The optimistic side of me wants to envision a day very, very soon when football is played in a new way, with new techniques, new equipment and without head trauma.
But it’s hard to do that, to even envision it. The head’s in the middle of the shoulders, right?
You have to block and tackle — head to head — because that is the game, right? Not head on head, mind you. Head to head. Unless everyone stands upright like toy soldiers.
A lot of the blatant helmet-to-helmet knockout blows already have been taken out. But the head is still there, the tip of the spear in a game of spears.
So when the NFL comes courtesy-knocking, saying it is doing great stuff to make the concussion crisis in football disappear, you have to turn your propaganda sensors on high alert. The NFL had to be shamed into having even a reasonable moral interest in head trauma, let alone a scientific one.
I won’t bore you repeating what then-commissioner Paul Tagliabue said in 1994: “On concussions, I think it’s one of these pack-journalism issues, frankly. . . . The problem is a journalist issue.’’
But that’s what he said.
And now? NFL senior vice president of health and safety policy Jeff Miller trotted out many figures and trends that show what the NFL has done in recent years to make the game less head-banging: new kickoff rules, anti-spearing rules, ‘‘defenseless receiver’’ rules, etc.
But you wonder: If the kickoff is the play where your experts have found the most injuries occur — why not eliminate it rather than make it a sometime thing? The NFL allows players to weigh anything, some approaching 400 pounds now, when common sense says sheer weight must cause injuries, is not healthy for the person and can be legislated out in a heartbeat with the imposition of a reasonable weight limit.
But the “sumo effect’’ is beloved by the league, its fans and, of course, the TV cameras.
The NFL is a $9 billion-a-year industry. It will change, but only because of market forces. It’s first rule — like protoplasm or a pack of wolves — is to protect itself and grow.
When NFL emissaries visited the Sun-Times’ editorial board Wednesday, the belief was their arrival signaled the league’s desire to do damage control before the exposé movie “Concussion’’ comes out this holiday season. That movie, which features Will Smith in the lead role of early concussion whistle-blower Dr. Bennet Omalu, supposedly already has been softened by NFL demands. Still, it won’t be a love letter to the league.
Omalu was scorned and marginalized by those in power, simply for what he revealed on the dissecting table. The NFL has some penance to serve for that treatment. And though the three reps — Miller, neuropsychologist Beth Pieroth, a NorthShore University HealthSystem employee who does independent concussion analysis for the Bears, and Bears chairman George McCaskey — denied it, somebody must know something about the movie and its finger-pointing.
McCaskey is an interesting man. He gets so impassioned at games — pumping his fist and grimacing — and he carries the weight of the Bears’ legacy going back to his grandfather George Halas and the start of the NFL.
His story about the dangers of the game, and how it affected his own son, was telling:
“I have a son who is 24 now. We did a one-year experiment in fifth grade, let him play. Then, like so many kids, he wanted to play in high school, and he did have a concussion his senior year. He was a different person for five months. He knew he wasn’t right. It was very frustrating for my bride and I because he wasn’t getting better.
“Still, in my opinion, it was a very positive experience for him.’’
Football is a great game, and the camaraderie and hard work it takes to be outstanding — or even make it through an entire emotional season — is a special reward.
Pieroth said she lets her two young boys play the game, saying that the dangers have to be kept in perspective. None of the three would say whether other parents should allow their children to play the game.
“They should make an informed decision,’’ was the motto.
Seven high school players have died this year as a result of the game. One news-gatherer says the number is actually 13. Here in Chicago, Bogan High School’s Andre Smith died last week. Two years ago, popular Lane Tech star Drew Williams suffered a head injury that left him in a vegetative state.
Risk-reward.
Heads up. Studies. Trends. Intentions.
Twelve years ago, NFL head trauma expert Elliot Pellman wrote, “Concussions are not serious injuries.’’
Trust is what we need more than anything.
Follow me on Twitter @ricktelander.
Email: rtelander@suntimes.com
