League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth.

**Brien Jackson** · 04-02-2014, 07:39 PM

Originally Posted by BcRaven

However, anyone who wants to sue because the NFL kept some sort of information from them gets no sympathy from me... Bc

I'd say statements like that are a far bigger threat to football's viability than lawsuits.

**Brien Jackson** · 04-02-2014, 07:44 PM

Originally Posted by BcRaven

No sir, most every player could afford to go to the Mayo Clinic (AKA have access to the best medical care). Plus, nobody's stopping them, or their agents, from reading the New England Journal of Medicine or any other respected publication on the subject of sports injury. We live in a society where you have access to information 24 X 7 online. If you choose to ignore it, then shame on you. BTW how many people still smoke decades after the surgeon general's warning? ... Bc

I'd rather not endorse a legal theory that holds I have to try to digest information about everything AND sort it all out lest my employer be allowed to exploit my long-term health for extra profits.

**Brien Jackson** · 04-02-2014, 07:49 PM

Originally Posted by BcRaven

You cannot go back to a prior era, then apply today's principles. Otherwise, there are children not yet born who can file lawsuits in 2050 about today's inadequate health care because of some major breakthroughs that occurred after the fact. Preposterous... Bc

That doesn't really hold: I would definitely say that any profit seeking company has, at the least, a moral obligation to make future redress for any sort of grave injury was systematically caused to their employees in the process of said profit making even, and perhaps especially, if no one knew it was happening.

**BmoreLove** · 04-02-2014, 08:46 PM

Make them sign a waiver I'm tired of the continual process of becoming flag football. They make millions to get their insurance or provide as part of the contract, case closed.

**HoustonRaven** · 04-02-2014, 08:54 PM

Originally Posted by alien bird

The NFL deliberately put inaccurate information out there and hid accurate data that would weaken their position. But that's all detailed in the book. It's a pretty good read and makes a compelling argument. Anyone interested in the subject should really read the book. I'm not going to try to lay out the entire argument in random posts on a message board. You can get it in paperback (or on Kindle) for less than $12.

I've read the book. And again I ask, how can the league "hide" data that can easily be accessible by any number of means.

They're a pro sports league, not a bastion of medical science. Yes, they went with the Elliott Pellman's version of CTE's for far too long. Yes, they should have consulted independent sources on the matter.

But the league is powerless to hide widely known medical data from it's players.

**Shas** · 04-02-2014, 09:01 PM

Originally Posted by BcRaven

I don't know why some have to go into a devious cover-up about it.

Because it's the entire point of this thread and the book that the original post references. This isn't me making up a conspiracy theory. This is me saying that if the cover-up really does exist, as the book suggests, then all that stuff about football players knowing what risks they were taking -- all that is meaningless to me. In case you didn't look at the story the first post references, it references passages like...

The players had claimed that the league covered up data on the harmful effects of concussions. ...
An answer can be found in the well-researched and condemning book written by two ESPN investigative reporters called League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth. Authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru methodically piece together the NFL maneuverings and cover-up of information on the correlation between football and brain trauma in NFL players, and their attempts to downplay such evidence.

.

As I've maintained consistently here, if any of that is true, then I do have a big problem with the league.

**Shas** · 04-02-2014, 09:11 PM

Originally Posted by GOTA

How much long term data could they really have? What industry follows former employees 10 or 20 years after they cease employment? Whatever data they do have is not going to be complete. It sounds like the NFL is starting to do things now but it's going to take decades before they have a true picture of what is going on. I would imagine the NFLPA will also do their own study but they certainly won't get any answers any quicker than the NFL.

Again, my point isn't that there is damning evidence. I don't know if there is ANY evidence linking CTE and football. My only point is that it appears the NFL may have conspired to cover up evidence.

Even if that evidence turns out to be vague and inconclusive, it's really not the point. The point is Watergate. Third-rate scientific evidence is elevated into something much more troubling. The cover up is worse than the crime.