According to one study, retired NFL players are 5 times more likely to suffer from dementia than the average, hypothetical non-football playing men of a similar age.
Read the whole thing and see what you think. It strikes me that the reporter caught NFL spokesman Greg Aiello offguard, but the findings are serious and not surprising. Football is a collision sport, and it's hard to imagine that retired players won't suffer from some sort of problem after having played the game since they were six, seven or eight years old.
You would think that not only would the NFL do research on the effects of the physicality of the game, but that they also would sponsor research as to much better equipment. For example, I could imagine within 10 years players dressing in full-length body suits made of a combination of UnderArmour, Kevlar and the materials used in airbags that are designed to absorb the shock of blows that other players deliver. Then again, given that so many seem so willing to sacrifice a lot, even for a cup of coffee in the NFL, perhaps career-lengthening or career-saving togs aren't worth the investment. Translated: there are plenty more players willing to take the place of fallen ones. Still, with all the money poured into the NFL, you would think that perhaps the league would show more initiative in this area.
This story just won't go away for the NFL.
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Good afternoon,
My name is Nick Rieder. I am a Research Assistant for the National Sports Law Institute of Marquette University (NSLI). The NSLI is having its annual fall conference on Oct. 23, 2009. I would like to request your help. It would be appreciated if you could post about the conference on your site by providing a link to the conference homepage http://law.marquette.edu/cgi-bin/site.pl?2130&pageID=3960.
Thank you for your time.
Nick
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