u2019s death\u2026 it enters my mind often.\u201d<\/p>\n

Authorities were perplexed for\u00a0Howard Glenn\u2019s case, initially. According to a Houston team doctor \u201cGlenn wasn\u2019t hurt in the game or… his injuries were not serious enough to be noticed,\u201d reported The AP.<\/p>\n

Some Titans officials readily discounted football as a factor, speaking with media that first night, and many observers believed heatstroke caused the fatality, Barnes among them.<\/p>\n

But the next day an autopsy revealed Glenn\u2019s neck had crumbled apart in the hours after injury, primarily because Titans staff failed to recognize\u00a0or diagnose. Harris County medical examiner Dr. Joseph Jachimczyk said \u201cthe fracture was very near Glenn\u2019s brain and did happen during Sunday\u2019s game,\u201d reported The AP. \u201cHe said death was not instantaneous because the edges of the fractured bone had to cut the spinal cord before death occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jachimczyk remarked, \u201cThe unusual thing about these cases is not the quickness of death but that the victims even live at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glenn was buried at Louisville Cemetery<\/a> in Mississippi, his native Winton County. Besides AFL experience, Glenn played for the New York Giants of the NFL and the Hamilton Tiger Cats in the CFL. Earlier, at Linfield College in Oregon, Glenn starred in football and track and field.<\/p>\n

Following the tragedy, Barnes requested his release from\u00a0Titans brass. \u201cI told them I didn\u2019t want to play on a team like this,\u201d he said<\/a>. Barnes retired from professional football in 1965 and his career as an artist blossomed; he died in 2009.<\/p>\n

Contemporary blogger Bill McCurdy<\/a> concluded that Glenn in 1960 was \u201ca victim of the times and what can happen to those who play football under the worst of circumstances\u2014or even the best of conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

In American football today, detection and treatment of heartbeat arrhythmias and more cardiac malfunctions in young players remain inadequate, most experts agree<\/a>. But football was primitive<\/em> about managing cardiac risk during the Vietnam War era.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The NFL was no exception for lax action despite exploding revenues and expanding resources over TV rights and its merger with the former AFL. No uniform policy for cardiac management existed, basically.<\/p>\n

League and franchise officials certainly knew young athletes suffered \u201cheart attack,\u201d in the catch-all term. Medical literature was plentiful by 1970 while sports pages and television reported cardiac incidents from multiple activities, regularly, led by basketball and football. Historically, two NFL players had died after games, Stan Mauldin<\/a> and Dave Sparks<\/a>, in the decade following World War II.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the Detroit Lions had experienced recent cardiac fatalities off the field. Promising Lions tackle Lucien Reeberg, 21, died in the 1964 offseason [see below] while free-agent line prospect Ed Schreck, 23, was briefly under contract before he succumbed during heart surgery in 1968.<\/p>\n

Yet the Detroit franchise stood unprepared for a third event, in 1971, and this time on national television. Chuck Hughes, 28, a 6-foot, 180-pound wide receiver for the Lions, was naturally gifted to catch a football. But a genetic heart defect stopped the blonde Texan on Oct. 24, apparently triggered by physical exertion.<\/p>\n

Nearing end of the Sunday NFL telecast, Chicago at Detroit, Hughes dropped\u00a0face-down after a pass pattern, \u201ctwitching uncontrollably,\u201d a witness said, as a crowed of 54,419 \u201csilently watched.\u201d<\/p>\n

Television viewers were horrified. \u201cThey turned the TV cameras on him [Hughes] for us until the spirit left him,\u201d Barnard Collier<\/a> would write for Esquire<\/em> magazine, \u201cand then they turned away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time was precious for Hughes<\/a> but Lions doctors had to be waved onto the field, by Bears linebacker Dick Butkus, because of a silly league rule. Then they could only roll Hughes over, pound his chest and deliver mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, unsure about his distress. An off-duty anesthesiologist charged out of the stands, like he could help.<\/p>\n

While the Lions had prepared meticulously for playing the Bears, down to practicing Sudden change!<\/em>\u00a0for a turnover, no medical procedure was in place for sudden cardiac collapse of a player.<\/p>\n

The impromptu treatment of Hughes was crude, futile, pathetic. Apparently there was no electronic defibrillator machine<\/a>, state-of-art treatment for cardiac victims, on the premises at Tiger Stadium<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The football player was dying, his wife Sharon realized from the stands, and she began screaming. \u201cAfter what seemed forever, Hughes was placed on a stretcher,\u201d spectator Richard Bak<\/a> later recalled.<\/p>\n

An ambulance came onto the field and Sharon Hughes was summoned from the stands for ride to the hospital. But with everyone loaded, ambulance drivers groped for the misplaced ignition key. At this point Sharon figured it was too late for her husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe stared at what the doctors were doing and she watched as Chuck\u2019s ear turned slowly black and blue,\u201d Collier recounted for Esquire<\/em>. \u201cNow she knew that Chuck was beyond reviving. After that, time slowed so much that hurrying did not matter. She kept thinking about their marriage and how much Chuck was in love with football.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the hospital, defibrillator shocks were administered but no heartbeat restored. Machines kept Hughes alive until he was pronounced dead at 4:41 p.m., an hour after the Lions game ended.<\/p>\n

Team doctors still couldn\u2019t pinpoint cause of death, whether it occurred at the heart or brain. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen anything like it in professional football,\u201d said Dr. Edwin Guise, Lions physician.<\/p>\n

Franchise owner William Clay Ford expressed bafflement. \u201cI\u2019m horrified and shocked. He [Hughes] was a great player and a great person,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n

An autopsy confirmed hardened arteries caused the coronary malfunction in Hughes, who had family history of heart disease.<\/p>\n

In fact, Hughes had been tested for heart trouble months before his death, by cardio specialists at Henry Ford Hospital. Hughes was hospitalized again for chest pains in the preseason, after being crushed by tacklers in an exhibition game, but tests were negative and he returned to the football field.<\/p>\n

Sharon Hughes, widowed with a toddler son, ultimately won a settlement of undisclosed amount from Ford Hospital. Her lawsuit against the facility and unnamed doctors alleged a heart problem had been detected but \u201cthey willfully and wantonly\u201d failed to inform Chuck.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendants well knew that Hughes was a professional athlete and as such was required to engage in strenuous physical activity not advisable for one who had suffered heart damage,\u201d the complaint stated.<\/p>\n

Sharon Hughes also won a $43,250 claim for workman\u2019s compensation. Insurance representatives of the Lions, bound to indemnify the franchise for court losses and costs, had argued the death of her husband was unrelated to football.<\/p>\n

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

From 1960 to 2010, at least 16 active or contracted NFL players died of a) football injuries, b) game-related conditions or c) possible link to the sport.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The annotated cases below are deaths of those players in the NFL and former AFL, collected in my ongoing review\u00a0of news reports on casualties in football history. The incidents are harvested largely through electronic search of news databases.<\/p>\n

I make no medical claim of the information and little for its scientific value. This qualifies as raw data, news content, comprising case leads in need of expert follow-up by multi-disciplinary specialists of medicine and science, particularly for establishing or dismissing a football link in the majority of incidents.<\/p>\n

No qualified epidemiological team has ever been assembled and funded to reliably assess fatality rates of vast American football\u2014none\u2014despite a purported entity at the University of North Carolina, the so-called National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, \u00a0funded by the American Football Coaches Association<\/a>, the National Collegiate Athletic Association<\/a>, the National Federation of State High School Associations<\/a>, and the National Athletic Trainers\u2019 Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The NCCSIR has no facility of street address on campus. Officials have declined to answer my email queries since 2011<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Presently, 8 of 16 NFL cases below are omitted from \u201ctotal\u201d football statistics self-published by the sports academics<\/a>\u00a0representing UNC in Chapel Hill<\/a>. None of the cases involves cancer, drug overdose or suicide. Likely\u00a0some omitted cases can be verified as game-related, still, by credible researchers. Others probably cannot be accurately assessed for a football link, either way.<\/p>\n

Deaths of NFL and AFL players in the last 55 years include the following cases available in news reports:<\/p>\n

1960: Howard Glenn, 26<\/strong>, a 6-foot-2, 245-pound offensive guard for the New York Titans, of the AFL, died on Oct. 9 of a broken neck sustained in a game with the Houston Oilers. [See story above.]<\/p>\n

1960: Ralph Anderson, 24<\/strong>, a 6-4, 225-pound wide receiver for the San Diego Chargers, was a rising star in pro football and subject of a \u201ctampering\u201d lawsuit against his AFL team by the Chicago franchise of the NFL. But the talented athlete was diabetic, challenged to stay in the lineup, and in early November he missed a Chargers game. Anderson came back with big performances but was stricken again as he lay down on Friday night, Nov. 25. Anderson was found dead the next morning, and an autopsy ruled diabetic seizure as the cause. The athlete was survived by a 3-year-old daughter, and when the Chargers later played in the AFL championship game, the team voted that Anderson\u2019s share of player proceeds be presented to his girl. Head coach Sid Gillman also gave his share to the child. Sources: Associated Press and United Press International.<\/p>\n

*The death of Ralph Anderson was either missed or deemed unrelated to football by game-funded reviewers. His case is not included in 1960 football fatality data posted without scientific vetting on a website from UNC-Chapel Hill.<\/em><\/p>\n

1961: John Sherer, 20<\/strong>, a 6-3, 240-pound defensive tackle on the inactive list of the New York Titans, had foregone college football at the University of Miami after being drafted by the AFL. Sherer was a schoolboy legend in his native Pennsylvania, where he led a team of prep all-stars to victory over a squad of standouts from other states. Sherer barely missed making 1961 Titans roster, cut on the last day in training camp, so he played semipro football in hopes of getting a call from New York during the season. But on Sept. 26 Sherer collapsed and died following a gym workout in Philadelphia, of a reported heart malfunction. Sources: New Castle<\/em> News<\/em> and Associated Press.<\/p>\n

1963: Stone Johnson, 23<\/strong>, a 6-1, 180-pound running back for the Kansas City Chiefs, AFL, was touted as one of the fastest men in pro football. Johnson had been a sprinter for the U.S. Olympic team in Rome and a football player for Grambling College. He left college football after being drafted by the AFL, but he suffered a broken neck as a Chiefs rookie, trying to tackle in an exhibition game against the Houston Oilers on Aug. 31. Emergency surgery stabilized fracture of the C5 vertebra and Johnson was placed in traction, but the spinal-cord nerve bundle was damaged and he died on Sept. 8. Some in football alluded to individual fault for the tragedy. Game officials were touting \u201chead up technique,\u201d their new theory for headless hitting, and the Football Coaches Association\u2019s anointed death researcher chimed in, Floyd R. Eastwood. As a PE professor who went by \u201cDr. Eastwood\u201d with the press, this college teacher held only a PhD in education, far short of a medical or science doctorate and follow-up certifications. Nevertheless, Eastwood routinely promoted untested concepts for casualty prevention in football\u2014parroted widely by sportswriters\u2014that placed responsibility primarily on individuals, not the system. Following Johnson\u2019s death in 1963, Eastwood said \u201cdegree of skill\u201d could dictate mortality of a football player, without mentioning the field physics of forward colliding in shatterproof headgear and pads. \u201cMost injuries are sustained while blocking or tackling and if more players were trained properly in these respects, fatalities would take a sharp decline,\u201d Eastwood declared. Sources: Associated Press and United Press International.<\/p>\n

1964: Lucien Reeberg Jr., 21<\/strong>, a 6-4, 300-plus offensive tackle for the Detroit Lions, NFL, was a rising star publicized as the \u201cbaby-faced giant\u201d of pro football. But Reeberg was unhealthy, ballooning as high as 317 pounds. Hospitalized in Detroit, Reeberg died of cardiac arrest caused by chronic kidney disease on Jan. 31, 1964. Reportedly the Lions had wanted Reeberg evaluated for weight loss when he mentioned blood in his urine to a nurse. Team physician Dr. Richard Thompson said, \u201cThe disease [uremia] will crop up one day and not the next, and as a result of this, the young people tend to ignore the disease.\u201d Reeberg, a native of Bronx, N.Y.<\/a>, had played college football for Hampton Institute, which he left after being drafted by the NFL. In 2011, blogger Bill Dow<\/a> interviewed Reeberg\u2019s old roommate, former Lions linebacker Ernie Clark. \u201cLucien was Christmas morning,\u201d said Clark. \u201cI think about him all the time, and after he passed away my heart really wasn\u2019t into football and I\u2019ve never been the same.\u201d Sources: Jet<\/em> magazine, Blog.DetroitAthletic.com, Newspaper Enterprise Association, Associated Press and United Press International.<\/p>\n

*The death of Lucien Reeberg was either missed or deemed unrelated to football by game-funded academics. His case is not included in 1964 football fatality data posted without scientific vetting on a website from UNC-Chapel Hill.<\/em><\/p>\n

1965: Mack Lee Hill, 25<\/strong>, a 5-11, 235-pound running back for the Kansas City Chiefs, averaged 5.2 yards a carry over two seasons in the AFL. Nicknamed \u201cThe Truck,\u201d Hill suffered torn knee ligaments in a game and underwent surgery on Dec. 14. Complications developed, spiking Hill\u2019s temperature to 108 degrees and causing respiratory distress and convulsions. Hill died on the operating table of a pulmonary embolism, blood clotting blocking lung circulation, attending doctors told the AP. But differing expert opinion followed, regarding a football link or none, as in hundreds of player deaths since the 1960s. The Kansas City Star<\/em> reported that an autopsy by hospital pathologist Dr. O. Dale Smith involved \u201cinteresting speculation\u201d to blame a rare form of heatstroke unrelated to football. Smith noted further research was needed, but he concluded \u201cthat the very strength of young Hill, especially his powerful musculature, contributed to his vulnerability to a temperature crisis in his body\u201d during anesthetic and surgical stress, The Star<\/em> reported. Football-funded analysts like Eastwood, however, apparently classified the Hill case as game-related of \u201cindirect\u201d cause.<\/p>\n

1969: Frank Buncom Jr., 29<\/strong>, a 6-2, 235-pound linebacker for the Cincinnati Bengals, was a three-time all-star in the AFL and looking forward to the new season. Then blood clotting lodged in his lung arteries early on Sept. 14, Sunday morning of the opening game. Buncom\u2019s gasping rousted his roommate in the team hotel, but the athlete died before medical help arrived. The linebacker and his wife Sarah had an infant son, Frank Buncom III, and an education trust fund<\/a> for the child was established by players of the Bengals and the San Diego Chargers, Buncom\u2019s former team. Decades later, 2015, the late AFL star\u2019s grandson, Frank Buncom IV<\/a>, committed to play college football for Stanford University. Sources: UTSanDiego.com, Associated Press and United Press International.<\/p>\n

1971: Charles \u201cChuck\u201d Hughes, 28<\/strong>, a 6-foot, 180-pound wide receiver for the Detroit Lions, died of a coronary attack suffered during a game against the Chicago Bears on Oct. 24. [See account above.]<\/p>\n

1979: James Victor \u201cJ.V.\u201d Cain, 28<\/strong>, a 6-4, 225-pound tight end for the St. Louis Cardinals, was \u201ca perfect physical specimen\u201d who passed a preseason physical \u201cin great shape,\u201d reported The Associated Press. But Cain collapsed in humid 85-degree weather the night of July 22, after running a pass pattern without contact at training camp in St. Charles, Mo. Team doctors and trainers administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation to Cain, working without a defibrillator machine. \u201cWhen [75 players] saw that CPR was started, it just got dead silent,\u201d said Cards spokesman Steve Curran. \u201cAt one point, Coach [Bud] Wilkinson had the players on a line in prayer. They kept yelling, \u2018Come on, J.V., come on, J.V.\u2019 There were tears. It was very emotional.\u201d Cain, a 6-year team veteran, was pronounced dead at a local hospital 90 minutes after he was stricken on the football field. A pathologist concluded the cause of death was cardiac arrest from an \u201cextremely rare congenital condition\u201d known as myocardial fibrosis. Sources: Associated Press, United Press International and Washington Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n

*The death of J.V. Cain was either missed or deemed unrelated to football by game-funded academics. His case is not included in 1979 football fatality data posted without scientific vetting on a website from UNC-Chapel Hill.<\/em><\/p>\n

1980: Melvin Johnson Jr., 25<\/strong>, a 6-foot, 175-pound running back for the Kansas City Chiefs was an undrafted prospect the team had a penchant for signing and developing, like Mack Lee Hill before. Unfortunately, Johnson ended up mindful of the Hill tragedy [above] when he too died during routine surgery in Kansas City, in his case for a wrist fracture of football. Surgeon Dr. James Whitaker said cardiac arrest caused the death. Johnson had ranked among the nation\u2019s fastest teenagers during high school in Louisiana, and he played college football for the University of Colorado. The Chiefs signed Johnson as a free agent in 1979 but he spent the season on the disabled list, never appearing in an NFL game. \u201cWe had very high hopes for him,\u201d said Chiefs spokesman Doug Kelly. \u201cHe had good ability and a great deal of speed. We thought his chances of making the team [in 1980] were very good.\u201d The deceased athlete\u2019s younger brother, Troy Johnson<\/a>, later played four seasons in the NFL. Sources: United Press International, Salina<\/em> Journal<\/em>, Thibodaux<\/em> Daily Comet<\/em> and HoumaToday.com.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

*The death of Melvin Johnson Jr. was either missed or deemed unrelated to football by game-funded academics. His case is not included in 1980 football fatality data posted without scientific vetting on a website from UNC-Chapel Hill.<\/em><\/p>\n

1983: Larry Gordon, 28<\/strong>, a 6-4, 230-pound linebacker for the Miami Dolphins, was a highly regarded player who helped lead his teams to playoff victories and a Super Bowl, flashing brilliance throughout his seven-year career. Dolphins coach Don Shula still expected greatness from Gordon, his former No.1 draft pick from Arizona State gifted in athleticism and physique. On June 25, amid desert heat at 6 p.m., Gordon was jogging in preparation for upcoming NFL training camp when he collapsed near a relative\u2019s home in Arizona, said police. Gordon, a Florida resident married with two children, was pronounced dead at a Phoenix hospital. An autopsy by medical examiner Dr. Heinz Karnitschnig identified the cause as congenital heart disease, idiopathic cardiomyopathy<\/a>. \u201cHis coronary artery was in perfect shape. He didn\u2019t have a heart attack,\u201d said Bob Edwards, of the Maricopa County morgue. Toxicology exams found no drugs in the body; specifically, no cocaine was detected in a gall bladder sample. In 1986, as cocaine toxicity killed athletes in the NCAA and NFL, the question arose publicly regarding Gordon\u2019s case. His brother Ira Gordon, a Phoenix drug counselor and former NFL player, told The Arizona Republic<\/em> that evidence of cocaine use<\/a> was found in a bedroom that Larry occupied at time of his death. Ira said he had personally requested the autopsy and toxicology assays that tested negative for narcotics. Sources: Arizona<\/em> Republic<\/em>, Miami<\/em> Herald<\/em>, Associated Press and United Press International.<\/p>\n

*The death of Larry Gordon was either missed or deemed unrelated to football by game-funded reviewers. His case is not included in 1983 football fatality data posted without scientific vetting on a website from UNC-Chapel Hill.<\/em><\/p>\n

1998: Leon Bender, 22<\/strong>, a 6-5, 300-pound draft pick at defensive tackle for the Oakland Raiders, suffered fatal mishap at his agent\u2019s home in Atlanta on May 30, following team mini camp. An epileptic, Bender died on a bathroom floor at some point before a scheduled workout. Autopsy results were inconclusive while toxicology results were negative for drugs and alcohol. Bender had talked on the phone to family members until 3 a.m., including his wife Liza, before being discovered dead about noon. Bender\u2019s epilepsy wasn\u2019t lethal in itself, and a single episode couldn\u2019t be detected postmortem\u2014neither could some forms of cardiac malfunction<\/a>. What was known, a grand mal epileptic had no body control in a seizure, which Bender\u2019s family members believed he experienced in the bathroom then suffocated for his landing position and obstructions. Leon and Liza Bender had a 2-year-old daughter at time of his passing. Source: Associated Press.<\/p>\n

*The death of Leon Bender was either missed or deemed unrelated to football by game-funded academics. His case is not included in 1998 football fatality data posted without scientific vetting on a website from UNC-Chapel Hill.<\/em><\/p>\n

2001: Korey Stringer, 27<\/strong>, a 6-4, 335-pound offensive tackle for the Minnesota Vikings, reported to training camp as an All-Pro from the previous season. Oppressive heat enveloped most of the country as the Vikings opened workouts on Aug. 1 in Mankato, Minn. Several players struggled through drills and Stringer faltered and vomited, having to sit out. Next morning, Stringer was back on the field in full pads until collapsing amid 98-degree temperature and stifling humidity. By the time Stringer was transported to a hospital he was comatose with a body temperature of 108 degrees. Organs began failing, including both kidneys, until finally the heartbeat stopped, unable to be revived. Stringer was pronounced dead about 2 a.m. on Aug. 3, and public debate erupted. Vikings coaches met with media while Stringer\u2019s teammates were kept off-limits for interviews. Head coach Dennis Green suggested the players preferred public silence. \u201cIt\u2019s a private thing and they deserve their privacy,\u201d said Green, who snapped at a reporter for questioning whether team medical personnel should be available. \u201cWe chose not to,\u201d Green replied. \u201cI\u2019m not going to discuss that\u2026 so you can step back.\u201d Offensive line coach Mike Tice said a newspaper photo spurred the tragedy, not decisions of the coaching staff, by shaming Stringer when camp opened, picturing him doubled over at the sideline, looking weak. So the prideful Stringer came back the next day \u201cout to prove to people that he was a leader and that he wasn\u2019t going to let anybody embarrass him like that,\u201d Tice said. \u201cIt\u2019s very unfortunate that he worked himself to death.\u201d Elsewhere, football\u2019s anointed death researcher, exercise professor Fred Mueller at UNC, withheld blame of Vikings staff when pressed on CNN by news anchor Carol Lin. \u201cI just heard about this\u2026 I don\u2019t really know any of the details,\u201d said Mueller, demurring as the so-called expert who\u2019d agreed to discuss the case on international television. Despite heavy evidence of heatstroke and negligence on part of the football system, \u201cDr. Mueller\u201d\u2014funded by football organs, with his PhD in education\u2014speculated about the individual, Stringer, saying \u201cthere\u2019s a possibility it could be attributed to some other health problems.\u201d But Mueller would have to include this highly publicized death in his next \u201cstudy\u201d from Chapel Hill. Postmortem investigation including autopsy left no question that heatstroke killed Stringer, driven by lack of policy and prevention on part of the Vikings and NFL. Heat illness plagued every football level, contributing to deaths of an arena player, college player and a high-school player the same week as Stringer, and critics assailed the sport. Football officials had promised since 1960 to eliminate heat illness that experts declared was completely preventable\u2014but practices and games had only come to start earlier in hot weather, over decades, and necessary measures weren\u2019t standardized such as sideline ice bath in a kiddie pool. In August 2011, Kelci Stringer settled her final lawsuit<\/a> against parties found culpable of her husband\u2019s death, including the NFL and helmet maker Riddell. That same summer<\/a> at least seven high-school football players and one coach<\/a> collapsed and died from July 22nd<\/sup> to September 1st.\u00a0 Lawsuits followed, targeting schools and personnel for wrongful death of football heatstroke\u2014a decade after Korey Stringer in the NFL. Sources: St. Paul<\/em> Pioneer Press<\/em>, New York<\/em> Post<\/em>, Associated Press, CNN, CBS News, ESPN.Go.com., Carlisle Sentinel<\/em>, Reading Eagle<\/em>, South Florida Sun-Sentinel<\/em>, WSVN-TV, Miami Herald<\/em>, Florence Morning News<\/em>, Rivals.Yahoo.com, KDAF-TV, WTEV-TV, Atlanta Journal-Constitution<\/em>, WSB-TV, WXIA-TV, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette<\/em>, KLRT-TV, KRIV-TV, ABC News and Dallas Morning News<\/em>.<\/p>\n

2005: Thomas Herrion, 23<\/strong>, a 6-3, 315-pound offensive lineman for the San Francisco 49ers, collapsed and died on Aug. 20 following a night exhibition game amid cool weather at Denver. An autopsy determined ischemic heart disease<\/a> caused the death, blockage of a coronary artery. Greg Aiello, NFL spokesman, said Herrion \u201cmay be a case of an unfortunate hereditary condition that is not easily detected, even by the regular and thorough cardiac screening used by NFL clubs.\u201d Herrion was clinically obese by criteria of the Body Mass Index<\/a>, like a horde of NFL athletes, and controversy flared again over his death. So league officials changed their story regarding the plethora of 300-pound players, upwards of 500 behemoths in training camps every year, compared to less than 10 on record<\/em> prior to 1970.\u00a0 Earlier in 2005, year of PED hearings in Washington, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue<\/a> and cohorts told Congress the herd of mammoths wasn\u2019t because of widespread doping, drugs like anabolic steroids and synthetic growth hormone, but for a modern wave of \u201cfat\u201d athletes. They told politicians like senators John McCain and Henry Waxman that drug abuse producing artificial specimens in the NFL was an epidemic of the past resolved by \u201csteroid testing.\u201d Pot-bellied players had taken over, said league and union officials. But their excuse flip-flopped months later, when media criticized obesity in the league that impacted health of Herrion, as chronicled in my book, Spiral of Denial: Muscle Doping in American Football<\/a><\/em>: \u201cNow officials contended the NFL primarily featured muscled specimens with low body fat, so the league could argue BMI standards were an invalid application for its athletes. League medical liaison Dr. Elliot Pellman said the question of obesity among players still had to be answered by research. The league was commissioning its own studies. \u2018There\u2019s a 1-in-200,000 chance that an individual the age of Mr. Herrion will suffer a sudden death,\u2019 Pellman said. \u2018It happens, and no one knows why it happens.\u2019 Pellman said obesity was a cultural<\/em> problem, not football\u2019s. Officials dismissed a study, based on the BMI, that concluded virtually all NFL players were overweight or obese. Bears nutritionist Julie Burns said NFL players were abnormally muscular humans. Taglibue said, \u2018We have athletes that are fitter than most people in society, bigger than most people in society, and doing things that are different and more demanding than many people in society.\u2019 PEDs, meanwhile, did not apply. \u2018Huh?\u2019 remarked Sam Donnellon, the Philadelphia Daily News<\/em>, on mixed messages from the league.\u201d Additional sources: Contra Costa Times<\/em>, Associated Press, NBC News and CBS News.<\/p>\n

2007: Damien Nash, 24<\/strong>, a 5-10, 220-pound running back for the Denver Broncos, knew well about cardiac disease. Nash\u2019s close older brother, Darris, 25, had a heart transplant for dilated cardiomyopathy, discovered for his cardiac episode while playing basketball. So Damien, training during the offseason at home in St. Louis, hosted a local fundraiser for the Darris Nash Find A Heart Foundation. Damien played a portion of the charity basketball game featuring his NFL and college friends then greeted people in the crowd. Festivities moved to Nash\u2019s home in Ferguson, Mo., but he suddenly collapsed. Damien Nash<\/a> was pronounced dead at a hospital, and initial autopsy results were inconclusive. Family members suspected a cardiac problem, but cardiomyopathy like his brother\u2019s normally wasn\u2019t genetic, said doctors. Such damage likely would have emerged already in Damien, for his life and job in elite athletics. And he passed several heart screens by NFL teams that his agent trusted as thorough. Damien did not drink nor use drugs, said family members, and toxicology results came back negative. Cause of death remained \u201cundetermined\u201d in the final report, issued by the St. Louis County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office. \u201cIt was a natural death of cardiac origin,\u201d said a spokesman, \u201cbut we were unable to determine an exact origin.\u201d Nash and his wife, Judy, had a 7-month-old daughter at time of his death. Sources: Associated Press, Denver<\/em> Post<\/em> and NPR.org.<\/p>\n

*The death of Damien Nash was either missed or deemed unrelated to football by game-funded academics. His case is not included in 2007 football fatality data posted without scientific vetting on a website from UNC-Chapel Hill.<\/em><\/p>\n

2010: Gaines Adams, 26<\/strong>, a 6-5, 258-pound defensive end for the Chicago Bears, was an athletic specimen who had been drafted No.1, fourth overall in his college class, by Tampa Bay. Traded to Chicago midway through the 2009 season with 13.5 career sacks, Adams wore the label of \u201cbust\u201d but kept potential intact, like a 4.55-second speed in the 40, with no serious injuries or apparent heath issues. But weeks following season\u2019s end, on Sunday morning, Jan. 17, 2010, Adams collapsed at home in Greenwood, S.C., and was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Autopsy found that cardiac arrest of an enlarged heart killed the athlete, who had no such family history. Relatives and friends were shocked. \u201cI am honored to have been able to know [Gaines Adams<\/a>] and to have been his teammate,\u201d said Bucs center Jeff Faine. \u201cA truly bright soul.\u201d Sources: Sarasota<\/em> Herald Tribune<\/em>, St. Petersburg<\/em> Times<\/em>, Associated Press and ESPN.com.<\/p>\n

*The death of Gaines Adams was either missed or deemed unrelated to football by game-funded academics. His case is not included in 2010 football fatality data posted without scientific vetting on a website from UNC-Chapel Hill<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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

Football\u2019s on-field tragedies of Howard Glenn, in 1960 at Houston, and Chuck Hughes, 1971 at Detroit, framed the period\u2019s dangerously inferior medical planning and response for players of all ages.<\/p>\n

During the Vietnam War era, America\u2019s sparse emergency-care<\/a>\u00a0system led to more football deaths than any other factor, according to my review of severe casualties appearing in news. I\u2019ve collected thousands of fatality and survivor cases, including about 350 player deaths from the 1960s and about 275 from the 1970s.<\/p>\n

The subsequent reduction of football fatalities isn\u2019t measurable in close terms, much less absolute numbers, say independent experts<\/a>. Undoubtedly, however, the trend is due primarily to society\u2019s widespread establishment<\/a> of EMT crews, modular ambulances, life flights, emergency rooms and trauma surgery.<\/p>\n

Within the game, the NFL has improved its own medical management—but not to the point of effecting \u201csafer football\u201d like officials claim today.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone with two eyes on a Sunday afternoon [in season] can see that\u2019s not so,\u201d said Irv Muchnick, the investigative journalist and independent blogger with cunning for exposing dark underbellies of sport-entertainment conglomerates.<\/p>\n

Muchnick thoroughly dissects football ugliness, amid contemporary crisis for the game over brain injuries. He focuses on ill-resourced outback levels below the NFL, particularly the public schools and municipal \u201cyouth\u201d leagues with millions of juveniles colliding in helmets and pads. Many American kids play tackle football on public property before they enter first grade, while they cannot legally drive a car until age 16 nor buy cigarettes until an adult.<\/p>\n

Change looms, as Irv Muchnick chronicles\u00a0in his new book, Concussion Inc.: The End of Football As We Know It<\/em>, published by ECW Press of Canada<\/a>. In an email Q&A for ChaneysBlog, Muchnick addresses football problems and more, notably his current co-investigation, with independent journalist Tim Joyce<\/a>, of sexual assault in U.S. Swimming:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q1. Discuss your new book, the circumstances drawing you into the football issues by 2010.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Basically, it went like this: In late 2009 my book on the Chris Benoit murder-suicide came out. The book immediately got inserted into the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Connecticut between Democrat Richard Blumental and Republican Linda McMahon. Blumenthal is a liar who claimed military service “in Vietnam,” when in fact he had a cushy stateside Reserves stint during Vietnam. McMahon is the wife of Vince McMahon and the former CEO of WWE. She poured $50 million of their wealth from this publicly traded company into the failed race against Blumental, and $50 million more into another failed Senate race two years later, against Chris Murphy. Such sterling choices in our democracy!<\/p>\n

Alerted by the fine early work on football by Alan Schwarz in The New York Times<\/em>, and aware that I had a unique perspective on and reportorial resources for the concussion crisis story, I waded in, and by late 2010 I had “rebranded” my blog, naming it Concussion Inc. I answered only to a crazy boss: me.<\/p>\n

Benoit had been the first CTE study announced in 2007 by Chris Nowinski’s Sports Legacy Institute and Center for the Study of CTE in Boston. (The Benoit study was done by Bennet Omalu — now coming to the silver screen, but back then being written out of the story not just by the NFL but also by Schwarz, Nowinski, and Cantu, the Northeast Gold Dust Trio.) Chris Benoit’s father and now my good friend, Mike Benoit, had insisted throughout my research for Chris & Nancy<\/em> that I was underplaying brain disease and overplaying drugs and other generic explanations for his family’s tragedy, and I came to see how right he was.<\/p>\n

From there, all the connections flowed—principally Dr. Joe Maroon of UPMC … and WWE, and the NFL, and anti-aging huckerism, and the goofy hype for resveratrol supplements, and his proximity (at minimum) to the steroid\/HGH abuse on the multiple-champion Steelers.<\/p>\n

There was no major publisher market for the book I was writing, so like the late Red Smith, I undertook my “daily spelling lesson” at what I jokingly call ConcussionInc.net LLP. The topics and the obsessions were spontaneous responses to the news of 2010-11-12. My main narrative interest was in exposing the interlocking ecosystem of problems and commercial “solutions.” I hope that readers come away convinced that safe tackling, better helmets, better mousetraps are the filtered cigarettes of the 21st century. I credit a little-known fellow native Missouri writer by the name of Chaney with a game-changing insight on how state “concussion awareness” laws are not just bullshit, but jiu-jitsu bullshit— magically creating new private profit centers from the public trough, principally our public high schools.<\/p>\n

Along the way, I jousted a couple of times with Bob Costas, an acquaintance-friend from the St. Louis sports mafia. The book collects and reorganizes all this material the way books are supposed to do: to put the author over.<\/p>\n

In all seriousness, there’s some stuff there that I’m very proud of. No other journalist has gone deep with the story of Dave Duerson’s role on NFL-NFLPA disability benefits board. No one else has called out the Congress of Neurological Surgeons for giving Roger Goodell a standing ovation before his lame speech at their convention. No one else documented how the Centers for Disease Control accepted unprecedented private funding from the NFL for the federal government’s “concussion education campaign,” or how the National Institutes of Health helped Maroon and his cronies develop their phony, for-profit ImPACT program to the tune of millions in research subsidies.<\/p>\n

Q2. What is \u201cpublic football\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is an answer, perhaps not as flip as it sounds, that all of football is truly \u201cpublic\u201d football\u2014up through and including the NFL, a phony nonprofit that gets municipal subsidies for stadiums (plus other things). Since this situation will probably get worse before it gets better, as the industry has both the federal National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control in its pocket, I expect that within a few years the Super Bowl will be coordinated with the Presidents\u2019 Weekend national holiday: the regular season and playoff schedule will have expanded yet again, so that fans don\u2019t have to go to work the Monday after the game.<\/p>\n

The thrust of what we mean by public football, however, is taxpayer-funded programs at the professional sport\u2019s feeder levels. I say go ahead and allow all the fools who want their sons to play club and private school football. But let\u2019s get our public school systems out of it. \u201cDeath of football\u201d ideology is wishful thinking, but with new levels of \u201cawareness\u201d of traumatic brain injury\u2014and with the failed prevention costs and litigation flowing from that awareness\u2014the goal of stamping out public football in this targeted way is achievable.<\/p>\n

Q3. Furthering this point, you\u2019ve been characterized as bent on banning football. But isn\u2019t that a simplistic view of, or strategic response to, your argument in the debate?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m not out to ban football. Prohibition of just about anything is too blunt an instrument. It’s not fair to the zealous and it doesn’t work.<\/p>\n

But adult statecraft involves more than simply rambling about personal choice. I find it amusing that many of those who accuse people with my viewpoint of “having an agenda” are blind to their own as they grasp at commercial rearguard initiatives, such as helmet technology, more “professional” coaching of kids, or tail-chasing Zackery Lystedt state laws. We don’t ban boxing, but it has a somewhat saner footprint on our culture than it used to have. We don’t ban tobacco, but cigarette marketing is curtailed and kids are protected.<\/p>\n

Last rejoinder to this straw-man argument: I refuse to play the game of having to prove my bona fides before I can join the football debate. Put your guns down and let’s talk about football as an activity, not as a religion. I’m not an expert\u2014thank God. But it’s better to have common sense than no sense at all.<\/p>\n

Q4. Compare the \u201cblogosphere\u201d with traditional daily news media, when it comes to reporting and analyzing public issues in sport.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s stipulate that new media and mainstream media types are simply blaring their bugles from different formations of the same march against human folly. I know that, minus the filter of an editor, I\u2019ve shown my own ass plenty of times. It doesn\u2019t matter if the public learns the truth about football from me or The New York Times<\/em> or Professor Hieronymus Buttocks. And if Schwarz hadn\u2019t started doing what he was doing in 2007, you and I are not even having this conversation today.<\/p>\n

But did Schwarz and The Times<\/em> take anything close to the number of shots downfield they should have? Give me a break. When Schwarz wrote about his buddy Chris Nowinski getting a $1 million NFL grant, the story all but giggled like a schoolgirl. After Bennet Omalu fell out with Bob Cantu, Schwarz basically blacked the former out of coverage, while quoting the latter in the venture-capital hype for Xenith, a space-age helmet company. In his account of the fed investigation of Riddell\u2019s promotional claims, Schwarz treated the lying Joe Maroon with kid gloves. Schwarz\u2019s takeout disclaimer on the death of the Cincinnati Bengals\u2019 Chris Henry was cringeworthy; The Times<\/em> quoted NFL\u2019s latest consulting face, Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, to the effect that sometimes bad behavior is just bad behavior, and Schwarz reminded readers that nice white quarterbacks, like Steve Young and Troy Aikman, who also had sustained concussions, were not \u201con C block.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually Schwarz became associate producer of a documentary funded by the billionaire developer of the King-Devick Concussion Test.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want anyone to think I\u2019m picking on Schwarz. Jim Litke, the national sports columnist for the Associated Press, has done some great stuff on how Roger Goodell co-opted Mommy sports bloggers with cornball clinics on \u201csafe tackling.\u201d But AP analysis of how state Lystedt Laws \u201clack bite\u201d\u2014thank you very much\u2014are just playing \u201cgotcha.\u201d Nowhere do I see a single passage about how these laws were designed, in the first place, to offload football industry liability onto the public sector.<\/p>\n

In an age of rampant advertorial, you\u2019re daft if you don\u2019t acknowledge that bloggers, social media, what have you, can be a useful check and balance.<\/p>\n

Q5. Discuss your co-investigative series with Tim Joyce on sexual predator coaches and athletes in U.S. Swimming.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Swimming is the right next book in several respects. Because it’s a niche sport, Tim and I have more of the field to ourselves (though outlets like ESPN, of course, which for the most part ignore the story, do manage to “big foot” us from time to time).<\/p>\n

Just as a large segment of our boy population is getting systematically brained in football, disturbing numbers of girls are getting raped at all rungs of our Olympic sports system. As with concussions, we are less interested in being designated cops than in\u00a0following the money. The profiteers of so-called amateur sports and the nonprofits of \u201cChild Abuse Inc.\u201d play defense much faster than the public realizes or perhaps cares.<\/p>\n

But to get down to business: 400,000 kids, 12,000 coaches — you don’t need an advanced degree in statistical analysis in order to extrapolate from the scores of known and under-reported cases; to factor in the forms of denial and cover-up; and to conclude that this is, bar none, the largest-scale molestation narrative outside the Catholic Church. It makes Penn State look like a garden party by comparison.<\/p>\n

The hardest part to explain is that every institution has its own sick dynamic. In swimming, it\u2019s not willy-nilly opportunistic pedophiles. Rather, there is a unique power imbalance. Most often it\u2019s a 30-something male coach and an early or mid-teens star girl swimmer, who is emerging from the physical and emotional changes of puberty, and is desperate for adult approval, college scholarship, Olympic glory. Parents are asleep at the switch; they are totally invested until something bad happens to their own kid.<\/p>\n

The rippling societal costs, in terms of life-long cases of eating disorders, substance abuse, and broken relationships and families, are incalculable. Yet all we see above ground is NBC\u2019s feel-good patriotic package for a fortnight every leap year summer.<\/p>\n

With the Rio Games upcoming, Tim and I are going deep with the story of Brazilian national Alex Pussieldi, who is the Rowdy Gaines of swimming coverage on the country\u2019s SporTV network. Two years ago Pussieldi fled South Florida, where he had gotten his start in American coaching under the recently deceased Hall of Famer Jack Nelson, whom Diana Nyad credibly accuses of molesting her for years at the Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale. In the course of reviewing thousands upon thousands of pages of discovery documents USA Swimming tried to suppress, Tim and I told the full story of the cover-up by that organization as well as local police, city government, and the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel<\/em>, of Pussieldi\u2019s 2004 physical assault and Peeping Tom practices against a Mexican boy who was swimming and being boarded by him. Pussieldi was a major creep and international human trafficker, and his rise to prominence was aided by former USA Swimming president and conflicts-crazed consultant Dale Neuburger, who steers contracts with foreign national teams to coaches like Michael Phelps\u2019 guy, Bob Bowman. Neuburger also was an architect of swimming\u2019s scam offshore insurance subsidiary, the \u201cUnited States Sports Insurance Co.\u201d in Barbados. ESPN\u2019s\u00a0Outside the Lines<\/em>\u00a0still won’t tell its viewers, but all this is under investigation by the FBI and the Government Accountability Office.<\/p>\n

Q6. The U.S. Swimming scandal is monumental with much yet to uncover and untold victims in need of light. So it doesn\u2019t sound like you\u2019re returning to football analysis anytime soon, not in your former diligence that produced the new book.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That is correct. The football follies are now out there for all to see and interpret. Geez, our friend Bennet Omalu is about to be portrayed by Will Smith. I’ll continue to comment on a connection or two as we move along–and of course I reserve the right to change my mind–but the focus of my energy is swimming and Rio ’16.<\/p>\n

Q7. For what may be called the \u201cgenuine iconoclast\u201d writer in sports issues, it appears\u00a0there\u2019s often little competition on reporting a problem, however terrible, because few media are willing to probe and pay the price to do so. Correct?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, no doubt I’m a little bit nuts, and I don’t have the excuse of having played football. Maybe I should have gone straight and gotten a real job, but it’s way too late for that. My name is on a Supreme Court case involving writers’ rights in new media, and\u00a0Concussion Inc.<\/em>\u00a0is my third book, and I’m proud of those things. They’re not rewarding financially, but they’re rewarding.<\/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":"

Since\u00a01960 at least 16 NFL players have died of injury, a game-related condition or a possible link to football, impacted by inadequate medical management. Meanwhile, “public football” stokes a hot Q&A with Irv Muchnick, the iconoclastic sports journalist whose new book chronicles fall of the game as we know it. By Matt Chaney Posted Saturday, … Continue reading NFL Deaths Reflect Inept Care and Record-Keeping<\/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":[260,3,4],"tags":[236,175,145,174,13,124,78,201,234,114,18,203,73,97,14,198,187,179,226,40,66,220,182,223,239,81,181,178,154,189,222,180,225,91,212,53,31,207,128,224,146,58,21,86,84,215,89,185,235,229,208,184,196,26,213,210,92,98,211,186,188,206,205,67,209,192,16,191,87,83,177,183,200,5,176,218,217,219,59,228,195,134,46,237,227,36,163,108,204,19,238,199,233,194,197,117,202,70,221,230,216,231,153,232,82,193,6,47,214,190,27],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ywFp-9k","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578"}],"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=578"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3886,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions\/3886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}