Fans and commentators often use shorthand to describe injuries to athletes - a strained anterior cruciate ligament is boiled down to "a knee injury." If only the same rule of thumb were used for brain injuries - known by the vague term "concussions" – then maybe the National Football League would finally take them more seriously.
The evidence is large and growing that concussions take a vast long-term toll on NFL players. A University of North Carolina study of 2,500 former players found evidence suggesting fully 10 percent suffered from depression, blurred vision and slurred speech resulting from brain injuries.
Yet Commissioner Roger Goodell – with the baffling cooperation of the NFL players union – continues to allow players who suffer concussions to practice the very next day, contradicting neurologists who advise extreme caution when dealing with brain injuries.
Unfortunately, ESPN – the media behemoth which largely defines the image of the NFL, its corporate partner – is a silent partner in this barbarism. After a replay of a vicious hit which injured the brain of Buffalo quarterback Trent Edwards on Sunday, some of ESPN's announcers seemed to find Edwards' dazed look almost comic.
ESPN should be ashamed of its blitheness about concussions. So should the NFL.
