When the Redskins hired Bruce Allen to be their new General Manager, he was touted for among other things his political savvy and connections.
Allen will be putting those skills to word on Wednesday, when he participates in a Congressional forum regarding brain injuries and concussions. The team announced Allen’s role earlier this afternoon.
The session, presented by the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force, will discuss the return-to-play guidelines that the league adopted in 2009, after Congress made it clear to the NFL that, if the league didn’t start to address the issue, Congress would do it instead.
The gesture is meaningful not only as it relates to the important issue of concussions and brain injuries, but as to the broader realities of the labor dispute in which the NFL and the players’ union currently is engaged. NFLPA Executive Director De Smith hasn’t been bashful about hyping his own connections; the league needs to be ready to use Allen and anyone else with ties to Congress in response to any attempt by the union to attack the league’s interests through the political process.