Web Site Copyright 1995-2023 WGBH Educational Foundation. September 30, STEVE FAINARU: You have the commissioner of the NFL who's being hauled before Congress to answer why his own research arm has been denying since 1994 that football causes brain damage, when everybody from The New York Times to former NFL players, to the respected research scientists are saying, in fact, the opposite is true. In the meantime, we have to do everything we can to advance the game and make sure it's safe. STEVE FAINARU, FRONTLINE/ESPN: It's an extraordinary move under any circumstances. ANN MCKEE, M.D., Neuropathologist, BU CTE Center: I'm really wondering if every single football player doesn't have this. This is an issue." LEIGH STEINBERG: He looked at me and he said, "Leigh, where am I?" JUNIOR SEAU: You have to sacrifice your body. NARRATOR: McHale's addictions spiraled out of control pain killers, cocaine. NEWSCASTER: The NFL will have a new commissioner. In-text: (The FRONTLINE Interview: Dr. Bennet Omalu - League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis - FRONTLINE, 2015) Your Bibliography: FRONTLINE. STEVE FAINARU: The room is dark because Aikman can't even stand looking into the light. NARRATOR: The head of Goodell's concussion committee, Dr. Ira Casson, took on the critics. NARRATOR: And there was one other surprise. LEIGH STEINBERG: For a minute, I thought he was joking. JANE LEAVY: The attitude is so careful about that this is a person that's being delivered into their care. So yes, I think that was probably what was driving the suggestion that "Let's have NIH get involved.". NARRATOR: For Iron Mike, TV interviews became impossible. MARK FAINARU-WADA: I think the NFL has done an incredible job at marketing itself and turning itself into a spectacle, a sort of cultural part of our lives. STEVE YOUNG: If my knee is hurt, everyone knows it and I know it, and we can go deal with it, and shoulders. MICHAEL ORIARD, Center, Kansas City Chiefs, 1970-73: The way the game is played, I don't see how you can eliminate all of those routine hits that linemen make every play. How are teams handling their injuries? And he said, "I used to be." So we continued talking again. ANN McKEE, M.D., Neuropathologist, BU CTE Center: They were convinced it was wrong, and I felt that they were in a very serious state of denial. El Al Flight 1862 Victims List . LISA McHALE, Wife: Restlessness, irritability and discontent describe Tom to a T today, but no way is it anywhere near the man I had known and the man I had been married to for years. And there's only one place in your body that you really don't understand. That was the message, "Don't worry about it. STEVE FAINARU: Just as they're finishing up the autopsy, the chaplain comes walking into the room and he says, literally, "Houston, we have a problem." They insinuated I was not practicing medicine, I was practicing voodoo. NARRATOR: In the 1970s, Webster anchored four Super Bowl championship teams. PETER KEATING: The threat was that the doctors and trainers, neuropsychologists, maybe owners, maybe commissioners and ex-commissioners, were going to have to testify under oath as to what they knew and when. He's truly a legend, and he will be with us forever. Dr. BENNET OMALU: And the NFL doctor at some point said to me, "Bennet, do you know the implications of what you're doing?" I was scared. (2013 . PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. He's, like, "What are you talking about? He's a rheumatologist. Log in or create an account. But what you should know now is your child could develop a brain injury as a result of playing football. She showed up uninvited to a league meeting about caring for retired players. Find an answer to your question Create a reference page by citing the following sources in correct APA format. And one of his colleagues said, "It's Mike Webster. NARRATOR: The commissioner initiated a series of new rules designed to protect players from concussions. Let's be clear. compliance manager Jay Fialkov . UNV 503. I had no idea that she was a super football fan. ANNOUNCER: Next, League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis. PRODUCED BY . pbs frontline special league of denial apa citation Mizzou Softball Tickets , Keyboard Shortcut To Extract Zip File Windows 10 , Ucsd Ece 153 , Is Dumpster Diving Illegal In Zanesville Ohio , My Costa Learning Login Page , Burlington Coat Factory Jeffrey Epstein , STAN SAVRAN: People liked the violence of it. STADIUM ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, here to present the Vince Lombardi Trophy, the commissioner of the National Football League, Roger Goodell. I'm just going to show them what I have. NARRATOR: Casson insisted there was no evidence that football players were at risk for CTE. Dr. ROBERT CANTU: Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a disease, a progressive neuro-degenerative disease, where the end stage leaves tau protein deposition in distinctive areas of the brain, in distinctive locations that separate this disease from any other, like Alzheimer's or some other dementia. You know, that changes the game to me. Dr. ANN McKEE: Because the way football is being played currently that I've seen, it's dangerous. NARRATOR: At home, there were bouts of rage. I mean, we're going to present her findings. NARRATOR: Dr. McKee has now examined the brains of 46 former NFL players. You didn't need the trial to know that there was something wrong there. Dr. McKee had read Dr. Omalu's research, but she wanted to see for herself. NARRATOR: Dr. Feuer insists Dr. McKee is mistaken about how she was treated. NARRATOR: Fitzsimmons pulled together Webster's complicated medical history. But from a neurological standpoint, you're going to have you're going to have some brain trauma. He's clearly distressed by what he's hearing. ROGER GOODELL: Let me address your first question. 2015. Each time that happens, it's around 20G or more. Morgan Stanley helps people, institutions and governments raise, manage and distribute the capital they need to achieve their goals. What time is it? "Did I play well?" You love 'em wild and woolly, and you're seeing it now. If the business is potentially lethal, then that's going to have major implications for the game. ANNOUNCER: Speaking of color commentators. And you know, that's the way it is. FRED SMERLAS, Buffalo Bills, 1979-89: Well, Webby would hit you with his head first. Who is this guy who doesn't know Mike Webster in Pittsburgh?". Dr. ANN McKEE: Those sub-concussive hits, those hits that don't even rise to the level of what we call a concussion, or symptoms, just playing the game can be dangerous. He said, "No, you don't." The program averages approximately 1.5 . So they're basically paying around $120 million per game. PAM WEBSTER: He took a knife and slashed all his football pictures. CHRIS NOWINSKI: As long as the NFL dismissed this, that meant that parents were signing their kids up to go play football, believing that there was no risk. ANNOUNCER: a sight that is the last thing in the world the 49ers would want to see. The National Football League, a multibillion-dollar commercial juggernaut, presides over Americas indisputable national pastime. ANNOUNCER: [ABC "Monday Night Football," 1970] O.J. And they were trying to fight back. MARK FAINARU-WADA: They were saying, "Football caused this. Whether she wanted us to start you know, I don't know where she's coming from on that. ROGER GOODELL: and all the Steelers fans, congratulations on your sixth world championship! It's only for players. NEWSCASTER: It is hard to find a former pro football player whose body hasn't paid a very high price. Michael Kirk & Mike Wiser and Steve Fainaru & Mark Fainaru-Wada. You know, you really treat it with the utmost respect. PETER KEATING, Reporter, ESPN: The closer you look, the less this holds up. I mean, you know, it was part of life. NARRATOR: Such an advanced case of CTE had never been found in such a young person. PAM WEBSTER, Wife: Mike wasn't Mike. The Chegg Writing APA citation generator will show you the elements, guides formats. NARRATOR: The news that day would start a chain of events that would threaten to forever change the way Americans see the game of football. But the little mini-concussions are just as dangerous because you might be sustaining six to ten, maybe a dozen of these hits during the course of a game. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Park Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen. The ruling by a U.S. judge ends a legal battle that has threatened to undercut the nation's adoration for professional football and sparked a debate about whether the sport on any level is worth the risk to players. Dr. ANN McKEE: We have an enormously high hit rate. He was a philanthropist, beloved in his community. ANN McKEE, M.D., Neuropathologist, BU CTE Center: A CBS reporter wanted to know what I thought of the gift of a million dollars. It's still wild and woolly, and I love 'em that way! 100%. Dr. ANN McKEE: There were NFL players out there that were talking to their wives and saying, "I think this might be something." He said, "OK, I'll tell you." MARK FAINARU-WADA, FRONTLINE/ESPN: The tau is effectively closing in around the brain cells and choking them. Neither Dr. Apuzzo, Dr. Pellman, nor Commissioner Tagliabue would speak to FRONTLINE about the papers. NARRATOR: Now Goodell was fully in charge of the league's handling of the concussion crisis. ", Dr. HENRY FEUER: I you know,I don't know why she feels that way. NARRATOR: For Nowinski, the issue of CTE is personal. Be sure to include an APA-style reference for each article. NARRATOR: She'd spent years trying to get help from the NFL and its players association. Not long after her trip to Tampa, Dr. McKee received a phone call. Correct the in-text citation in the sentence below. PAM WEBSTER: I think he was embarrassed. I mean, it was a loud just, "No, not you. What possible motive? NEWSCASTER: Tagliabue will be succeeded by Roger Goodell. LEIGH STEINBERG, Sports Agent: It became an entertainment show. Stubblefield was there first. You know that that brain is supposed to be pristine. Dr. ANN McKEE: We have examined thousands of brains, and this is not a normal part of aging. Steve Fainaru NARRATOR: The NFL doctors insisted Dr. Omalu was misunderstanding the science of brain injury. The FRONTLINE investigation details how, for years, the league denied and worked to refute scientific evidence that the violent collisions at the heart of the game are linked to an alarming incidence of early onset dementia, catastrophic brain damage, and other devastating consequences for some of footballs all-time greats. Just a few blocks from NFL headquarters, the commissioner had another problem. NARRATOR: But away from the glamorized hits, there was a darker side. December 15, STAN SAVRAN: That just fit perfectly into the way they saw their own lives and what they had to be in order to survive. In a special two-hour investigation, FRONTLINE and prize-winning journalists Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada of ESPN reveal the hidden story of the NFL and brain injuries, drawn from their book League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth (Crown Archetype, October 2013). (2013). Soon he and his family would come to believe those hits to the head had taken a devastating toll. NARRATOR: The league had its own doctor review Webster's case. I want to know, what are you doing now? NARRATOR: NFL doctors say the decision was made purely in the interest of science. NARRATOR: One week later, the commissioner made the league's position clear. "It means you're going to the Super Bowl.". League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions, and the Battle for Truth is a 2013 work of investigative nonfiction by brothers Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru. IRA CASSON, M.D., Co-Chair, MTBI Committee, 2007-09: No. The NFL wants to keep pushing these questions into the future, keep the discoveries going, make it seem like these questions that still need to be resolved are things that the league is working with doctors and researchers on. Dr. ANN McKEE: I was fully prepared to see nothing. A new study is the first of its kind to show an association between early exposure to repetitive head impacts and structural brain changes later in life. And Webster felt he'd never received the acknowledgment that his years in the NFL had caused his problems. longan tree california I mean, your money's gone. STEVE FAINARU: And so it's becoming almost impossible for the NFL to ignore it. NEWSCASTER: ABC News and ESPN have learned exclusively Seau's brain, NEWSCASTER: visible signs of CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. MARK FAINARU-WADA, FRONTLINE/ESPN: Webster ends up in the autopsy room. PETER KEATING, ESPN Reporter: Good PR is one part of the NFL strategy. NARRATOR: He'd lost millions of dollars gambling. ROBERT STERN, Ph.D., Neuropsychologist, Boston University: In football, one has to expect that almost every play of every game and every practice, they're going to be hitting their heads against each other. NARRATOR: Over the years, he became increasingly confused. CTE has dragged me into the politics of science, the politics of the NFL. NARRATOR: For Dr. McKee and others, it raised the obvious question. LEIGH STEINBERG: The damage was occurring every week. Ah! And in the last year-and-a-half to two years before he died, he couldn't even walk anymore. GUULEED MUUMIN UNV 504 Week 2 APA Activity 1 and 2.doc. An investigation of the health crisis threatening NFL players and the long-term fortunes of football. CHRIS NOWINSKI: And I said, "There's something really wrong with me." For FRONTLINE, ESPN and in their own book, they've been investigating how the NFL has handled evidence that football may be destroying the brains of NFL players. And especially when you're learning the thing, you know, you fall on your head a lot. Educational DVDs ofLeague of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisisare available from ShopPBS. You only get one brain. And I had people who I loved and cared for. Once his career was over, McHale ran a successful chain of restaurants. MARK FAINARU-WADA: Roger Goodell's on notice. NARRATOR: Nowinski made the hard calls, asking families to donate the brain of a deceased loved one. JULIAN BAILES, M.D., Team Physician, Steelers, 1988-97: Well, Mike Webster exemplified what it was like to be a player in the Steel City and a player in that era that for me was the greatest team of all time. At the time, it was something the league would not admit publicly. There was great doubt. Michael Kirk. NARRATOR: From the beginning, the league's board was skeptical, reluctant to give Webster money. NARRATOR: Former Steelers team doctor and neurosurgeon Julian Bailes had become a true believer in CTE and Omalu. It was a hard message, a difficult message, a bad message, but it appeared to be true. And thank you for coming.". MARK FAINARU-WADA: _Monday Night Football_ it's not just for football fans. ", STEVE FAINARU: The message was that football is safe to your brain. If 10% of mothers in this country would begin to perceive football as a dangerous sport, that is the end of football. KEVIN GUSKIEWICZ, Ph.D., NFL Head, Neck and Spine Cmte. It's dangerous and it could impact their long-term mental health. STEVE FAINARU: One of his mantras was to "protect the shield," the NFL shield, to protect the integrity of the game. NARRATOR: And Tagliabue said he was skeptical about the risk from concussions, once calling the controversy the result of "pack journalism.". Nearly four in five football players examined by one of the nation's leading brain banks tested positive for the disease now at the center of the debate over concussions in football. I mean, you know, that would be extraordinary with any other disease, to be able to pull in that many cases just that were suspected. The meek will never inherit this turf because every play is hand-to-hand and body-to-body combat! 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