To create the perfect helmet. When the issue began to percolate in the early 90s in the nfl the nfl formed a committee to address this problem, the medical committee when it became quite suspect raid one of the things the committee did was suggest to people in this world that they were going to create the perfect helmet. They said we have all the money in the world. We will throw money into the problem and fix up the neuroscientists are expert in the field knew that was not the answer. They home it is good against protecting against skull fractures but could do nothing at this point to protect the brain which rattles around in fluid and hits the skull anytime it shot stop shorter said. To believe it could pave its way out of the problem with the super helmet is naive and to this day i dont know anybody who believes theres a home it out there that has solved this issue. While certainly you have had rydell suggesting data, that could reduce concussions by 31 but the ftc raise questions about this claim and rydell is backed up the claims. To this day it on all the helmet is the answer. Host to debate club rate in writing this book about . Guest the league wanted no part of our work in this book. Wayne went to nfl headquarters and said this is what we are we are doing. We like to cooperate. This will look at the trajectory of this issue and the nfls role in it and we were very transparent about what we wanted delete this into us and they said we are not just in helping you. They didnt make anybody available from the nfl site. The same time we found doctors and committees along the way who were willing to participate in the reporting and that helped considerably. Host the next call is roger in accrington ohio. Hi roger. Caller hi. You havent heard about any equipment that can help. I want to know if you are serious about getting to the foot of this problem. Guest we did this book and we spent two years on and the issue was about looking at the nfl handling of that historic eight and i think theres an ongoing look by any number of people spending a lot of money looking at the show, its an other opportunities to come up with a solution. Its not something where spending a lot of time continuing to cover but i know there are a lot of people out there who are suggesting or feel like they are closer to solving the problem to the helmet. Leigh steinberg understands us closer to that and as he says theres a lot of money in issue and theres an effort underway at all sorts of levels to find an answer. Host gene from pretty in idaho you are on with mark fainaruwada talking about the book league of denial. Caller the question i have is does the nfl have grants for concussion lifting helmets or other things . If they do have a grant is their protection for the vendors patent rights . Guest i think you would have to contact the nfl. I do not believe you spending a lot of money on research in this issue and there have been some grants of avon working i believe that ge on so im sure if you want sure if you went on to but up into the search for nfl funding you might have information there. Host im sure youve seen the upper tysons for this Reality Program young kids playing football and really hitting. Guest my brother and i spent a lot of time in texas working on the story that book it is the ongoing question and he is playing. Football is a huge piece of our society and friday night tykes the show is an example of this. We saw kids playing as young as six or seven years old tackle football. They look really adorable and they have these giant helmets on and they look like bobble head dolls. This question of whether kids should be playing and when they should be playing, theres no question that has ratcheted up. We have heard it a lot of parents talking about where the want your kids to be playing or not and there are certain experts at the getting the the kitchen not be playing tackle football in. Until there are 14. Steve and i did a story not long ago that looked at the Participation Rate to pop warner and there was a decline of 10 and there seemed to be no doubt that the decrease was a result of the ongoing discussions about whether kids should be playing football or not. Host dennis, spring city tennessee, good afternoon. Caller yes, hi there. Isnt it somewhat of a question of individual responsibility . You are old enough to be a pro, isnt it a known tradeoff for several Million Dollars you volunteer to. Trade possibly a part of your life . Is very much like going into the armed forces. You get certain benefits and the possibility that you will get loan up or killed. Guest there are couple of things i would say to that. To the players who played for years prior to recently they would all tell you when we would talk to players and their families all of them with the knowledge that they understood there was going to be a large impact physically in playing the sport, and the replacements, replacements and shoulder replacements and big beat physically damaged in substandard ways to playing the sport but i dont think any of you would any of them would tell you they would end up losing their minds are having brain damage or early onset dementia are those kinds of things as well if you look back at salaries that period of time there were a lot of guys were not taking millions of dollars in that era and players working in the offseason and a short career lifespan. I dont think theres any doubt you could not suggest to a player that you can find a player you wouldnt think he does not understand the potential risk at this point from playing the game because its possible he could end up with this damage. The issue has been delete about for decades and the message they were sending to players. Host in the book league of denial you talk about big tobacco lung cancer and the Science Behind that and the denial and that issue but is there conclusive proof that what is happening in football today and has happened is leading to early braindamaged etc. . Guest its interesting the nfl would have you believe theres an ongoing debate about that issue. That debate is about how substandard that damage is how widespread it is what percentage of people are going going to have to put the people of done research on this are the folks at Boston University at this point and i dont think in their minds and theres any doubt when they are finding these damage reigns of former folk all players is from the collisions that have happened and of course the idea that colliding with someone or hitting your head could lead to some sort of damage from football was accepted thing and has been an ongoing accepted thing. I think to a lot of people that debate about what he can end up with some sort of damage from hitting your head time and again from playing football almost seems silly. The large debate seems to be around what percentage of players are going to end up with this issue and how substandard would be and how young are you when you run into these problems . Hossa richard m. Palm springs california, you are booktv. Caller im originally from new zealand where fred e. Is the national game. I played rugby for about 20 years. Im sure the incidence of concussions were much lower than in the nfl. Im wondering whether or not the nfl could take a much stronger position on tackles. In rugby there strict rules about tackles that prevent a lot of injuries to qa at the International Level now and also the absence of helmets in rugby. I chronically it might be tools for fewer concussions. Could you please talk about the difference between the rugby union and american football and whether not youve looked at that and may urge if you havent looked at that you take a look at the new Zealand Rugby and maybe open up the dialogue with the National Rugby team to see whether or not you could learn something from new zealand and maybe new zealand could play more games over here. I would be interested to get your comments, love the book and im enjoying the discussion. Thanks very much. Guest thanks very much. Its interesting ive heard from a number of folks who have played rugby here and abroad and this issue is race repeatedly. I think the biggest point is when you hit on about helmets that the absence of a helmet certainly changes the way tackling changes the game and we address us this in the book than many ways the helmet to protect against skull fractures has made the confession issue worse. Now that is a weapon, what the nice piece of plastic and emboldened players to tackle and in much more aggressive ways and perhaps they had been when the helmets were leather. That said the idea that the nfl would go back to leather which is an extreme suggestion from some folks trying to figure out this problem, i think theres no way that they are going back to that. The sport is as popular as its ever been in one of the reasons is because of the aggressive nature in which players are able to play the game. I think the home of the big hearted that he. Host our fans culpable . Guest the question of whether fans are culpable is a loaded one big as to theres an ongoing problem and for me there are two pieces to this. The nfl is what it is. This is a Island Sports rapinoe what it is. Its a collision sport and the denial within the league isnt tyler knott will be debated or haps but for the rest of us we now know what the reality is so the sport is what it is. For me out like it to continue the way it the way it is. I think theres a change changes. The nfl level. Layers to what theyre getting into but the issue and the crux of that question is at the youth level where kids, their brains are still developing and there are questions about whether you want your kids to be playing and how much we value football a society want to contribute that to discussion. I think we are culpable in part of that discussion. I dont necessarily have a position about whether we should have tackle football is certain age. I think the number you pick is going to be an arbitrary one no matter where you pick it but theres a reason are going we have heard from experts about lees waiting at the kids are in high school. Host i know this isnt a topic of your book but do you support the league being a Tax Exempt Organization . Guest it isnt a topic in her book and i dont know. Thankfully am not paid to give my opinion. Im paid to investigate looking into issues and do books like this. I will say it raises a lot of questions when you have entities that are as as large and financially huge as they are billiondollar industries in the commissioner making in the commission are making a 45 million a year i think theres a question to be had about whether you can call yourself a nonprofit. As for our next call comes from herb and weatherford texas talking about this book right here, league of denial. Caller i have got an anecdotal statement of my own history but i would like to touch on the coaching aspect of the youngsters first because ive done it for 20 years at the middle school level in texas. A lot of this, the coaches need to be schooled as an one i was coaching a team i kept up with the what the other team is doing because what you have at that level, you have Different Levels of maturity. In other words you have got some skilled players who can bring it you have god little boys who havent developed yet and they are out there together. What i would do, i would look over at the other coach and that he would substitute and then i would substitute him. In other words i would try to put my little guys against us little guys because some of them , first of all over half of them dont even belong up there. Severe pressure thing. A lot of them discover by the time they get to high school host herb, we ask were you worried about this issue while you were Coaching School children . Caller absolutely. I can tell you this, i would set up my teams. Something else we had 100 out there playing so i would set my team up and tried to make them some might equal but you have to play them all so i would give playing time because if the truth is known a lot of little guys they dont want it. Host thank you, sir. Mark fainaruwada a response to what herb had to say from texas . Proper tackling is obviously important in teaching that and having kids were not in over their heads is a huge peace of it. The end it comes back to whether you can really figure a way to legislate your way out of this. Host good afternoon. Has anybody ordeal have any data related to natural turf the hearses synthetic . Is seen as the synthetic increase is the speed as well as a harsh surface to come in contact with. Do you have data related to that . It is the really good question and i dont think we came across data for the reporting but there was anecdotal discussion to talk about what it was like to play on astroturf when it was relieved as hard as cement but at that time it did make them faster but consequently when you fell and hit your head there hurt a lot more so reheard players and families talk about that whether there is data analysts said a decrease of these issues since he had gone to a different turf remains to be seen. Host we have some more calls. Joe from nevada. Caller i have a question i saw your documentary was done excellent. Can you comment on the dr. . He seemed like he did not know what he was talking about. And supporting the nfl side. He earned the nickname for an appearance he had on hbo or he was asked repeatedly about the connection between football and brain damage he said no nonos bandit he got the nickname from players but one of the few narrow scientists associated with the n. F. L. He has a background in neuroscience and had done a lot of fichu of boxers incurring brain damage so contrary to doing the medical team that was denying this issue i was cool to have his background on the brain but he along with the other doctors repeated these seem to deny a connection and the twopronged attack not only denied the issue as the problem but it went they began to raise this issue to talk about potential brain damage there was an effort to ostracize them. My question has to do whether or not he found any research that spell to address ecologists address their studentathletes with regards to concussions for injuries . Deceives the collegeage students is that a place to make their own decisions did you find anything related to that . Host are you a football fan . Caller it came about because of was that a big tank university and students were bigtime football players. At a time when we were talking about their academic performance. To s studentathletes the tree the ages of 18 and 22 and 23. So to talk about at public universities to help them understand the dangers of football even as they move forward into professional careers. Me you were looking at the nfl but i do know there is an ongoing debate around colleges as the issues become more discussed so there was a definite suggestion for the n. C. A. A. To attack the issue. Even hiring a medical director to focus. So to see that slow response that there is a suggestion that the colleges are no different. Host that coauthors. Faq for your times. My pleasure coverage on booktv on cspan2. Welcome, everyone to the [inaudible conversations] welcome to the 31st in annual printers row which best reform reasserted debut to our sponsors. We are broadcasting live on cspan2 booktv we will reserve some time for audience questions so when we give you the indication so the Live Audience can hear the question you can keep the spirit going around with a subscription to the printer is road journal of infectious series and Membership Program and also feel free to download the application that disinformation to the digital book store and finally if you take photos we love that ad messages to pose them to facebook and twitter with the pr15. Please to the flesh off on the of carries a would like to introduce our interviewer marc jacobs from the chicago tribune. It is my honor to interview ken davis the author of the dont know much about a series of books about history with all things considered. And who is relieved terrific to translate history and just finishing his excellent new book so to get past them boring history so thanks for joining is. It is a pleasure to come back. So that was a challenge is so thin today i follow eric got into this stage. I dont know if that is a compliment or a highly placed second violin i am happy to be here. [applause] actually since we just heard the word twitter i twisted out yesterday, yes i tweet the issue of lets play also. Eric larsen and me back to back. Lets go for it. Some of the themes of your new book one i got a just to explain how the book is instructed but it is six essays or chapters from six different wars to focus on a single battle or a struggle. The interesting being is certain things go all the way through who fights americas wars . Talk about in their resolution of the militia first is the actual members of the Continental Army through the iraq war you get into how 1. In time there were military contractors military personnel that is amazing to think about. Who fights americas wars and why that matters . Let me explain first of all, that many people look to me know from the dont know much about this series that we published 25 years ago. Of was a very small child when it first appeared. [laughter] but that was written and the question and answer format like what does a declaration of independence declared . What three letter word is not in the constitution and so . Shuns that we can come back to that because he is an interesting character but this book is different from the dont know much about a series of written in that question and answer format that was supposed to be a refresher course because all too many people i have discovered say to me that history is so dull and boring this is battles also but speeches i never had that sense as a child growing up our summer vacations see and smell. I came to this book is narrative accounts of the american red revolution to the war in iraq to get a sense of that because we as a nation are not Credit History in general but specifically not very good about our military history