By Bill Bradley, contributing editor
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Tuesday that concussions suffered by players must be treated conservatively and that all players need time to properly heal from injuries.
Goodell's comments came during an interview with former Associated Press White House correspondent Ben Feller at the 92nd St. YMCA in New York City. It was part of a public forum leading up to New York Super Bowl events.
"The last thing you want to do is have a player go back in before he is fully recovered -- probably from any injury, but particularly with the head," Goodell said. "What we've done is taken steps to try to prevent it with proper equipment and adjust the rules so we can take the head out of the game. But also, as it relates to when the injury does occur, treat it conservatively. And to make sure we have spotters at the game that can identify when a player may have suffered a hit to the head just be evaluated. We don't know if the individual has suffered a concussion, but you can evaluate the individual so that you can make that medical decision. ...
"Players want to play. We want to recognize that. But we have to also make sure they get the best possible medical care. And we think they are (getting that) in the NFL."
Goodell said he thinks NFL players are catching up to the culture change in pro football that is trying to make the game safer.
"I think it's a complete shift, but in any culture change, it doesn't happen overnight," Goodell said. "It's something that you have to continually stress. You have to make sure we're doing everything we can to make sure our players are as safe as possible."
Feller also asked if there was a cover-up over concussions as asserted in the book and film "League of Denial," which accused the NFL of decades of negligence over head injuries. Goodell emphatically denied that.
"In fact, the NFL has been leaders in this area," Goodell said. "Since the (1990s) we identified this. We had a committee of ... medical experts that studied this issue. The NFL (Players Association) participated in all of that. All of the information the committee studied was shared with all of the players. It was also shared publicly by being published.
"We have driven the awareness of this issue. We have driven the medical study of this issue. I think that's been good for society. And I'm proud of what the NFL has done on front. I believe that we're going to have even greater impact because of the hundreds millions of dollars that we're investing. We are going to discover not only more about this injury, but also the brain that will affect brain disease."
Goodell said one of his proudest partnerships is with the military because of the research both parties have done with traumatic brain injuries.
"The player wanting to go on the field is not much different than the soldier wanting to go back on the battlefield," he said. "We call it the 'Return-to-Field Protocol.' They call it the 'Return-to-Battlefield Protocol.' We have shared a lot of the research and a lot of the findings with them.
"We're making a difference. And I'm proud of that."
