NFL Fans Weigh Impact Of Players' Head Injuries

Ed Zurga/AP Fans cheer wildly with a Kansas City Chiefs player at an NFL game against the Oakland Raiders. For many fans, the risky side of football doesn't quell their love of the sport. The NFL season is in high gear — a fact that pleases the roughly 64 percent of Americans who watch football. The season rolls on despite the now constant news about concussions in the sport. The recent TV documentary League of Denial and the book by the same name claim that for years the NFL had denied and covered up evidence linking football and brain damage. Is the concussion conversation challenging this country's deep love for the game? Apparently, not very much. Open a magazine, turn on a TV, and the new NFL ad campaign asks, "Why do you love football?" "It doesn't matter if you're a coach or parent, player or fan. If you love football, now's your chance to tell your story. Go to togetherwemakefootball.com. If you're story's chosen, you could end up at the Super Bowl, just like I did," a boy says in one ad. Whether intended or not, the ads have also helped blunt severe criticism facing the NFL in recent years. There was the massive concussion lawsuit pitting thousands of former players against the NFL — the league's potential liability was enormous. And League of Denial was poised to hit TV screens and bookstores, exposing more darkness. But a week before the season started, the NFL settled the suit. And by the time League of Denial aired last week on PBS, many more football...

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Goleta California: Workers' Comp Office Closing

The workers’ compensation office in Goleta — the only one in the county and open since 1999 — is being closed on November 30 with all of its clients and employees transferred to the Oxnard branch. The state’s Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) announced the decision last month. Decrying the lack of public outreach, the Goleta City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to send a letter to the department opposing the closure and requesting it be postponed until people can weigh in. “It’s really going to be troublesome,” Mayor Roger Aceves said. “We regret any inconvenience,” said DIR spokesperson Peter Melton. “Because [Oxnard is] less than an hour away, the decision was made to merge the offices.” Melton added that the closure is mainly due to the building’s monthly rent — more than $20,000 — and the increased space at the Oxnard office. He added that the Goleta branch — the only one closing right now — is one of the smallest out of the state’s 24, with only one judge and 1,254 hearing requests so far this year. Aceves said he hopes the letter results in a public hearing or perhaps a compromise in which cases are held in Goleta a couple of days per week. There is no word on whether other cities in the county plan on taking similar action. Employees at the Goleta office said they couldn’t comment on the closure. Megan Compton, an attorney for the Santa...

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What we know about football and repetitive brain trauma

Today's post was shared by Mother Jones and comes from www.motherjones.com

Brain tissue images, with tau protein in brown. The brain on the left is from a normal subject, the brain in the middle is from a former football player, and the brain on the right is from a former boxer.Courtesy of the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy. League of Denial, a PBS Frontline documentary about the NFL's response (or lack thereof) to concussions and long-term brain injuries among its players, airs tonight. The investigation attempts to hash out what the league really knew about player safety while it downplayed the ill effects the sport has on its athletes. But what exactly are those effects, and what about them made thousands of former players sue the NFL over their injuries? While the symptoms of a concussion—dizziness, vomiting, memory loss—can be felt immediately, the long-term impacts of repeated brain trauma have been harder to study. Research points to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, as one of the major outcomes. CTE is caused by a buildup of tau, a protein that strangles brain cells and degenerates brain tissue, which is caused by repetitive brain trauma like the hits football players endure. This leads to depression, increased aggression, lack of impulse control, and eventually dementia, which may not manifest until years or even decades after the brain injuries took place. While CTE can only be definitively identified after a patient dies, a pilot study at the University of...

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When It Comes To Brain Injury, Authors Say NFL Is In A 'League Of Denial'

Today's post was shared by The Health Care Blog and comes from www.npr.org

The casket bearing the body of former Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster is surrounded by flowers, after funeral services in Pittsburgh in September 2002. Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru, authors of League of Denial, point to Webster's autopsy as one of the most significant moments in the history of sports.

When the Pittsburgh Steelers won four Super Bowls in the 1970s, you could argue that no one played a bigger role than Mike Webster. Webster was the Steelers' center, snapping the ball to the quarterback, then waging war in the trenches, slamming his body and helmet into defensive players to halt their rush.

He was a local hero, which is why the city was stunned when his life fell apart. He lost all his money, and his marriage, and ended up spending nights in the bus terminal in Pittsburgh. Webster died of a heart attack, and on Sept. 28, 2002, came the autopsy.

"His body ends up in the Allegheny County coroner's office," ESPN investigative reporter Mark Fainaru-Wada tells NPR's David Greene. "And there's a young junior pathologist there named Bennet Omalu. He makes this decision sort of on the spur of the moment to study Mike Webster's brain."

Fainaru-Wada and his brother, Steve Fainaru, have written a new book called League of Denial, which was also turned into a Frontline documentary on PBS. They take an exhaustive look at how the NFL has dealt with allegations that playing football can lead to brain damage. They interviewed...

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Book: NFL denied concussion link to football

Today's post was shared by FairWarning and comes from espn.go.com

Book: NFL Denied Concussion Link The National Football League conducted a two-decade campaign to deny a growing body of scientific research that showed a link between playing football and brain damage, according to a new book co-authored by a pair of ESPN investigative reporters. The book, "League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth," reports that the NFL used its power and resources to discredit independent scientists and their work; that the league cited research data that minimized the dangers of concussions while emphasizing the league's own flawed research; and that league executives employed an aggressive public relations strategy designed to keep the public unaware of what league executives really knew about the effects of playing the game. ESPN The Magazine and Sports Illustrated published book excerpts on Wednesday morning. The NFL's whitewash of the debilitating neurological effects of playing football suffered by players began under former commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who left office in 2006, but continued under his successor, current commissioner Roger Goodell, according to the book written by ESPN investigative reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru. The book, which will be released Tuesday by Crown Archetype, compares the NFL's two decades of actions on health and safety to that of Big Tobacco -- the group of cigarette-making corporations whose executives for years covered up the fact their products contained dangerous, addictive,...

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Some players may be out of NFL deal

Today's post was shared by CAAA and comes from espn.go.com

NFL Concussion Settlement Details New details from the NFL's $765 million proposed concussion settlement reveal that the first players diagnosed with football-related brain damage would be shut out of the deal. And with the number of confirmed brain damage cases growing, some players and attorneys told "Outside the Lines" they fear there isn't enough money to cover all eligible players diagnosed with such injuries. Former players report widespread confusion over who will qualify for compensation and how the money will be distributed. Details described to "Outside the Lines" by sources familiar with the settlement -- along with new statistics on the incidence of football-related brain damage -- underscore the concerns voiced by some players and lawyers: • The proposed settlement disqualifies most players who died before 2006, even if they were diagnosed with football-related brain damage. That would shut out the relatives of players like Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster, who died in 2002 and was later diagnosed with the first case of football-related brain damage. Webster's protracted battle with the NFL raised public awareness and helped ignite the NFL's concussion crisis. A source familiar with the negotiations said the NFL sought to include only death claims that fell within the statute of limitations -- two years in most states. That would have cut out many players who died before 2009 and 2010. As part of the negotiations, representatives of the...

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Thousands of California injury claims made by professional athletes

Professional football injuries have taken the national spotlight as workers' compensation claims are being outlawed and restrcted in many jurisdictions. The path being taken, elimination of insurance coverage, is one that will ultimately result in the elimination of body contact sports. Economic incentives, and the lack of them, direct the business of professional athletes and ultimately the root to a healthier workplace. Today's post was shared by votersinjuredatwork and comes from www.latimes.com

The National Football League’s increasingly visible injury legacy has become a topic of national debate, one that threatens to cast a lasting shadow over the country’s most popular, and profitable, sport. Far less attention has been paid to the physical woes of other athletes, but a review of injury filings in California suggests that professional athletes of all stripes walk away from their sports with nagging and often permanent injuries. Over the past two decades, more than 2,500 claims have been filed by former baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer players against their former teams in California’s workers’ compensation system. In the past six years, more than 940 of them -- among them stars such as two-time baseball most valuable player Juan Gonzalez and basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar -- have made filings alleging serious brain and head injuries. The claims were isolated as part of a Los Angeles Times analysis of more than 3 million filings made to the California Division of Workers’ Compensation. Last month, The Times published a searchable database of claims by football players, and now it's being updated will all other major team sports. Database: workers' comp claims by baseball players Database: workers' comp claims by basketball players Database: workers' comp claims by hockey players Database: workers' comp claims by soccer players Database: workers' comp claims by women's basketball players Although the total...

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Prospect voters choose to abolish Fire Department

Residents of the Village of Prospect voted Tuesday to abolish its Fire Department. The 82-46 vote comes as the village faces possible bankruptcy as it struggles to cope with a 2008 workers compensation claim from a volunteer firefighter that amounts in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. As of 8 a.m. Wednesday, any fire in Prospect will be covered primarily by Barneveld’s department, and also by Remsen, Mayor Fran Righi said. The Prospect fire station likely will become a satellite station. “As of right now, the village owns all their assets,” Righi said of the Prospect Fire Department. “As of 8 a.m., the tones will not sound, we will be changing the locks and taking an inventory.” Late Tuesday afternoon, there was a slow but steady trickle of voters coming to the Prospect Village municipal building to vote. The sky was clear, the scent of wood smoke hung in the air and the clock at the corner of Upper State and Summit streets pointed to high noon. Of the roughly 175 people eligible to vote, 128 cast ballots. Few, however, would disclose to the media their decision. “I’m for the Fire Department,” said resident Kim Fazekas. “I think there is a different solution.” But George Zacek said he had voted to abolish the department. “The way it is structured now, there’s just a small number of families that are liable for every comp case that arises,” he said. “It puts a tremendous burden on the...

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Bill limiting workers' comp claims by athletes is sent to governor

Today's post was shared by Workers Comp Brief and comes from www.latimes.com

Months of heavy lobbying by the National Football League and other professional sports team owners paid off when lawmakers gave final passage to a bill to limit most workers' compensation claims by out-of-state professional athletes. The bill, AB 1309 by Assemblyman Henry T. Perea (D-Fresno), cleared the Assembly on a 66-3 vote and was sent to Gov. Jerry Brown. The governor is expected to sign the bill into law, Perea's office said. Last week, the measure received an overwhelming endorsement in the state Senate with a 34-2 vote. Perea's proposal, which was opposed by the NFL Players' Assn. and the AFL-CIO, would close a provision in California law that allowed players from out of state to file workers' compensation claims for so-called cumulative trauma, including head injuries that manifested themselves years after their careers had ended. Many of those players may have participated in just a handful of games in California over the course of their careers. During the bill's eight-month transit through the Legislature, team owners argued that California had become a de facto forum for claims filed against football, baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer franchises and their insurance companies. Players unions countered that the employers don't want to be responsible for their former workers' head injuries and other ailments. Former athletes have filed more than 4,400 claims involving head and brain injuries since 2006, according to the state workers'... [Click here to see the rest of this post] Related articles State Senate passes bill limiting pro teams' workers' comp liability (workers-compensation.blogspot.com) California bill limiting workers' comp claims by athletes advances (workers-compensation.blogspot.com) California Senate Oks Limits On Workers' Comp For Pro Athletes (insurancejournal.com) The uneven playing field of workers' compensation (workers-compensation.blogspot.com) After Suggested Workers' Comp Rate Hike California Employers Hope Reform Kicks In (insurancejournal.com) Calif. State Senate OKs Limits On Worker Comp For Pro Athletes (sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com)

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State Senate passes bill limiting pro teams' workers' comp liability

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.latimes.com

An effort by the National Football League and owners of other professional sports teams to limit workers' compensation claims by out-of-state athletes is close to final passage in the California Legislature.

The measure cleared the state Senate on Friday on a 34-2 vote. In May, it passed the Assembly, 61-4.

The latest version of the bill is expected to win final passage next week in the Assembly and be on the governor's desk shortly after the scheduled Sept. 13 legislative recess.
Because of its liberally interpreted workplace-injury laws, California has become the de facto forum of last resort for so-called cumulative trauma claims, including head injuries, by retired players. Many of them may have participated in just a handful of games in California over the course of their careers.

The crackdown on a workers' compensation claims by athletes has been the focus of a major lobbying campaign by the National Football League and other pro-sports franchises. Former athletes have filed more than 4,400 claims involving head and brain injuries since 2006.

Claims by athletes represent an estimated potential $1-billion liability for the NFL alone, though they represent only a tiny percentage of all California workers' compensation cases

The bill, AB 1309 by Assemblyman Henry T. Perea (D-Fresno), does not affect players who spent their careers with California-based football, baseball, basketball, hockey or soccer teams.

However, it bans claims from athletes who...

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California bill limiting workers' comp claims by athletes advances

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.latimes.com

An effort by the National Football League and owners of other professional sports teams to limit workers' compensation claims by out-of-state athletes is close to final passage in the California Legislature.

The measure cleared the state Senate on Friday on a 34-2 vote. In May, it passed the Assembly on a 61-4 tally.

The proposal is expected to win final passage next week in the Assembly and to be on the governor's desk shortly after the scheduled Sept. 13 legislative recess.

Because of its liberally interpreted workplace injury laws, California has become the de facto forum of last resort for so-called cumulative trauma claims, including head injuries, by retired players. Many of them may have participated in just a handful of games in California over the course of their careers.

The crackdown on athletes' workers' compensation claims has been the focus of a major lobbying campaign by the NFL and other pro-sports leagues. Former athletes have filed more than 4,400 claims involving head and brain injuries since 2006.

Such claims represent an estimated potential $1-billion liability for the NFL alone.

The bill, AB 1309 by Assemblyman Henry T. Perea (D-Fresno), does not affect players who spent their careers with California-based football, baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer teams.

However, it bans claims from athletes who played for California teams for less than two seasons, and those who played for California teams at least two seasons but spent seven...

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NFL moving closer to using helmet sensors

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from profootballtalk.nbcsports.com

With the NFL’s concussion liability regarding retired players on the way to being extinguished via settlement, the league can now focus on taking additional steps to limit liability to its current and future players. After months of delay, the NFL could soon be putting sensors in helmets. “Our goal is that by midseason we will have some teams geared up,” Kevin Guskiewicz, a University of North Carolina researcher and a member of the NFL’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee, said at a Wednesday event in Baltimore, via USA Today.  “We’re getting close, and I think that we have some teams identified.” The NFL previously had been chasing its tail regarding helmet sensors, with the league referring questions from ESPN regarding the league’s failure to use helmet sensors to Guskiewicz, who was publicly advocating the use of helmet sensors. Guskiewicz spoke openly in June 2012 about giving up on the effort to use sensors if the sensors weren’t used within the coming year.  At that same time, former Steelers receiver and current NBC analyst Hines Ward expressed concern about the approach. “You’re gonna open up a while Pandora’s Box with it,” Ward told ESPN.  “For a doctor to read a computer and tell me how hard I’ve been hit and to pull me out of a game, that won’t sit well with a lot of players.” It won’t, because many players want to try to persuade...

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Brain injuries a big problem for NFL in California

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.aberdeennews.com

By the thousands, professional athletes from around the country are seeking medical care or money through California's workers' compensation system for brain trauma and other injuries suffered on the playing field. Former athletes have filed more than 4,400 claims involving head and brain injuries since 2006 — seven times more than in the previous 15 years, according to a Times analysis of state records. Nearly three-quarters of all new claims made in California now include alleged brain injuries. Most of these claims come from former pro football players, brought by superstars such as Joe Theismann, Tony Dorsett and Earl Campbell, as well as unheralded practice squad players. NFL brain injuries

Workers' Compensation Has Become A Territorial Fight

As the nation's economy continues to struggle for upward movement, workers' compensation has become a political battlefield. Professional athletes have become a target as states attempt to pass legislation to restrict claims from visiting athletes.

"Controversial legislation that would restrict most professional athletes from out-of-state

teams from filing claims in California workers' compensation courts won overwhelming approval Thursday in the state Assembly.

Despite aggressive lobbying by professional football players and other athletes, the bill, AB 1309, passed 61 to 4. The measure now goes to the state Senate.

"Our workers' compensation system has been increasingly exploited by out-of-state professional players at the expense of California teams and all California businesses," said the bill's author, Assemblyman Henry T. Perea (D-Fresno). "The flood of claims are raising insurance costs for all employers."

See the complete article: Assembly OKs workers' comp bill to ban out-of-state athletes

Read more about "athletes" and workers' compensation

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy -- Football Injuries

Football players' disease, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), is again in the news as evidence mounts causally connection contact sport head trauma to the illnesses. 

The study included 35 former NFL (National Football League) players and revealed that 34 had CTE before their death. A class action lawsuit is pending by the NFL players for head trauma injuries.

"CTE is clinically associated with symptoms of irritability, impulsivity, aggression, depression, short-term memory loss and heightened suicidality that usually begin 8–10 years after experiencing repetitive mildtraumatic brain injury (McKee et al., 2009). With advancing disease, more severe neurological changes develop that include dementia, gait and speech abnormalities and parkinsonism. In late stages, CTE may be clinically mistaken for Alzheimer’s disease or frontotemporal dementia (Gavett et al., 2010, 2011). A subset of cases with CTE is associated with motor neuron disease (MND) (McKee et al., 2010)."

Read the complete research article: The spectrum of disease in chronic traumatic encephalopathy 10.1093/brain/aws307

Read more about "football player injuries"

Workers' Compensation: Football Players File Claims for Brain ...

Apr 19, 2010

Football, the sport of humans clashing heads together, is now subject to a growing wave of workers' compensation claims for dementia. Recent studies have shown that football players have suffered head injuries as a result of ...

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

Maryland Awards Washington Redskins Football Player Benefits

Mar 07, 2011

A Maryland Court of Appeals has awarded workers' compensation benefits to Tom Tupa, a Washington Redskins football payer. He was injured while warming-up for a football game to be played at FedEx Field in Landover, ...

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

Workers' Compensation: Bullying Shouldn't Be Taught in Schools

Nov 20, 2011

Wayne Hills varsity football coach Chris Olsen, proving that winning games is more important to him than teaching life lessons, defended nine players charged in the brutal beating of two Wayne Valley students. Actually, Olsen ...

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

The NFL's surprising occupational hazard: obesity that kills

Sep 23, 2011

Most people know that football is dangerous. We see reports of NFL players with every kind of gruesome injury imaginable. Even suicidal depression, it turns out, is a potential hazard of playing football. Of course playing in the ...

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NFL Players Tackling Heart Disease

Many football players are essentially paid to be big—really big—especially those whose job is to block or stop the big guys on the other team.  They also suffer from medical conditions that are work related and claim medical benefits and other benefits available under the Workers' Compensation Act. 

There is a good chance that these players weigh in at sizes that are classified as obese as defined by body mass index (BMI).  In the general population, high BMI generally correlates with high body fat, and we know that high body fat is a risk factor for death (mortality) and heart disease.  Is the same true for elite athletes, for whom high BMI may relate to increased muscularity rather than increased body fat?  What if the athlete plays a position where size simply matters, regardless of whether size is related to muscle or to body fat?   And what happens when former athletes are no longer conditioning at their playing-day levels?  Do professional football players die earlier than or more often from heart disease or cancer than the average American male?   New research from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) helps answer these and other questions.

In 1994, NIOSH published research examining death rates and risk factors for former National Football League (NFL) players.¹  At that time the research was based on all deaths that had occurred through 1991.   After following these players for an additional 16 years, NIOSH has just published new research on the topic in the American Journal of Cardiology.  

The study included 3,439 retired NFL players from the 1959 through 1988 seasons.  The study found that:

• Players had a much lower overall rate of death compared to men in the general U.S. population of similar age and racial mix. On average, NFL players are actually living longer than the average American male. Out of the 3,439 players in the study, 334 were deceased. Based on estimates from the general population, we anticipated roughly 625 deaths.
• Players also had a much lower rate of cancer-related deaths compared to the general U.S. population. A total of 85 players died from cancer when we anticipated 146 cancer-related deaths based on estimates from the general population.
• Players who had a playing-time BMI of 30 or more had twice the risk of death from heart disease compared to other players. Similar findings have been noted in other studies. Offensive and defensive linemen were more likely to have a BMI greater than 30. A BMI of 30 or more is considered obese in the general population whereas a healthy BMI is between 18.5-24.9.
• African American players had a 69% higher risk of death from heart disease compared to Caucasian players.   The study controlled for player size and position and determined that those factors are not the reason for this difference.
• Defensive linemen had a 42% higher risk of death from heart disease compared to men in the general population. A total of 41 defensive linemen died of heart disease, when we anticipated 29 deaths based on estimates from the general population.  Among the 41 defensive linemen who died of heart disease, 8 deaths were due to cardiomyopathy (a specific kind of heart disease that causes the heart to enlarge and can lead to heart failure). We anticipated fewer than two deaths from cardiomyopathy. We saw this increased risk only among the defensive linemen.

Source The NIOSH Science Blog

Read Also: 

Body Mass Index, Playing Position, Race, and the Cardiovascular Mortality of Retired Professional Football Players

"The initial cohort included 3,732 NFL players but 292 players with unknown race and 1 “player” who was actually a trainer were excluded. By the end of follow-up in 2007, the final cohort of 3,439 players contributed 104,776 person-years at risk and 334 deaths. On average the cohort was followed for 26.8 ± 8.7 years (mean ± SD) after retirement from the NFL. For players still alive, the median age at the study end date was 57 years; 60% of the players were white (including 15 Hispanics) and 39% were African-American..."

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