What you see is the head moves forward, the brain lags behind.
Then the brain catches up and smashes into the skull.
It rebounds off the skull and
then proceeds to run into the other side of the skull.
David Camarillo, associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford gave a ted
talk on concussions and prevention.
After years of getting hit in the head, many boxers developed dementia and
depression.
Playing tackle football can cause really long term brain injuries.
There's something a lot less sad about a 50 year old who can't run versus
a 50 year old who can't think.
>> The things we do to one another, okay.
Hell, don't know what I'm saying, I'm just tired and confused right now.
That's why I can't say it the way I wanna say.
>> Mike Webster,
seen here is largely viewed as the first EX-NFL player diagnosed with CTE.
>> Your brain is one of the softest substances in your body and
you can think of it kind of like Jell-O.
>> All of these people have one thing in common,
they're all at risk for CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy,
a brain disease caused by repetitive hits to the head.
>> So as your head is moving back and forth, your brain is twisting and
turning and contorting and the tissue is getting stretched.
>> The idea that we have this concussion issue under control is a myth.
We're still not recognizing all the concussions that happened, that repetitive
sub concussive injury where he may not even feel, adds up over time.
>> Seen here is Chris Nowinski, an ex-athlete who holds a PhD and
is co-founder / CEO of the concussion legacy foundation.
>> The colors that you're looking at are how much the brain tissue is
being stretched.
>> All right, when we think about concussions, it appears at least to me,
when it comes to football and soccer and rugby people,
it seems like in the public at least are accepting of the fact of that link.
However, what this piece is going to show you how different sports
entities are continuing to fight this information in the trenches.
>> There's nothing more important than the player health and safety.
>> Well, this is a lie in more ways than one.
>> A lawsuit claiming the NFL uses race as a factor in determining which former
players are compensated for suffering head injuries.
>> You can't say you care about the players and their health, then do this.
You also can't say you care about concussions then blackball, the man who
discovered CTE in your players, that being Dr Bennet Omalu with Webster.
>> A story I love bringing up is how intentionally defiant the NFL was
in making the link between head injuries and football.
The NFL committed $100 million to concussion research,
which, let's be real, sounds glitzy, but it's why we must always dig deeper.
The results of said digging showed the NFL did indeed study CTE,
that being brain injuries in horse jockeys.
Fortunately for Goodell, it appears he has another sport doing the same song and
dance.
>> Myself have been concussed several times and
at the time you almost sort of said, if you can sort of shrug it off and
come back on and play again, you almost see it as a badge of honor.
>> That being another form of football, Australian football that is.
This is Allan Pearce, associate professor and
leading researcher into concussions in the world of sports.
The Guardian reported, he signed a $60,000 contract with the AFL to, as they put it,
carry out neurological tests on retired players who had concussions during their
playing careers.
Despite the AFL funding the project, Pearce said it appeared reluctant to
cooperate until the project was nearly finished, wrote the outlet.
The AFL Is under increasing pressure to disclose what became of the study and
to clarify the evidence that informs the league's concussion policies.
After it was revealed their lead concussion adviser,
Dr Paul McCrory had been accused of plagiarism.
Pearce said after his work on the impact of concussion on the health of athletes
started to gain recognition.
He was approached by AFL official Patrick Clifton in early 2015,
to conduct a study running a series of neurological tests on retired players,
who had suffered concussions during their playing careers.
Pearce agreed and after further discussions signed a contract in March
2016, to receive funding from the league until 2018 to complete the work.
And that is where we must bring back that name Dr Paul McCrory, sports neurologist.
To give you a taste let's say of his views on the subject at hand.
He said the issue of concussions was overblown, even arguing that the dangers
of concussions in the NFL are not nearly as serious as some reports.
And accused the media of oversimplifying a complex topic.
And now, for the first time he questioned the significance of NFL related
findings tabled by BU's influential concussion legacy foundation.
McCrory which you may not be surprised to learn,
resigned as chair of the concussion and sport group, after being
accused of plagiarizing stories in the British journal of Sports Medicine.
With the journal removing one of his editorials from 2005 for
alleged unlawful and indefensible breach of copyright of the work of one professor.
Now, if you're thinking this guy is not credible at all, trust me,
I would not disagree.
It might be odd to note that NFL study with horse jockeys was carried out by
a researcher, who once described American coverage of CTE as carry on and hoo- hah.
And a British doctor whose concussion presentations sometimes have included
flippant jokes and video of tumbling jockeys set the slapstick music.
Guess who presented his findings?
You guessed it, that would be Paul McCrory.
Shortly after being approached to lead the NFL concussion study.
Pearce said McCrory, then the AFL senior adviser on concussion and a neurologist,
with the Florey Institute of Neurosciences mental health contacted him and
asked meet.
Pearce said he felt McCrory was trying to tell him what he could and
couldn't do with respect to his own research.
Quote, he became quite patriarchal and said things like,
your idea isn't feasible, these measures are too difficult blah blah blah,
your ethics are bad blah blah blah.
Once a stooge, always a stooges is Paul McCrory.
Thus Pearce carried on and recruited non AFL Participants.
Doing this would be the stark contrast of those in the AFL,
who suffered concussions and those who did not.
These folks had never had a concussion, thus they were labeled the control group.
They'd undergo the same test of the former players.
This is however,
where Pearce hit a blockade judge as you will with the following passage.
He couldn't recruit enough retired AFL players,
because as he told the Guardian the AFL repeatedly refused to give him access,
to some 600 former players reneging on their initial promise.
It baffled Pearce, who could not understand why the AFL would fund
a study and then fail to assist him with the resources needed to do it.
Unfortunately this leads us to another water carrier,
that being this man, Dr. Peter Harcourt.
Essentially the AFL limited Pearce,
ran the clock out on his study with their funding.
Then in my view, Sent Harcourt, the AFL's then chief medical officer,
to Pearce to tell him players would be made available if they
can control the study by imposing their will to dilute it.
Including the removal of all the tests from Pearce's study, except for
one thing, that being TMS.
Now, per clinical trials.gov, TMS or
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is a procedure where
brain electrical activity is influenced by a magnetic field.
Numerous studies using TMS to treat other disorders such as dementia, stroke,
cerebral palsy, addictions, depression and anxiety have shown promise.
Though, let's be real, this is the only thing,
the one part of the study they would allow Pearce to publish.
Its pretty revealing.
I told them I couldn't do that Pearce said,
because conducting TMS in isolation isn't enough to diagnose.
You need to perform the other tests, like the memory and reaction tests,
to draw any reliable conclusions from the results.
I told Harcourt the study would produce meaningless data without
those additional tests being included.
>> The clock was running out on the study, but it appeared there was some hope.
Pearce was given a list of 40 ex players.
The problem was a lot of these emails appeared to be inactive and
he received a return to sender email.
>> The week before the funding contract with the AFL was going to end.
I got an email from Harcourt saying he was really concerned about the lack of data
that I had collected from the former players.
I wrote back and said thanks for the email but
I've been telling you this for the last year.
I told them we needed to perform the full range of test to get meaningful data.
I asked can we catch up and talk about this?
Pearce said, I didn't get a response from him.
The contract came and went and
nothing ever saw the light of day from that research.
The funding for the study expired and Pearce obviously because of
everything that occurred, well, it never was finished.
Pearce said, the ordeal impacted his career and he wants answers.
Quote, there are people with head injuries, including ex-players,
who have malingering issues impacting their brain.
And they're struggling to get help in 2022, he said.
We need strong research into their injuries.