Veteran Super Bowl quarterback Kurt Warner is speaking out about concussions in the NFL.
In his 12-year career in the NFL, Warner has suffered countless hits and a few concussions, but was determined to keep playing through it all. The former Arizona Cardinal says:
“I don’t think anybody came up to me and said, ‘Well you have to play whether you’re 100 percent or not, we need you.’ Nobody said anything like that. But you wondered if guys were looking at you a little differently and saying … he’s not being tough.”
But how tough is too tough?
Dr. Bennet Omalu is a co-director of the Brain Injury Research Institute and was the first to describe chronic traumatic encephalopathy (let’s just call that CTE) in American football players discovering brain damage in young players with a history of concussion.
The damage resembles dementia and is associated with problems like memory loss, rage, depression, and suicide!
The doctor says the issue does not strictly apply to concussions, but to repeated blows to the head as well and that under current NFL policy CTE will be “epidemic”.
Epidemic? This sounds serious!
He believes the answer is to shift the leagues policy on players returning to the field from a concussion to a minimum of 3 months, similar to a player returning from a fractured leg, saying:
“A concussion is similar to a fracture. It damages brain cells. Don’t you think it’s counterintuitive if you keep a player out for months for a leg fracture that you would do the same for a person who sustains a fracture of their brain cells?”
Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, co-chair of the NFL’s Head Neck and Spine Medical Committee, ├óΓé¼┼ôstrongly disagrees├óΓé¼┬¥ with Omalu├óΓé¼Γäós three month policy suggestion because it├óΓé¼Γäós ├óΓé¼┼ôarbitrary and lacking in scientific data.”
It sounds like the issue is a big debate not only in the medical and scientific realm, but the NFL as well.
Since retiring and taking an outside look in on the debate, Warner seems to share Omalu’s controversial sentiment, adding:
“I think it’s going to take a whole culture change from top to bottom to say our No. 1 priority is the player. I think it really needs to be something that the groundwork is laid and everybody understands that’s the No. 1 thing. That it’s not money and it’s not how far you go in the playoffs.”
While the debate rages on, what do U think? Does Warner’s unique player perspective shed some light on the issue or are medical professionals blowing the issue out of proportion?
