When the House Judiciary Committee conducted last month a hearing regarding, in part, the problem of brain injuries in pro football, the move was interpreted by some (i.e., us) as a Congressional warning shot at the NFL.
The message, as it is in so many cases like this, was that the NFL needs to clean up the perceived mess, or the feds will do it for them.
The league’s effort, per Jay Glazer of FOX, includes two key changes to be implemented by Commissioner Roger Goodell.
“The NFL is implementing a new policy effective immediately,” Glazer reported during the FOX pregame show. “Commissioner Goodell informed every team and every team doctor that they have to go out and find an independent neurologist to work with their medical staff to help on concussion issues, to help guys like Brian Westbrook and Clinton Portis.”
It’s a great move, since it addresses one of the key problems of team-hired doctors who may be serving multiple masters. Previously, the league seemed to take the position that no conflict of interest existed. The use of a truly independent neurologist will remove any actual or apparent issue in this regard.
The league also is collaborating with a separate aspect of the federal government.
“The Department of Defense has reached out to the NFL about the concussion issue and told the NFL that they’re having a very similar problem,” Glazer reports. “The Department of Defense is dealing with the problem of not knowing when soldiers are healthy enough to go back out after suffering from head trauma. The medical staffs of the U.S. Government and the NFL have been trading information for quite some time and two weeks ago General Petraeus and Roger Goodell spoke and updated each other on the issue.”
So regardless of how the NFL has gotten to this point, the league seems to be taking the problem much more seriously.
somebody should tell Ryan ‘head first’ Clark, that helmet to helmut on Charles today is the kind of thing that could mess up both guys heads.
By the NFL doing this DeSmith and the union continue to look foolish with their petty comments.