Dallas had beaten the San Francisco 49ers to play in the super bowl the city was celebrating detroits suffered a concussion jebus sitting in a dark room in the hospital and looked at me and said where am i . I said you were in the hospital and had a concussion. Did i win the game . Did i play today . What does that mean . Were going to the super bowl into a tent. Five minutes later he lifted me and said where am i . Why am i here . Did we win the game . I almost thought he was joking. This went on 10 minutes later finally i wrote down and up piece of paper and it terrified me and it was a crisis of conscience because if my work with athletes was to enhance their lives then how was a constant how could i enable the players to do an activity that with the touche dementia lead to dementia . Dementia. So, we issued a white paper and not much changed. We did it again in 2005 at the institute and then we have robert and kevin and a whole series that have been with me on this from the start. They had don come to studies ano they told us three or more conversations and exponentially higher risks of alzheimers, parkinsons and chronic traumatic encephalopathy and depression. So i called it a ticking timebomb and academic. So every time they hit the defense of linemen at the inception of a football play, it produces a lowlevel sub concussion hit. So you could have an offense of linemen walkout after playing the High School Pro football with 10,000 hits none of which had been diagnosed and none of which the aggregate will certainly do much worse than the three knockout blows. And so what has changed . We do baseline testing, we have better diagnostic techniques. But the bottom line is that its not healthy and 50 of the mothers actually knew what this concussion crisis leads to. They can play any sport but not tackle football and the socioeconomics of football with change. It would be impoverished people who knew they were going to get brain damage. So i had been working and this protects against the Skull Fracture but there is a compression system weve been working on all sorts of ways ultimately that will help us but thank god for these gentlemen because it was lovely for year after year. They studied medicine at the university of guadalajara and was a room of her rheumatologist and he had his studies and research. Now i am not a doctor mac but i dont think that rheumatology is the brain. [laughter] and what they told him over and over again was there is no risk from concussion and no longterm effects. One doesnt leave to another and thats what they told the players. So, one last thing, you have to stick against the culture of the health of denial that all athletes have. They are taught to ignore pain. Real men dont get locked out of the lineup, dont complain. We would have known sooner about this if they would have been honest and if they understood what it was that they were suffering from. I had the players so if you and i see longterm health is the biggest parity and after that would come again an the game anr that one play in the priorities they would turn on their head. Its display. So you get athletic denial and young men deny a. Its difficult. None of my athletes have been happy with the way that ive spoken out. And by their book especially if you have kids who are thinking about coalition sports. You play in the National Football league. Take us inside of a typical game in the hit along the battle line of scrimmage. How violent is it and were you ever aware of the potential danger from concussion aqwex. I am a historian and im someone who thinks very deeply about issues. He brings up a couple Different Things about the impoverished communities and the idea that sports like football and basketball or other ways out of poverty and not just for the individual but to communities and families and so this issue is going to have an impact on people. They are big into the industries and we all acknowledge that and recognize that and so we understand its escalated into the ground because more people of disposable income to attend and follow their favorite athlete and if you were a kid wants to be with them and so the marketing of the nfl has made this not an impossible kind of quest that we are up against much more than just educating them about the future of their bodies and their minds if they pursue sports in this particular way. So there is something here to the culture that has to be recognized that will make this a difficult task. From the standpoint of somebody that played High School College professional football i think that the ways in which we are groomed as athletes do not just suffer through pain or injury but to have a Common Objective is to be supportive of the teams intention. You want to suck it up because it is for the team and that is how we have been conditioned into our supposed to represent your manliness even at the age of ten. So that is a social conditioning. We also have to address and understand what does it mean if you are 10yearsold. The fans are trying to do the same thing so from that standpoint you have to address these issues not from a former athletes that played in the nfl but when you are a free agent and as someone whos tried to secure positions on the roster. You have to continue to play foggy headed or not and so from leighs standpoint your health and future and life, livelihood, all those factors play a role and you make the decision whether to speak up and say coach, i cant go. When you think about the rookie behind you who wants to be in the position that you ar of youg six figures every year that the difficult decision to make and so you suck it up. I enjoyed the game. But when i go back and visit and i had forgotten on the charge you get from being in that space is a limited space if youve been there before you want people to think about you because you are in that space and able to perform. We know the names and the guys and you can imagine in my household with my two children and my life we think about these things and we have to because as stated at the defensive end in my career playing in the coalition and so every play you are sustaining these jarring as of the brain over the tenyear period including training camps. So you have whatever it is that we are trying to understand and escalate at some point if it will. So its not every one that has the same results as some of these other men whove passed away. Finally, the other thing i want to say is on that moment in 1988 they played against ucla in the rose bowl. Oregon state didnt win a lot of games in the 80s. To play at the rose bowl someone like troy aikman. There was a roster of future nfl Football Players and so we got wired to play this game and i beat of the offense of tackle bad. Iran today thai ran the way thae supposed to. [laughter] the way that we are taught to play the game. You dont run up and say youre it. You make the play. You make sure that hes down. But i didnt think about that until now because we have a highlight film and think about the greatest hits we have a highlight film that represented the play for the Football Team so imagine being responsible for the play and reflecting on it thinking about the person that was on the ground. So, not everybody i think will be able to do that because if it is a part of the game, you dont necessarily think o about those individuals that you are playing against. Youre doing your job but when you know the people, it is a difficult thing to revisit because you hand in what they are experiencing today. There were a group of people that became much more prominent and came to be known as the dissenters willing to take on the nfl and one made a comment that if only half of the mothers in america understood what was at stake for the young boys they wouldnt let them play football. That was ten or 12 years ago when the statement was made. Have you seen in terms of the numbers of kids playing the game have you seen an impact in that area yet . There is a scene in the above query there is the neuropathologist mike webster presenting data to the longtime neurological specialist for the Pittsburgh Steelers and that guy in the middle of the meeting pause and said do you really understand what youre doing, and he said yes i think i get it. And then he just sort of moved on and she said i want to ask you again do you understand what youre doing and he said i think so but why dont you tell me and he said 10 of the mothers in america belief that football causes brain damage and that is the end of football. And i think what we are seeing now we did a story about a year or so ago about the participation rates and they dropped something on the order of 10 since this issue went before congress and became a Public Health issue about their own kids or about what they believe the potential impact of this and should you let your kids play and say the risk is too great. The question is to me what does that mean longterm and does it mean to theater system to the nfl is going to dissipate to the extent that it will affect the league. And my personal opinion is that it is going to be decades before we know it is ultimately going to be the science that decides the question that if the prevalence at the rate of the cte among Football Players is a huge number that is obviously going to have a seismic effect on the sport but we are not there yet. Before we really know, its not about waiting for that the r in one fashion. I think that its instructive to look at the way that the nfl has marketed the issue over time. For years the marketing was all about the balance of the sport that was basically you could go back and see their greatest hits and it was all about the hardest hits that you could see and be e have microphones on the field and it was visceral and you felt it. Now it has really shifted and it seems to be torn because the violence is what compels him of people to love the sport and buy one of those people that enjoys it and i think while its true it is an appealing piece of it, the league is grappling with this issue now and what its begin to do is market itself towards mothers and we addressed this in the book and then we have done some followup reporting on it where they have collectively gone after moms and brought them into the nfl headquarters and tried to sort of educate them about how the sport can be safer and they have created a whole program called headsup football which is designed to suggest theres a way to play the sport without having vote. Thats the idea supposedly that we need to go back to the way in which the sport was played in a safer manner and when you talk as we did about the former players of the program you hear a lot of guys that are skeptical because the suggestion that if you watch the way that the game is played at the speed that its played and the level, no matter where the suggestion that you can figure out a way to navigate your head out of a play seems fairly ludicrous. Nevertheless they are pouring a lot of money into that issue and i think thats where they are seeing that decrease. When you carry this news about the potential danger of the concussion from the players standpoint, do they want to know are the implications and possible . Spinet i would like to say a word about the question that you asked. First of all this is not just a pro football issue if the collision sports issue is a college and high school issue. When it comes to get the second thing i would say the brain is still in formation when kids are nine, ten to 11, 12 you can still get hit wrong and enough times. I love football and i spent 40 years working with the biggest stars but understand this. The nielsen rating on television were nfl nighttime football. It neveits never happened befo. This country is so crazed that football in america which is a pregame show. It will start every form of entertainment so it is not only the most popular sport by 21, it is the most Popular Television show. 40 Million People a week play the football. The estimates are 20 of the computers in use during last season and businesses were used for fantasy football. So youre talking about an obsession that we all have and after the nfl football, second, College Football. Because the concussion settlement hasnt been approved totally, we dont really know what the nfl would do if they were not worried about the liability that would come from them instituting new things showed that they actually knew a long time ago. So, we will see. I tried to get all of our older players to get scans to charge thchartthe blood flow and then t thing that we know right now which in the first hour starts to read Growth Capital areas after 40 hours. Players havent changed at all. I would explain everything to them. Then rodders berger got a concussion and i said so, you understand that the risk of you getting a second concussion in the next game is much higher, right . You understand the two of them in close temporal proximity is a perfect their logical storm and the reason steve had to retire. So do you get that this isnt going to make a difference in your season . And then i went to his mother and his father and because they are my best allies it is us against, and he played. He played in the game and i have not seen very much change at all the bible taught you this when i saw patrick retire after years at the top of his game, we are going to start seeing this manifest while players are playing and people start having a symptomatology and the 1012. Its not going to take 20 years so thats why we are sitting on top of an epidemic as the strong players that hit has changed. You didnt have i had a player for the cardinals. He weighed 375 pounds and he could run a sub 540. [laughter] what is the reaction that you get when you talk to former players and they are aware of this issue and you even get to the mindset earlier of how important it is to stay in the game. How willing do you feel that a player would be to a growing understanding of the risks of concussion . I think that they would be inundated with information and some are accepting of information and it is telling you that there is a great possibility that you are altering your life and the more hits but you sustain and if you receivreceived concussions and e in a position where thats kind of on par for the course, you are going to do damage for your self and if they are paying attention and if there is any information being circulated then there should be a genuine concern. From the former players in atlanta there are these lawsuits im learning that they are coming together to see the teams and kansas city in particular theres a question about how much was known and a number of guys have several concussions and so the families are concerned that eventually they will experience what we have seen with the junior i think the older players are now more concerned about the potential outcome of this and the current players are aware of it, but i am not clear necessarily of the percentage that are moving towards pushing for regulations or pushing to retire early. We had a great time talking in the green room and the idea is retiring at this point because of his feet, thats one thing. But i think theres Something Else we have to understand because there is so much available right now if you play out in the contracts you dont necessarily have to go back and play again unless he wants to especially if you have a life plan if you figure out im going to spend five years playing in the nfl and i will retire 27, 28 and going to get my degree and practiced law for th released 2s after im done playing then i start a business so you have been strategically thinking about the play its going to shorten that they have so much money they can move on but the injuries that while in ker ad kerr over that time. Have i helped concussions and one on the kickoff return and one window waiting for the return im looking back at him waiting to pick it up so that i can turn and leave the ledge and turning automatically having the guy in front of me but on the sidsign mine was loopy. But stayed in the game and so trying to answer the amount of money its a very lucrative occupation that if you make the choice to pursue it you can say im going to play five years and then i am out. We want to invite questions from all of you so we would like your youtube work your way to the microphone so you can also hear the question gives your name and go ahead and wrecked your question please. My name is tony from the league and just about everybody. It appears that the game has changed the way that its being played. Its just a totally different pace and they started increasing exponentially. It has the game changed the way they play it up to the 60s versus later on. It was bigger, stronger, faster if you have linebackers. That is these human beings and so its a Traffic Accident on every play. When they gave the presenting speech at the hall of fame he gave a brilliant speech, it was wonderful and he now has dementia. You gave a great state. 1970 usa merger and so now it is a commodity and it is commercialized on television audience. So if it wasnt geared up to be exciting if wouldnt have been on television and so you are playing into your audience as well and so having the time constrainta timeconstraints andy to sell to a National Audience that accelerates the importance of football and kids like me who watch it as a kid to want to be like those guys on television and so if you are watching in the 90s and you are playing you want to make a hit like your favorite defenses on the receiver who caught the ball blindly so what we are seeing on television. We have the Space Program that we lost a lot of astronauts but we got communications and other products and weve had military but we lost a lot of people but we got the interstate system and because the internet. Is it causing more research leading to more cures and benefits . Theres a huge race going on to see who can be the first to develop, and again it just protects against the Skull Fracture that the use the compression to attenuate the energy field so that it dissipates and will also be used for for motorcyclists, bicycles and everything. So yes the research being done to provide a nasal spray that stops the brain from spoiling. Theres a posttraumatic brain injuries and they are looking at things like progesterone, treatments to heal the brain so you have these different opportunities but whether or not it is the mission of something these types of particles would be available on the sideline so to have the opportunity to test the protocols it would be for football, hockey, soccer so you are correct there is an opportunity we have a stopgap right now do we admit this one along term effect if it will what can we do to help heal the brain. Theres hundreds of millions of dollars to be made out of preventing a concussion, healing compassion, i consult for a few companies that are there. Its like the first person that gets their come a concussion, alzheimers, i went to a Six Companies on stem cells that are approved and i went and visited one and they are three to five years away from being able to insert the stem cell because theres profit if we can send a man to mars we cant make a helmet protects people at all . Engineers, profit motive. Good evening gentlemen. This question is for mr. Steinberg as an attorney and a sports agent do you anticipate as the researchers become more accepted and understood in the community and the nfl did you anticipate a guaranteed money of contracts increase coming for to help players with those liabilities and help them offset the liabilities . They agree to accept the settlement in the 975 million. 975 ilion dollars might have been closer to actually dealing with the incredible pain and the rest of it. Be older players have common grief right now and they want the money, so it is the same reason that they took 55 of the growth they were making in the last one. We are not talking about players off the field are not the advanced workers party. They are non label activists that they think about now and all the rest of it. The guarantees are going up in football because we have a salary cap and so they are starting to guarantee some salaries for the first time until the last couple of years only the signing bonus was guaranteed in the football contract and that years of play were not guaranteed. Baseball and basketball were completely guaranteed so they could cut players at any time for any reason. We are getting a few more guarantees. I watch more college than nfl but i do see them doing concussion checks and im wondering if you feel that is very effective in preventing further injury in the game. There is certainly more awareness around this issue and they have put in place an increased level of eyes in the sky basically people that are watching out for this and so youll see circumstances they will come off the field and maybe the players are even more attentive to talk about this. They just want to play and to stay on the field. In College Football if thats test that they do is positive, they dont come back on the field until they are tested further. That is the way the policy is supposed to work. There is a suggestion they go to the sideline and in six minutes so thats where the challenge is increased and its especially challenging the dynamic i always said i think the hardest job beyond actually playing the game to they are serving the impossible role. They try to get on as fast as they can because they are played by the team and yet they are trainers into so they are supposed to be responsible for the health and welfare of the players and as if it is an impossible job to deal with and so they speak around the country and have all of the new technologies and companies write their. They are trying like mad to get a better way to diagnose the sideline khan cautions so that again the freemarket system is allowing that to happen. But remember unless you are laid out flat on your back and you dont get up quick, its almost hard to see if you are on the sidelines what just happened. So, we are detecting this as of this. My name is melanie and i will admit it comes from the league of denial as my nephews were playing High School Football so this might be a naive question that wasnt if they are able to detect the concussions now why cant the nfl just say we will not let a player come on before a certain amount of time since the players clearly are not going to take their own interest into that . That is what is this to happen. Theres a protocol and they are diagnosed with a concussion they have to go through a series of tests to determine whether his levels are back in the place in which he is essentially ready to perform again. The players talked about basically cheating the test to get a lower score they come back and do the baseline and again they just want to play. Its interesting there is now a technology where the helmet sensors can be implanted to detect the number of hits that are occurring and the amount that are being generated into these sensors have been used by some colleges like North Carolina for a decade now and theyve accumulated in our mass amount of data and so he is also an adviser at the nfl for a period of years now and just a couple of weeks ago they announced again that they are not going to use them and the reality is that if they did use than they would immediately know a lot of information about the amount of force that is being generated on the field and how many times people are getting hit in the head and its kind of a nobrainer but they dont seem to want it and the players dont want it because they dont want that information to be used in contract negotiations with so where does that leave you he want to get to the bottom . They took a college game two seasons ago and there is a presence of the marker in the blood. They found that in a game with no concussions, no diagnosed concussions 70 had the marker which is a precursor to the longterm injury. Lets go back over here. I was an athletic trainer mike question is about the contestant injuries we dont see that much about the injuries and what they are and to me thats the real problem talking with the coach in different ways we could practice and different ways that we could go without taking the hit and learning to tackle because ive been educated and ive done the impact testing and i know how to do those tests and how to read the results but how do kids and parents interact in these things and how come there isnt more coming from the injuries. [laughter] i think one issue is theres a lot of debate over what these actually mean. But i think that there is a we agree that there is a larger question here which is if the sub concussion is the issue you really cannot eliminate this problem without eliminating the sport and so we are not advocating that it gets to this question of prevalence again and what sort of dosage and how many hits do you need and if it turns out that huge numbers of people are getting this and we are going to be facing a question and answer to your question is an issue that is being pushed especially by Boston University that the cases havent been diagnosed and there are questions about what role do they play exactly and are they really is that where this is starting and spreading or is it Something Different . From the nfl perspective of course they love the fact that this is not a conversation right now and frankly because it is the definition of the sport it is the coalition but i think if you noticed they can only handle this in so many ways that are basically saying football is a problem and so the answer is we are going to legislate all of the huge and the hard hits that you see because thats what we can do and that is what it looks like to be the problem. But when you look at the data that suggests it is an issue i dont know what the current numbers are good when we look at the look a book at the time then University Folks it was the preponderance of the cases that this narrow degenerative disease for offense and defense of wine in and playing the core of the sport so its being talked about but the answer is to focus on the celebratory heads to say look we are going to talk about this. Is that arizona or alabama . My name is michael and my question is bot mostly for profr mcdaniels. Do you think that the denial is the fact 75 of the week is africanamerican. From the standpoint of somebody that is africanamerican a High Percentage are seeking opportunities to create social mobility and so it is to better the physical attribute and take advantage of the money available and therefore also help your Family Community is a narrative that we all hear how are things and get these contracts and they are willing to sacrifice for their families. You can have tv contracts and enforcement appeals and everything attached to this game that we play that is a business that it has to be if you admit to it all these connections will unravel. No one wants to lose and its on the number of levels, too so they want to take advantage of what they feel is their opportunity and take advantage of what they see as their godgiven gift abilities. So in the Family Community as they are looked upon as men whoo are making a way for their families. You have these articles that deal with the golden goes to extract student athletes of urban environments more than football so thats part of what we are seeing right now is that you have these young men. What is it about they were not willing and one of its alumni said we dont have the right athletes here we need to get the job student athletes we just need the Football Players to get the best athletes in here and so at the end of the day and how to sign those new contracts. [applause] dont forget to become a friend of the tucson festival of books so we can make sure that it remains free and to support important literacy programs in our community. If you would gather your things and without us quickly as possible and dont for the two stuck tucson festival of books organizes and the university for their help and cooperation. Coauthor, league of denial. What was the reaction from your employer, espn . They were supportive and continue to be in many ways. We ran into a bit of a pickup and ended up doing a documentary with pbs frontline which had some complications about it. In the end the book would not have been possible without the support of espn. During the two years that steve and i were working i were working at the book we produced story after story after story that appeared on espn network or espn website so it was really an incredibly supportive effort after one lets take some calls. A lot of viewers have been watching, watch the panel with you want it. We will begin with larry in kansas. Please go ahead with your question or comment. Caller it is my understanding that sends a Texas Football lineman this year allstars are bigger than the pro players in 1998 suggesting what made the most sense was to get people and used, i. E. Off of so many drugs. Get people who are normal, like they used to be. I think there is no question that players are bigger and faster and stronger than they were. The one thing, as we document in the book, this issue dates back, the 1st case of this is mike webster diagnosed as a player in the early 70s, the heyday before players got it. So a suggestion that this was not going to be an issue , but i think there is no doubt players have gotten bigger and stronger and faster. Just the amount of force is that much more substantial and creates a much more complicated issue and trying to address the problem. Host what kind of changes has the league made with regard to concussions and hits . The most substantive change has been to reduce heading during practice time that is the biggest thing have done. It is not just a matter of whether you are getting hit during a game but the practice time as well. That is a change that they made that is a tip to this issue. What else they have done to try to suggest that they are addressing this is they have become much more address to the aggressive at finding and penalizing players for helmet to helmet hits where defense it back slammed into a wide receiver at the same time there are a lot of people who suggest that is not the crux of the issue but it is sub concussive hits that are really more problematic. I am not sure that the league can legislate that out. After one what is the purpose of congressional hearings . Guest there had been a few, but in 2010 the concussion issue have begun to peak in a lot of ways, and the nfl was getting attacked in ways it had not previously. This was an effort by congress for a story was getting a lot of publicity to seize on it and begin to raise questions about whether the league was addressing this in the proper way and was also an opportunity for the politicians to do what they do sometimes, to posture and attack which is what they did. You saw did. You saw the representative really go after the commissioner of football. Is football leading the concussions . The commissioner basically dodged the question. Host here is the cover of the book. In colorado. Go ahead with your question or comment. Caller in the late 60s i began to look at the Foundation Research and sacramento, california. We put the headgear on our athletes. This is a short story. The guy went the guy went on to play ten years for minnesota. The kid said, my head on her more. Its been in the literature. No one is talking about the foundation. They started foundation. They started doing headgear research in 1959. It is interesting. And it is not something we are familiar with or rent into. I do know that the helmet is an interesting topic. The nfl spent considerable energy and time suggesting that they were going to create the perfect helmet. When when this issue began to percolate in the early 90s the nfl from the community to address this problem, one that became quite suspect. One of the things the committee did, they would create the perfect helmet. We have all the money in the world. We will throw money at the problem and fix it. So fractures to protect the blame which rattles around they could essentially pay kid essentially pay its way out of the problem by creating a super helmet to many people is naive command to this day i i dont know anyone who believes theres a helmet out there that has solved this issue. Certainly you have had helmets that can reduce concussions, but questions have been raised. Raised. To this day i dont know that the helmet is the answer. Host did the league cooperate in the writing of this book . Guest they wanted no part. We part. We went to the nfl headquarters very early on and said, this is what we are doing. We want you to cooperate. Liggett the trajectory of this issue. We were very transparent about what we wanted. The league listens to us and said, we are just not interested in helping or cooperating. Did not make anyone available. We did find doctors who were willing to participate and talk, and that helped considerably. Host next call is roger. Caller it is ironic that you would mention you had not heard about any equipment that could help. I want to know if you are serious about getting to the meat of this problem. Guest we did this book, spent two years on it, and the issue was looking at the nfl handling historically. There is an ongoing look by any number of people trying to look at the issue of helmets and other opportunities to try to come up with a solution. A lot a lot of time continuing to cover. A lot of people out there for claiming or suggesting their closer to solving the problem with the helmet. Mentioned a. Mentioned a product that he says he understands is closer to that. A lot of money in the issue right now. All sorts of all sorts of levels to try to find an answer. Host jean, meridian, idaho. Were talking about the book league of the nile. Caller the question i have, i feel i have one that would do the job. Guest i think you would have to contact the nfl. The nfl. The league is spending a lot of money on research on this issue. There have been grants. I think if you went in the lab and did a search for the nfl funding you might get some information. Host im sure you have seen the advertisement for this new reality program. Really hitting. Guest we spent a bunch of time in texas working on a story that looked at the ongoing question of youth playing. Football is a huge peace of our society are now. Friday night takes is an example of this. We saw kids as young as six and seven years old. Its almost funny to watch. They are adorable, this little helmets on. This question of whether kids should be playing and when they should be playing is no question that is ratcheted up. A lot of parents talk about whether you want your kids to be playing or not. We did a story not long ago that looked at the participation rates and pop warner. This seems to be no doubt that decrease was as a result of the ongoing discussion about whether kids should be playing football or not. Host good afternoon. Guest yes. Yes. Hi. Isnt there a question of individual responsibility . I mean, by the time you are in college and old enough to be pro, i mean, i mean, isnt it and no tradeoff for several Million Dollars youe possibly a part of your life. It is very much like going into the armed forces. He get certain benefits and the possibilities that you will get blown up or killed or maimed to the players who played for years all of them would acknowledge that they understood that there was going to be large impact physically they could be damaged and substantive ways. I we will think any of them would have told you they believe the understood they might end up losing her mind or have some sort of braindamaged earlyonset dementia. If you look back at salaries, there are a lot of guys not making millions and millions and players working in the offseason, short career lifespan. I dont think there is any doubt. You could not suggest to player that you cannot find a player you wouldnt think it is not understand the potential risks. I think i think the issue is more the leagues denial for decades and in the message that they were sending to players. You talk about big tobacco, one cancer, and the Science Behind that. Is there is there conclusive proof that what is happening in football today and has happened is leading to early braindamaged . Guest the nfl would have you believe there is an ongoing debate. How widespread it is. I dont think to their lines in the minds follow there work closely is any doubt that when they are finding these damaged brains or former Football Players it has been the colleges that have collisions that have happened. For years the idea that colliding with someone are hitting your head can lead to some sort of damage separate from football was an accepted thing and has been. I think to a lot of people the debate about whether you could end up with some sort of damage hitting your head time and again almost seem silly. The larger debate seems to be around what percentage of players will end up with this issue, how substantive it will be command how young you will be when you run into some of these problems. Caller im originally from new zealand. The world champions, and i played rugby for about 20 years. Im sure that the incidence of concussions was much lower. And i am wondering whether or not