Engagement Insider
1/31/13
NEW ORLEANS, LA January 31, 2013 – The National Football League today tackled the white-hot topic of Health & Safety – and specifically concussions -- when a cross-section of experts ranging from the medical field to the playing field weighed in during a Super Bowl Week press conference.
Before a large throng of media who first listened to the latest updates and then peppered the panel with questions, one indisputable fact was clear: The game of football has the highest level of expertise in the world addressing this vexing worldwide issue.
NFL Player Engagement (NFLPE) Vice President Troy Vincent highlighted his group’s focus in the past year on the mental health of players through its Total Wellness Program that addresses the athlete as a whole, through offerings such as a national crisis lifeline.
A 15-year NFL veteran and former All-Pro, Vincent added that the NFLPE just launched a new initiative called “Q5,” which he said “focuses on four areas of strength-building -- mental, physical, emotional, and financial – to give both current and former players the tools to win in life.”
Ultimately, he said, “We all have a shared responsibility to better educate the players to make better decisions today for the long-term wellness of he and his family.”
Another former player, Eric Hipple, who played quarterback for the Detroit Lions for 10 years, is now an Outreach Specialist for the University of Michigan Depression Center, and cited statistics that he said show that “depression is the killer.”
He also cited a focus on mental health, saying that the critical time is five years or so after a player’s career ends when trouble typically surfaces, and that the push is on “to make it cool to be mentally fit.”
Dr. John York, Co-Chairman of the San Francisco 49ers and Chairman of the NFL Owners Committee on Health and Safety, enlightened the audience about the four-year history of his committee, saying that “rules and regulations are the beginning point to preventing concussions.”
He mentioned that he and other colleagues recently attended an international conference in Zurich, where guidelines are being developed for all sports to address the concussion problem for the 300 million participants worldwide, which includes 30 million in the United States.
“We are on the right track to make progress,” added Dr. York, who is also a physician.
The panel also featured Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, Co-Chairman of the NFL Head Neck and Spine Committee; Dr. David Satcher, Director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine and the16th Surgeon General of the United States; and Dr. Anthony Yates, team physician for the Pittsburgh Steelers and President of the NFL Physicians’ Society.
All these medical luminaries agreed that a culture change was needed, beginning on youth playgrounds and fields where they learn how not to lead with the head. These initiatives then need to go right on up to trained engineers developing sophisticated high-tech equipment that will lead to safer sports participation.
They also cited other areas of progress, from sideline protocol creating player profiles to the NFL’s joint initiative with the U.S. Army regarding concussion effects for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Moderator Jeff Pash, NFLExecutive Vice President of Labor and General Counsel, alluded to the likelihood of an independent doctor soon being added to the sidelines for second opinions, who would be there in addition to the existing team medical personnel that Pash said “know the players best due to their ongoing work with them each week.”
Additionally, Pash noted the NFL alliances with the National Institute of Health and the Center for Disease Control, in addition to many other high-profile medical organizations.
In the end, all agreed that the key issue is trust, and Vincent laid it on the line saying, “The elephant in the room is trust, and the key is breaking down all barriers of distrust so that the players know their best interests are being served.”
Dr. York drove that point home by adding, “Not once during all my years in the NFL have I ever heard a coach or general manager ask a team doctor to do anything that was not in the best interest of the player.”