After agreeing to fund an impartial study of head impacts and CTE, the NFL has backed out with hardly an explanation, ESPN reports:
http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_...versity-head-trauma-study-concerns-researcher
Apparently, it took umbrage at the NIH award of the study to Boston U. and Dr. Stern, who has been critical of the NFL in the past. Nevertheless, the NIH has funded the study and will press on.
In a recent interview, Bryant Gumbel didn't mince any words about his contempt for the NFL, which has repeatedly denied in the past that head on collisions on the field could produce brain injury. And whether fans or the public at large agree, one way or the other, this is a topic too serious and far reaching to be swept away with gut based reasoning.
My own view is that the NFL pullout smacks of the same approach taken by the tobacco industry in denying the link between smoking and cancer, and cherry picking scientists to deliver bought and paid for results. There may be some reason to believe Gumbel when he says that the NFL is on a decline. And if this is so, the decline is likely to be accelerated by the results of a confirming study linking CTE to football.
Obviously, the issue is not one that will go away, given the increasing evidence of players whose post mortems confirm CTE, as well as the early retirement of others. And it is equally clear that the game as we know it today, from Pop Warner to NFL, will inevitably undergo changes that will dramatically affect today's product, if this CTE study and others confirm what we probably already suspect.
http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_...versity-head-trauma-study-concerns-researcher
Apparently, it took umbrage at the NIH award of the study to Boston U. and Dr. Stern, who has been critical of the NFL in the past. Nevertheless, the NIH has funded the study and will press on.
In a recent interview, Bryant Gumbel didn't mince any words about his contempt for the NFL, which has repeatedly denied in the past that head on collisions on the field could produce brain injury. And whether fans or the public at large agree, one way or the other, this is a topic too serious and far reaching to be swept away with gut based reasoning.
My own view is that the NFL pullout smacks of the same approach taken by the tobacco industry in denying the link between smoking and cancer, and cherry picking scientists to deliver bought and paid for results. There may be some reason to believe Gumbel when he says that the NFL is on a decline. And if this is so, the decline is likely to be accelerated by the results of a confirming study linking CTE to football.
Obviously, the issue is not one that will go away, given the increasing evidence of players whose post mortems confirm CTE, as well as the early retirement of others. And it is equally clear that the game as we know it today, from Pop Warner to NFL, will inevitably undergo changes that will dramatically affect today's product, if this CTE study and others confirm what we probably already suspect.
