PBS Frontline: League Of Denial - The NFL's Concussion Crisis

[Walt]

I know Chrebet has gone on record saying that his long/short term memory has gone to shyt. What's worse is that a lot of these players(before the concussion tests were put in obviously) were basically coerced into saying they were OK because they were in fear of losing their positions and jobs.
After watching this documentary, I can't in good conscience let my son play football. He's only 4, he doesn't really have an interest in organized sports, but this stuff really is an eye opener, especially the part about the non-concussive hits leading to CTE and all the high school aged kids that showed up with it.

The past few years I've honestly had a difficult time watching and enjoying football, which I didn't think was possible. Reminds me of when I kicked it at a family gathering with my cousin's baby moms, who stripped for like 5 years. Once she broke down the realities of that industry, I couldn't really enjoy setting foot in a strip club again.

These quotes are from an interview today with former NFL D-Lineman Derland Moore:

I. It'd be different if the NFL was scratching by, but, I mean, they're washing money right now. And it looks like they would come around and take care of their own. I mean, we're cast aside like garbage. And you don't do that to people.

II. There was one play in San Francisco. My own teammate got me. I got a knee to the back of the head. I couldn't even get up, and they put it on NFL Follies. I'm getting up and I'm falling down.

I can't help but flash back to the scene in The Wire when Kima and Lester take Shardene to the morgue to see her stripper friend who'd been rolled up in a rug and tossed in a dumpster. They tell Shardene something to the effect of "that's how they do - they use you up and then throw you in the trash when they're done."

As much of an unquestionable piece of shyt as Goodell is, as indisputably venal and outright criminal NFL as owners are, as evil as it is to suppress research and evidence for fear of losing out on a cash grab, and as comically villainous on some Mr. Burns shyt as it is for the NFL to be listed as a non-profit organization, the most disgusting part of this overall shytty equation is that the NFL is awash in money and couldn't bother to dole out some minor fukking assistance to these sad ass fukkers who were walking around on dead knees and twisted legs, tasing themselves to get to sleep, rotting away in pain and constant disorientation. It's like how we treat our Veterans - thanks for fighting that war for us and permanently ruining your life - we plan to have a few ceremonies for your lot, but can you please wander around with your PTSD elsewhere, and drink your life away in quiet?

Joseph Conrad - who wrote Heart of Darkness, which was translated to film as Apocalypse Now - hit one of his peoples with a letter that said, "Man is a cruel animal. His cruelty must be organized. Society is essentially criminal,—or it wouldn't exist. It is selfishness that saves everything, absolutely everything - everything that we abhor, everything that we love."

Goodell and the NFL are indeed cruel, criminal animals. Football is a game of brutality and savagery, but the truest brutes and savages in the NFL have always been cloaked in suits and armed to the teeth with lawyers, loopholes, and PR gurus. In the words of Colonel Kurtz: The horror, the horror.

 

[Malcolmxxx_23]

Dr. Bennet Omalu

 

[Montez]

is anyone else shook how these dudes come back and play a week after a concussion?

 

[RubioTheCruel]

Anything is possible..someone dying on The field god forbid, especially a great player would be the leagues worst nightmare. Its def too popular now, soccer idk, no one in america still gives a shyt about that sport on a wide scale.

Like you said... anything is possible. If a whole generation of mothers funnel the talent that usually goes to play football into soccer and the US actually fields a team that can play at world cup championship level it could happen.

Americans usually only support sports they invent or excel in.

 

[Easy-E]

Webster played for 20 yrs!?

Careers are gonna have to be shorter, for one...

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

Great documentary and really made me despise the the greedy a$$holes in the backgroun of the NFL. can't believe they sidelined and ostracized omalu like that, dudes really are grimy.

As for football being banned, won't happen, but to me, it's like the military, football will be come dominated by the economically disadvantaged and lower class who are willing to take the risks for the payout. Outside of the good ol boy families in the south, I don't see how well to do families will continue to send their sons into the sport.

 

[RubioTheCruel]

As for football being banned, won't happen, but to me, it's like the military, football will be come dominated by the economically disadvantaged and lower class who are willing to take the risks for the payout. Outside of the good ol boy families in the south, I don't see how well to do families will continue to send their sons into the sport.

It's like Bernard Hopkins said about boxing: "As long as there are ghettos, boxing will never die"

 

[mastermind]

is anyone else shook how these dudes come back and play a week after a concussion?

not anymore.

again, as a kid I remember dudes coming back into games with concussions

and for a soccer tip, I remember Daniel Agger got concussed against Arsenal and came back into the game.

 

[Montez]

not anymore.

again, as a kid I remember dudes coming back into games with concussions

and for a soccer tip, I remember Daniel Agger got concussed against Arsenal and came back into the game.

I was talking about that game with my pops last night. He was shook by the documentary. We both remembered that game. He could barely look at the sun and the announcer said he just had the wind knocked out of him.

Doctor looked at him and sent him back out there. Think he got hit twice in the head that game.

 

[mastermind]

I was talking about that game with my pops last night. He was shook by the documentary. We both remembered that game. He could barely look at the sun and the announcer said he just had the wind knocked out of him.

Doctor looked at him and sent him back out there. Think he got hit twice in the head that game.

I keep thinking about Koscielny too, how often he gets one of those nasty head collisions.

This will come to a fore in soccer too in the next 10-15 years also. Its already a mini problem in ITaly.

 

[gho3st]

Great documentary and really made me despise the the greedy @ssholes in the backgroun of the NFL. can't believe they sidelined and ostracized omalu like that, dudes really are grimy.

As for football being banned, won't happen, but to me, it's like the military, football will be come dominated by the economically disadvantaged and lower class who are willing to take the risks for the payout. Outside of the good ol boy families in the south, I don't see how well to do families will continue to send their sons into the sport.

I see where you are coming from. A great example of that would be cigarettes. Everybody know that shyt is toxic to your body and causes a gang of problems for you down the road. Yet politicians don't ban that shyt; they raise taxes on that shyt every year ! shyt, a pack cigarettes where I live cost 10 dollars and it still doesn't stop people from buying them. Health insurance companies are winning too.

Now back to football. Even if they were to legislate hits to the head out of the game it still wouldn't stop CTE. The spinal cord is not built to suffer this kind of trauma on a consistent basis.



=====

@mastermind , @Montez
That Drogba concussion 2 seasons ago Blood was coming out his nose. Not only was he knocked out in midair, he hit his head when he landed too

 

[Bolzmark]

Yep. They will eventually ban the game one day. Hopefully not in my lifetime.

Never going to happen. There will be changes hear and there but banned? Never. Way too much money. And where will the demand come from to ban it? The fans? The fact is there will always be athletes wiling to play it. Lets keep it real...you can show all potential NFL players a documentary showing the tragic stories of these retired players and what they are going through, then have doctors come talk to them about the potential long term effects, and probably 100% of them would still play. Minimum wage in the NFL for a rookie is over $400,000. Even if you only play the average of 3 years, that's over a million dollars even for the scrubs. And we all know that for a LOT of these dudes, if it aint the NFL, its flippin burgers at McDonalds. Like they said on ESPN yesterday when talking about Clowney, he is looking at FAMILY HISTORY CHANGING TYPE MONEY. NFL aint goin nowhere.

 

[reserved_one]

powerful stuff. I can see why the NFL were uncomfortable by this documentary, because it exposed them as being bullies that will ruthlessly crush anyone that will go against them. The NFL and the Tobacco companies are very similar. Seeing Goodell, stumbling over his words at Congress was amazing to see.

Seeing the Nigerian doctor getting blackballed like that for his research earlier on and even today is fukked up. The Aikman story was scary. I remember them Steve Young/Troy Aikman concussions they got when I was a kid. I didn't much of it, but now watching this has made me feel different about the sport I love.

This doc will put fear into kid's parents who think about them playing football

 

[who_better_than_me]

I hear you i fele the same but it wont last long anyway,not that it will be outlawed but kids just arent gonna play football like they used to parents are gonna be scared off and the prodcut will suffer greatly in say 10-15 years

Actually ppl are playing football earlier and earlier it seem. It's just as many little league football teams as little league basketball league.
Football is growing. In baltimore it's a lot of courts with no hoops or rims. They don't even fix them.

 

[Montez]

@mastermind , @Montez
That Drogba concussion 2 seasons ago Blood was coming out nose. Not only was he knocked out in midair, he hit his head when he landed too

I forgot about this one



The English are far behind in terms of recognition of head injuries and player issues post retirement. It took Gary Speed's suicide to even get the conversation going and that ended quickly. Their culture like ours is built on toughness and getting on with it, real warrior mentality. Rugby is going through the same issues.

Kos doesn't surprise me.

I keep thinking about Koscielny too, how often he gets one of those nasty head collisions.

This will come to a fore in soccer too in the next 10-15 years also. Its already a mini problem in ITaly.

Italy oddly enough has been at the forefront of heart monitoring and head injuries. Players who played there have also been the most vocal about doping too.