NFL losing its mind

By Joe Starkey, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Sunday, August 29, 2010

This is insane.

It's downright scandalous, actually, for the NFL to be peddling an expanded regular season even as evidence mounts of football-related collisions causing long-term brain damage.

There should be talk of shrinking the already ruthless 16-game season, not piling on. But here we are, fresh out of the owners meetings in Atlanta, staring at the possibility of 18 games in 2012.

A number of recent events have cast more focus on the subject of concussions among NFL players. Pittsburgh Steeler offensive linemen Justin Strzelczyk, left, and Terry Long, right, died after long bouts of depression that may be tied to concussions. New England Patriot linebacker Ted Johnson said he suffers from depressions tied to repeated head-on contact.
(Getty Images)

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell would like you to believe this is about entertaining the fans.

It's not about money. Noooooo. It has nothing to do with owners lining their pockets by exchanging two financially paltry exhibition games for two lucrative regular-season ones.

The owners are doing us a favor!

"There's tremendous support for it," Goodell told reporters after the meetings. "Almost all the questions, all the discussions, are how to do it in a way that's fan friendly."

Shouldn't all the discussions be about how to "do it" in a way that's player friendly? The players are the ones sacrificing their bodies for our viewing pleasure. They are compensated generously, to be sure, but that doesn't mean putting them through two more days of car-wreck collisions is the right thing to do.

The players see through the owners' ruse. Even increased pay won't make this idea fly among the rank and file.

"Not at all," said Steelers linebacker James Farrior. "If you follow the money trail, you see it's all about greed."

Added Steelers player rep Charlie Batch: "For (owners) on one side to say concussions are a point of emphasis and then turn around and add two more games just doesn't make sense. It's a bad idea."

DeMaurice Smith, union chief, responded this way to my e-mail request seeking comment:

"There has been no full proposal (from the league) regarding lowering thresholds for post-career health care, changes in offseason conditioning, bye weeks, roster sizes, impact on careers, impact on games, cumulative injury rates and a host of other issues," Smith wrote. "The players know it is difficult to get through the current season, and that this proposal has a lot of pieces that need to be addressed.

"It will be a tough sell in the locker rooms, but I think it is important to address these issues quickly."

Don't even negotiate on this one, Mr. Smith. The season is too long already. No amount of bye weeks or reduction of offseason conditioning can make up for subjecting players to two more games.

Steelers president Art Rooney II declined comment on the issue, but be sure of this: If any franchise should be vigorously protesting an expanded season, it's the Steelers, who have seen several former players — Mike Webster, Terry Long, Justin Strzelczyk, Paul Martha, to name four — lose their quality of life on account of brain damage. Their two best current players, Ben Roethlisberger and Troy Polamalu, have sustained multiple concussions.

The question of whether football-related collisions cause dementia, depression and worse remains disputed in the medical community, though evidence is increasing. At the very least, the NFL should refrain from adding more games until it sees more research. And it has to consider the stunning scientific studies already performed.

One of those, conducted by the West Virginia University-affiliated Brain Injury Research Institute, determined that deceased Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chris Henry had a form of degenerative brain damage caused by multiple hits to the head. Henry was one of more than a dozen NFL and college players found with the condition.

Then there is the heartbreaking story of longtime NFL fullback Steve Smith, captain of Penn State's 1986 national championship team, as told on HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel."

Smith, who turns 46 on Monday, was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) in 2002. He is tethered to a ventilator, bed-ridden and unable to speak. He also is one of 14 ex-NFL players to have developed ALS, or a condition that directly mimics it.

That is an outrageous number, considering only one in 100,000 among the general population will develop the disease.

The theory is that toxic proteins created by head trauma leak from the brain into the spinal cord, causing the condition. That is the finding of Dr. Ann McKee, a neurology professor at Boston University who has studied the brain and spinal cord of two NFL players (Wally Hilgenberg, Eric Scoggins) who died from ALS.

Steve Smith's mind remains clear. He speaks by directing his eyes to computer keys on a video screen. At one point in the interview, he burst into tears.

Somebody should see to it that the scene is played at the next NFL owners' meeting.

"I have hit people 40 to 50 times every week in practice, not to mention 50 to 70 times on gameday 16 days a year, not to mention camp every year," Smith said through a computer-generated voice. "When is enough enough? You have the old-school owners that say, 'That's how you make them tough.' I'd love to see them get out there and hit heads with guys that are bigger than them."

Enough's enough, gentlemen.

Stop the insanity.