Stabler’s CTE puts NFL’s ‘Concussion’ issue in new light
Jan 24, 2016; Charlotte, NC, USA; Carolina Panthers middle linebacker Luke Kuechly (59) returns an interception for touchdown during the fourth quarter against the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC Championship football game at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
SAN FRANCISCO — I wonder how the original script read.
I wonder how damaging a portrayal it could have really been.
It’s no surprise those who made, “Concussion,” reportedly softened the movie in order to curb complaints from the NFL, that the film released in December didn’t deliver its desired bite about a subject that has openly challenged how much the league truly cares about the brain health of its players.
Hell hath no fury like an NFL attorney who smells a libel suit.
The NFL talks a good game when it comes to its health and safety efforts, but statistics continue to favor the side that wonders how diligent the league has been in protecting those smashing into each other.
Just days before Super Bowl 50 is staged at Levi’s Stadium, before the Broncos and Panthers engage in such a historic meeting, word came Wednesday that yet another of the game’s all-time greats suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a progressive degenerative brain disease.
Ken Stabler died in July at the age of 69 of colon cancer, and the Super Bowl MVP quarterback of the Oakland Raiders had made the decision to donate his brain and spine to Boston University’s CTE Center.
The doctors who studied Stabler’s brain said the player’s lesions were widespread and affected many regions of the organ.
“He would want science to change this horrible thing that’s happening to so many players and find a way to make the game safer and better,” Kim Bush, Stabler’s longtime partner, told ESPN. “He would say, ‘My head is rattling.’ And it was. It was, in fact, rattling.”
The NFL today will hold a press conference to provide updates on its health and safety measures, which will be followed by an interactive showcase of innovations designed to advance concussion diagnosis, prevention and treatment.
The truth of the matter: We only have numbers to go by.
There were 115 reported head injuries in the NFL during the 2014 regular season.
That number was 182 this year.
That’s an increase of 58 percent.
In all, players sustained 271 concussions in practices, preseason and regular season games this season.
That’s not good, given the spike comes after the league instructed its officials to crack down on helmet-to-helmet hits.
But how safe can you really make — or in the NFL’s case, want to make — a product chiefly defined by violence?
And how much of its bottom line is the league willing to risk by having the sport less so?
And how much do fans care, anyway? Is this exactly like the steroids scandal in baseball, where those who purchase tickets and wear their favorite player’s jerseys want to witness the game in the form they believe is best and most exciting, heath concerns of those competing be damned?
You get different opinions on the head injury issue from different medical professionals. Dr. Bennet Omalu, the pathologist played by Will Smith in “Concussion” and who first identified brain disease in football players, believes more than 90 percent of players that will compete in Super Bowl 50 suffer from CTE.
Doctor Mitch Berger, a brain surgeon and chair of a committee that monitors head injuries for the NFL, doubts the number is that high.
Take the case of Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly.
He suffered a concussion in the season’s opening week and missed the next three games. Inside linebackers get hit — a lot. It’s also true that had Kuechly followed the lead of others and walked away from the game because of concern over head injuries, he would have had to repay nearly all of a $19 million signing bonus on a contract he signed before his concussion.
But if doctors determined he should no longer play, Kuechly would be owed nearly $35 million in guaranteed money.
That’s an awful lot of green stuff.
“I thought my (concussion) was handled as well as it could have been,” Kuechly said. “You know, the (NFL) has the protocol with multiple steps and had different doctors come out and test me. For me, everything that needed to be done was perfect. Our guys did a great job making sure I was good to go without putting any pressure on me. I think the NFL has done a good job at putting a process in place that allows guys to get checked, make sure they get checked and then when they are on the field that they are good to go again.
“I was told that as long as you let it get better and heal, then it is not an issue. I feel great. I feel like there is nothing going on with that, and I think as long as you take care of it, then it shouldn’t be an issue.”
It’s the week of the Super Bowl and Kuechly is a significant player on Carolina’s defense, meaning the odds of him publicly taking any sort of stand against the NFL and its protocol compare to there being no traffic issues around the stadium Sunday.
The same went for Broncos coach Gary Kubiak and quarterback Peyton Manning, who on Wednesday when asked directly about Stabler and CTE, each had fond things to say about the former Raiders star but neither would specifically address the issue.
It was just last year when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league had never been safer. Then this season arrived and the number of head injuries increased by 58 percent.
The press conference today is scheduled to unveil news about things such as a system that objectively identifies concussed patients and provides a method for continued assessment over time; a blood test to aid in the detection of traumatic brain injury; a helmet that boasts an impact absorbing structure that mitigates forces associated with head injuries; an under layer for synthetic turf systems that will make fields safer for players; and a single-impact helmet suspension technology that reduces the force of impact.
It all sounds very impressive and advanced.
But this is also true: Of 91 deceased players whose brains have been studied, 87 suffered from CTE, a condition only diagnosable after death.
Ninety-six percent of them.
That’s not good.
Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on “Seat and Ed” on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Twitter: @edgraney
