A doctor who serves as co-chairman of the NFL’s concussion committee says major changes are in order for the league if it’s serious about addressing the problems associated with brain injuries suffered on the football field.
“We’re at that tipping point where there is probably going to have to be an enormous culture change that occurs that will happen over years,” Dr. Richard G. Ellenbogen, co-chairman of the NFL’s concussion committee, told the Baltimore Sun. “The youth athletes are looking to the professionals as role models, and the professionals now realize if they don’t do it right, the kids aren’t going to do it right.”
Ellenbogen was speaking after a brain injury conference that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, representatives of the players’ union and medical staff from most of the league’s teams attended. Goodell said the league has given Ellenbogen and Dr. Hunt Batjer complete freedom to operate the committee the way they believe is best, based on their expert medical opinions.
“We have completely reformulated the committee,” Goodell said. “We are supporting them and giving them full independence and transparency to do their work. And they would not have it any other way.”
The question now is whether the league and the players are willing to buy into the enormous culture change that the doctors say is necessary.