League of Denial

Bennet Omalu is a Nigerian forensic pathologist and neuropathologist who immigrated to the United States at the age of 26. In 2002, Omalu performed an autopsy of Mike Webster in which he discovered tangles of tau protein in the brain that were similar to Alzheimer’s disease and a condition common to boxers known as dementia pugilistica. The neurodegenerative disease that Omalu discovered in Webster became known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy and would also be found in numerous other former football players over the next 10 years. Omalu and his fellow researchers thought that the NFL would welcome their discovery, but instead the League attempted to discredit his research proving the link between football and brain damage. 

Julian Bailes is a neurosurgeon who joined the staff at Allegheny General Hospital in 1988 and later became chairman of the department of neurosurgery at West Virginia University. While in Pittsburgh in the 1990s, Bailes also worked as a team physician for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was one of the first researchers to warn of the potential risks of long-term brain damage due to concussions, having found that an alarming number of retired players had developed signs of dementia. Bailes played a major role in the NFL’s concussion crisis as he became the most vocal supporter of Bennet Omalu’s research linking football to brain damage. 

As a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh, Kevin Guskiewicz worked as an athletic trainer for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He earned a doctorate from the University of Virginia in 1995 and became one of the most prominent neuroscientists and sports medicine researchers in the country while directing the Center for the Study of Retired Athletes at the University of North Carolina. Guskiewicz’s early research focused on how concussions affect balance and motor skills. He then conducted research that found an alarming connection between repeated concussions and depression, and later between repeated concussions and dementia-related syndromes. Guskiewicz was one of the primary dissenters of the research done by NFL’s Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee but later joined forces with the NFL when he joined its reconstituted Head, Neck and Spine Committee. 

Ann McKee is a neuropathologist who specializes in tau protein and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and CTE. McKee was a professor at the Boston University School of Medicine and was also working for the Department of Veteran Affairs when activist Chris Nowinski recruited her to study the brains of former football players in late 2007. As a die-hard Green Bay Packers fan who had been around football all her life, McKee was fascinated by the idea and decided to join Nowinski’s Sports Legacy Institute, whose brain bank would be housed at Boston University. By early 2011, McKee had examined the brains of 25 deceased NFL players and found CTE in 24 of them.

Born in Illinois in 1978, Chris Nowinski played football at Harvard University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology. After college, Nowinski became a professional wrestler, performing under the name “Chris Harvard.” In 2002 he was signed by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), and he performed with the organization for two years. As a wrestler, Nowinski suffered a number of concussions and began to have headaches and blurred vision. These issues led to him becoming a concussion activist and author of Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis. Nowinski teamed with neuropathologist Bennet Omalu in 2007 to form the Sports Legacy Institute, an organization designed to acquire the brains of deceased athletes for examination. Nowinski later clashed with Omalu and from there recruited Ann McKee to fill his neuropathologist role. As a media-savvy entertainer and “brain-chaser,” Nowinski was a pivotal voice in the concussion crisis because of his ability to filter the issue into mainstream news sources. 

Paul Tagliabue succeeded Pete Rozelle as NFL Commissioner in 1989 and served in that role until 2006. Prior to becoming commissioner, Tagliabue served as a lawyer for the NFL with the firm of Covington & Burling, which was noted for its representation of the Phillip Morris Tobacco Company. Tagliabue’s term as NFL Commissioner was generally regarded as a successful one until the early part of the 21st century, when researchers begin finding a credible link between repeated concussions and brain damage. As concussions were seen as more serious and more damaging in the 1990s, Tagliabue formed the NFL’s Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee, but the committee soon came under fire as being designed more for public relations than for finding solutions. Tagliabue referred to the concussion crisis, in its early days, as an issue of “pack journalism” and is generally believed to have held a very skeptical view of the idea that concussions led to brain damage. 

Born in Jamestown, New York, in 1959, Roger Goodell is the son of former US Senator Charles Goodell. He succeeded Paul Tagliabue as NFL Commissioner in 2006 and was immediately forced to deal with a crisis that saw several former players develop dementia that was related to their years in football. By the time Goodell took office, a handful of deceased players had been found to have CTE. While Goodell spent several years refusing to acknowledge that such a link between football and brain damage existed, his stance softened somewhat as more scientific evidence proved the link. Although Goodell has worked to elevate the League’s own research suggesting that results proving the link are inconclusive, he has taken steps to try to make the NFL, and football in general, a safer sport. Goodell has overseen improved retirement and disability plans, major rule changes that eliminate helmet-to-helmet hits, a marketing campaign that steers away from the violence of the sport, and an overhaul of the League’s concussion research arm. 

Ira Casson is a neurologist who was part of the NFL’s Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee. During his time with the MTBI committee, Casson became the primary face and voice of the NFL’s system of denial because of his repeated claims that concussion rates were low and that there was no scientific evidence linking football to brain damage. Casson became known as “Dr. No” by critics due to his 2007 interview with HBO’s Real Sports in which he repeatedly offered the one-word response “no” to questions about whether evidence existed linking football with depression, dementia, early onset of Alzheimer’s, and finally any long-term problem. In another episode that drew the ire of the brain research community, at the NFL’s 2007 Concussion Summit, Casson was seen rolling his eyes and mocking a fellow researcher as he presented evidence of the discovery of CTE in the brain of a deceased player. Casson’s denialism toward the evidence of brain damage caused by concussions was perplexing because he had studied the brains of boxers in the 1980s and came away with no doubts that dementia pugilistica, a type of brain damage similar to CTE, was caused by blows to the head in that sport. 

A First Team All American quarterback at BYU and Heisman Trophy runner-up in 1983, Steve Young was drafted in the first round of both the NFL and USFL Drafts in 1984. Young chose to sign with the upstart USFL, but the league would soon fold, and he was then signed by the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After two seasons, Young was traded to the San Francisco 49ers, where he served as a backup to future Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana for the next four seasons. When the 49ers traded Montana, Young finally became the team’s starter and won two NFL MVP Awards and a Super Bowl title between 1992 and 1994. Young suffered two concussions in 1996, another in 1997, and one in 1999 that left him lying motionless on the field. Although Young felt that his health was fine and that he could still be an effective NFL quarterback, doctors convinced him to retire after the 1999 season. Young was one of several high-profile NFL players who were forced to retire in the 1990s due to repeated concussions. 

Dave Duerson graduated with an economics degree from Notre Dame and was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the third round of the 1983 NFL Draft. As a safety and known as a ferocious hitter on the powerhouse Bears defense of the 1980s, Duerson was a four-time Pro Bowl selection. He was a player representative for the Bears and stayed active with the union even after his 1993 retirement. Although Duerson became successful in businessman after he retired and was considered to be well adjusted to life after football, his life slowly began to unravel. He started having fits of anger, lost his business, and seemed to be disconnected from reality at times. All the while, however, Duerson was a staunch defender of the NFL and even publicly lamented the sport’s crackdown on helmet-to-helmet hits. In early 2011, Duerson committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest to be sure that his brain could be studied. He left a five-page suicide note with the request, “Please, see that my brain is given to the NFL’s brain bank” at the bottom (295). Duerson’s brain revealed he had CTE. 

Born in Oceanside, California, in 1969, Junior Seau was the fifth overall pick of the 1990 NFL Draft after being named the Pac 10 Defensive Player of the Year in 1989 at Southern Cal. Seau played for the San Diego Chargers from 1990 to 2002, the Miami Dolphins from 2003 to 2005, and the New England Patriots from 2006 to 2009. Widely considered one of the finest linebackers in NFL history, he was a 12-time Pro Bowl selection, the 1992 NFL Defensive MVP, a member of the 1990s All Decade Team, and inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015. Throughout his playing career and after, Seau was well respected for his community involvement and philanthropy.

Like Duerson, Seau was considered to be well adjusted to life after football, but his life, too, was coming apart. Seau had developed drinking and gambling problems, and in 2010 he was arrested for assaulting his girlfriend. The following day, Seau drove his SUV off a cliff along the Pacific coast in what many considered to be a suicide attempt. On May 2, 2012, Seau committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest. Seau is a prominent figure in the concussion crisis not only because of his greatness as a football player, but also because of the macabre “brain race” that took place in trying to secure his brain for research. As many as six prominent researchers were vying for Seau’s brain. CTE was discovered in Seau’s brain.

Leigh Steinberg earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1970 and a juris doctor from the same university in 1973. Steinberg became a well-known sports agent and is acknowledged as being the first true “superagent.” In the mid-1990s, at a time when he represented nearly every starting quarterback in the NFL, he became the basis for the titular fictional character from the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire. Steinberg’s clients in the 1990s included Hall of Fame quarterbacks Troy Aikman, who suffered several serious concussions, and Steve Young, whose career was eventually ended by repeated concussions. Steinberg was so concerned over the growing severity of concussions in the 1990s that he set up high-profile informational seminars to educate players and the public. Steinberg is a prominent figure in the concussion crisis because he was one of the few high-profile voices from outside the scientific community to sound alarms about the seriousness of the issue.