Essay On Concussions

In 1994, after concussion injuries to start such as Steve Young and Troy Aikman, the NFL Commissioner at the time, Paul Tagliabue, established the Mild Traumatic Brian Injury Committee. The committee consisted of NFL team doctors whose aim to conduct comprehensive clinical and biomechanical research on mild traumatic brain injuries. Although the committee was originally established in 1994, it wasn’t until October of 2003, after Dr. Omalu’s findings, that the committee released its first scientific study. Furthermore, the MTBI committee concluded that concussions had no long-term health effects, which was contradictory to Dr. Omalu’s findings. This wouldn’t be the last time that the MTBI committee contradicted or discredited research conducted

McKee and other researchers presented their findings to congress in 2009, the NFL has changed the way it researches and addresses CTE concerns. Later that year, during an interview with The New York Times, NFL Spokesman Greg Aiello stated “it’s quite obvious from the medical research that’s been done that concussion can lead to long-term problems.” This is one of the first times the league would admit that concussions and brain injuries have long-term impact on players. Admitting that there was a problem was one of the first steps in overhauling their approach to CTE research. Towards the end of that year, there was a shake up in the MTBI committee. The lead researchers, Dr. Ira Casson and Dr. David Viano resigned from the committee and Dr. Hunt Batjer along with Dr. Richard Ellenbogen were appointed as the new leads. In addition to shaking up the MTBI, the NFL used independent researchers and institution for a lot of their investigation on CTE going forward. Donating $1 million to independent institutions such as Dr, Mckee’s Center for the Study of Traumatic encephalopathy, an institution which they discredited in prior years. Overall, the NFL has pledged at least $30 million to fund research in brain trauma and to fund initiatives that promote safety and concussion’s in youth football. Consequently, the change in approach by the NFL and the amount of funds given demonstrates that the NFL is now addressing CTE has a real problem and is looking to outside researchers to make advances in CTE research. Although, comparatively to their early approach, the NFL is making strides in addressing the issues in terms of use money to fund research and make the game safer, there is still a disconnect inis strides to making the game safer then players there is still a lot more in terms of what the NFL can do monetarily to address CTE.