Setting the retirement bar on concussions
PITTSBURGH STEELERS quarterback Ben Roethlisberger suffered his fourth concussion this week. His teammate and defensive star Troy Polamalu has had seven documented concussions going back to high school. Both players have already achieved the ultimate in team sports - two Super Bowl rings. Now the National Football League needs to tell them that their brains are more important than another ring and they need to retire.
Yet, as of midweek, no Steeler official and certainly not NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was calling for Roethlisberger to sit out tomorrow’s game as a precaution. They ignored the emerging data connecting repeated concussions to premature degenerative brain disease. They seemed to forget the scolding Goodell received last month from the House Judiciary Committee for the league’s efforts to shout down the data.
The only thing that mattered was the Steelers propping up enough gladiators to stay alive for the playoffs. On Tuesday, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said of Roethlisberger, “He felt normal. He felt fine. The battery of tests that he took showed that he had no symptoms.’’ This was as blissful as last season when Roethlisberger suffered his third concussion. Tomlin said, “We feel comfortable with where he is . . . and where he’s capable of being next week in preparation for our game.’’
The players of course believe themselves capable no matter what. After taking tests for a 2006 concussion, Polamalu, known for turning his body into a guided missile, was quoted by the Pittsburgh
Roethlisberger, speaking this week about his most recent concussion, said, “The doctors have taken about a thousand tests and I passed them all with flying colors.’’
What is this franchise waiting for? For Polamalu or Roethlisberger to die instantly on the field? No team like the Steelers knows the emerging long-term effects of football brain trauma. Former players Mike Webster, Terry Long, and Justin Strzelczyk died at the respective ages of 50, 45 and 36, all with chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The NFL, up until the congressional hearings last month, has gone so far as to have its brain injury consultants say that they did not see a connection between concussions and long-term brain trauma.
This week, the NFL, under criticism for such denials, announced the resignation of its in-house physicians who led the brain injury committee that pooh-poohed nearly all independent research. Newspaper and wire service reports said Goodell wants to appoint “independent sources of expertise and experience in the field of head injuries,’’ have individual teams consult with independent neurologists, and explore possible rule changes to “reduce head impacts.’’
But still missing, as the Steelers so critically demonstrate, is some kind of benchmark that becomes a national firewall against the sport’s macho culture. Football is not just about the 1,700 men in the NFL and the several thousand in college. It is most importantly about the 4.3 million youths playing high school and youth football, who often play miles from a neurologist. Researchers guess that the vast majority of concussions go unreported. When heroes such as a Polamalu proclaim themselves as perfect as a newborn baby after a concussion, that only further encourages coaches and teammates to scream, “Suck it up!’’
Julian Bailes, one of the nation’s top football brain injury researchers, told me there needs to be a discussion of a “threshold number’’ of concussions that rules out a player forever. Based on what we are learning, three, perhaps even two should be enough. Polamalu and Roethlisberger, who have a combined 11 documented concussions, have more than crossed the threshold. They need no more tests. They need the NFL to tell them that their brains are more important than football. Such courage would liberate colleges, high schools, and youth leagues to do the same.
Derrick Z. Jackson can be reached at jackson@globe.com. 
