Must Watch Tonight: League of Denial

[Delhommey]

 

The moment I knew PBS Frontline's League of Denial -- a documentary on the NFL's concussion crisis airing Tuesday night at 10 p.m. ET -- was a big deal? When my mother sent along an article about the accompanying LOD book noting that it "raises a lot of tough questions for the NFL and the sport of football in general." That's precisely what PBS' documentary does and it's worth your time or, at the very least, DVR space.

 

The beginning of the film focuses specifically on Mike Webster, former Steelers offensive lineman, and the struggles he dealt with after football.

Webster's brain is credited as one of the first to show that the damage football could cause; when Webster died at age 50, Dr. Bennett Omalu decided to preserve his brain.

"If I had not been told his age I would have thought he was 70," Dr. Omalu said of the 50-year-old Webster.

 

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/24051122/frontline-pbs-doc-league-of-denial-examines-nfl-concussion-problem

 

This is the one ESPN backed out of because the NFL threatened them. One of the best shows on TV investigates the game we all love.

[Vampire the buffet slayer]

Let's just turn it into fugging flag football.

Hmmmmm... also did you guys know smoking was bad for you? Who would have ever thought that?

I may sue.

[Delhommey]

Let's just turn it into fugging flag football.

Hmmmmm... also did you guys know smoking was bad for you? Who would have ever thought that?

I may sue.

 

I'm assuming this is your Twitter handle.

 

https://twitter.com/PFTCommenter

[Vampire the buffet slayer]

You follow bro?

[carpantherfan84]

I really feel like the players of the past got shafted. The NFL definitely has some liability in this issue if only because they make so much money off of the image of the old school players. Ask yourself, how many top 10 shows are on NFL network. Or how many references are made to old school players. And to know that many of them are poor, homeless or disabled is an atrocity especially when you know that the owners went from small time millionaires to billionaires over the life of the league all while unethically distributing revenue.

[Vampire the buffet slayer]

Yeah totally.

They would have been much better off in the coal mine, working with asbestos, high rise iron work, digging deep public utilities, fighting in Vietnam, or even boxing.

Pre 1990's America was not all back rubs and handys fellas.

[Dpantherman]

Was just going to make a thread about this. Plan on watching

 

[BANE]

Looks to be interesting, but doesn't the term "no s**t" come into play at all? Who the hell ever thought football wasnt dangerous? You have people slamming their heads into each other for 60 damn minutes. It doesn't matter how much denying the NFL does, only a moron, would EVER at any point in the games history, think that slamming your head into other people wouldn't be dangerous.

[Delhommey]

Looks to be interesting, but doesn't the term "no s**t" come into play at all? Who the hell ever thought football wasnt dangerous? You have people slamming their heads into each other for 60 damn minutes. It doesn't matter how much denying the NFL does, only a moron, would EVER at any point in the games history, think that slamming your head into other people wouldn't be dangerous.

A lot of those morons work for the NFL, apparently.

[Lloyd Christmas]

Not airing on my local PBS station?

[teeray]

I just watched it. Very informative but also came across as a complete hit piece.

[PanthersClinic]

There are lots of dangerous jobs in the world and more specifically in America. The only difference is the NFL is a glamorous job that offers great compensation.

 

It seems the medical issues of NFL veterans garner more attention than the medical issues of military veterans.

 

 

[carpantherfan84]

But the NFL only recently gave good compensation.

 

Average salary through the 60's was 6000.

 

The creation of the Players Association in the 70's bumped the vet minimum to around 10000. while a big star might make twice that. (that's a season not a game).

 

The strike and the subsequent CBA bumped salaries astronomically to the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

 

 

For comparison and example, Jerry Jones purchased the cowboys in 1989 for 140 million.  The process for valuating a business for purchase is complex but basically it comes down to (y * Revenue=valuation) where y usually equals 3-5.  That means that the annual revenue for the Dallas Cowboys at the time was 28 to 46 million while the players TOTAL salary (all players on the team combined) was likely between 1 and 4 million dollars. That is 2 to 4% of the team revenue.   

 

So where does that leave all those players from 20's through the 70's?  Well most of them that could not get some kind of side deal became poor.  A lot of people would be like "well that's too bad" but the NFL STILL USES THEIR IMAGE TO PROMOTE THE LEAGUE, NOW MAKING BILLIONS!!!  These players are suffering life changing injuries from the hits that they took that the NFL is making billions from promoting.  Big hits were a major marketing ploy throughout the 80's, 90's and much of the turn of the century. The same hits that made the receivers mental vegetables.

[Squirrel]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/league-of-denial/

 

Can see the whole thing here.