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by Roger Pielke, Jr.
Wall Street Journal
February 21, 2016
By all means, keep funding concussion studies, but step back and let independent science take its course.
Super Bowl 50 between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers was the second-most-watched TV program ever in the U.S., trailing only the previous Super Bowl. Last year almost 50 million people attended college football games. More than one million boys played high-school football, making it the most played high-school sport, a status it has had since data were first collected in 1969.
Despite its immense popularity among spectators and players, football is facing an existential threat due to the long-term health risks presented by repetitive injuries to the head. A new disease has even been associated with these injuries—chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the subject of the recent Will Smith movie, “Concussion.”
If the National Football League, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, high schools, players and parents are to make informed decisions about football, robust evidence about the health risks of playing the sport is needed. However, much like other areas where science runs into politics, money and culture, securing a solid foundation of science in the context of football has proven problematic. It need not be so. Read more …
