{"id":644,"date":"2019-02-24T21:09:32","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T03:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/?p=644"},"modified":"2019-02-24T21:09:37","modified_gmt":"2019-02-25T03:09:37","slug":"why-does-the-nflpa-get-off-without-criticism-on-concussion-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/why-does-the-nflpa-get-off-without-criticism-on-concussion-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Does the NFLPA get off without criticism on concussion issues?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Shouldn’t they be protecting the players?<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One of the things that has always mystified me on the\nconcussion front is how the NFLPA has been virtually ignored.  As the entity charged with representing the\nplayers and protecting their health and safety, the NFLPA has essentially been\ngiven a free pass on the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, there are lawsuits pending against the NFL, Pop\nWarner, the NCAA and many other entities. \nThe basic allegations in each complaint rely on the fact that the\nsponsoring organization had a duty to the athletes and failed to protect them,\nand in many cases, hid the dangers of concussions away from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NFL in particular has been accused of downplaying the\ndangers of concussions and using a committee of highly unqualified individuals\nto make the decisions for the league. \nThe problem the league faces is that, until recently, their actions are\nquite clearly against the weight of medical science.  Their Head, Neck and Spine committee\nconsisted of people who were not neurologists and did not have the credentials\nto advise on these issues, much less lead the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the question I don’t see anyone asking is Where was the\nNFLPA while this fiasco was going on.” \nIt is reasonable to be in the camp of believing that the NFL acted\ninappropriately and that the league hid dangers and used unqualified people to\ndistort the research (or at minimum, minimize the impact of the research).  Yet I see no groups taking on the NFLPA or\neven questioning where their leadership was while the concussion crisis started\nto take shape.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group in the best position to take on the powerhouse of\nthe NFL is the NFLPA.  The players alone\nhave little power.  The agents have\nvirtually no power on these issues. Long time agent Leigh Steinberg has said that\nhe was presenting concussion issues to the league in the early 1990’s with no\nsuccess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So while the NFLPA may not have been in a position to take\nthe lead role, surely it had the obligation and the right to question how the\nNFL examined this issue. It seems to me that this was a failure of leadership\non the part of the NFLPA and the NFLPA may have been more concerned with other\nfinancial issues for the players and with long term health benefits, both\nworthwhile causes.  You may read this and\nsay, hey, Roy\nKessel<\/a>, who are you to question the NFLPA.  Having been certified as an NFL Contract\nAdvisor (i.e. agent), and having attended numerous NFLPA seminars, Sports\nLawyers Association Seminars and having taught at Northwestern, this is an\nissue that I have examined on many occasions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I agree that the NFLPA should not have primary\nliability on this issue, I do not see how the media has failed to question the\nunion as it relates to their actions.  I\nhave asked this question to former players, media members and even many\ninvolved in the concussion” industry.  I\nam still waiting for an answer.  If you\nhave one, I would love to hear it below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We examine whether the NFLPA should be held more accountable for their failure to protect players on concussions issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,294,80,11],"tags":[329,372,317,296,371,373,6],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}