While there are precious few injuries that medical science hasn't worked their wonders on, concussions are one of them. It's an issue that popped up a lot over the last year, to the point where we had War-on-drug-esque campaign messages during football games. Matt Schaub partnered up with the Concussion Center to try and spread the word recently:
↵↵↵Repeated brain trauma is even more serious. After a study of 20 athletes' brains, scientists noticed changes resembling Alzheimer's disease. When Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry died after falling off the back of a moving pickup truck after taking off after his girlfriend in a domestic-violence-incident rage, an autopsy revealed chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a form of degenerative brain damage linked to multiple blows to the head.
↵
Try as I might, I can't really spin this in a funny light. Concussions aren't a laughing matter. These athletes deserve a lot of slack for the amount of danger they put themselves in for our entertainment. There were hundreds of mocking TO-Ochocinco articles and tweets last night, but considering the number of times an NFL receiver has to stand in and take a hit to catch the ball, is it really any wonder that wideouts are well-known for their tendency to develop eccentric personalities?
↵As pointed out in Malcolm Gladwell's great piece, it's a bit of a moral quandry. Do you want to see changes to the game you love, or do you want the players to be protected from injury to the best extent that they can be?
↵