It looks like the new co-chairmen of the National Football League’s committee on concussions have taken to heart the criticism levied against them last week by a Congressman.
They’ve come out roaring about the league’s past research regarding concussions, got their predecessor dropped from a symposium, and are replacing all the members of the committee they inherited, according to The New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/02/sports/football/02concussion.html?ref=sports
Neurosurgeons Dr. H. Hunt Batjer and Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, named heads of the NFL committee dealing with brain injury in March, have been making noise this week.
First, they were critical of a brochure for a brain injury conference being held Wednesday at John Hopkins, because the flyer minimized evidence that repeated concussions have a long-term impact, with ex-players showing higher rates of dementia than the general population.
Secondly Batjer and Ellenbogen asked that the former chairman of their committee, Dr. Elliot Pellman, not make opening remarks at the Wednesday symposium. And Pellman was in fact dropped from the program.
Pellman stepped down as head of the concussion committee in March, in the aftermath of criticism of the NFL’s downplaying of the impact of brain injury.
Next, Batjer and Ellenbogen said they were essentially shelving research that the NFL committee had done in the past about helmets and the mental decline of retired players. Those studies have been criticized for downplaying the impact of brain injuries, during Congressional hearings last year and most recently by Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y.
During a forum held by members of the House Judiciary Committee last week in Manhattan, Weiner called the NFL’s helmet research “infected.” Weiner and other Congressman also asked pointed questions, and were not happy with the responses, they got from Batjer and Ellenbogen, who seemed ill-prepared.
Now the two doctors are saying that they will not use the NFL research going forward, in good part because they were influenced by Weiners use of the word “infected” to describe those studies.
“The word ‘infected’ hit me right between the eyes,” The Times quotes Ellenbogen as saying.
Finally, Ellenbogen and Batjer said they are finding new members for their committee, remanning it. Six have been chosen so far, none of them “holdovers from the prior regime,” as The Times put it.
It looks like Weiner gave the two doctors a big push. And they have decided not to taint their tenures with what has happened in the past, but rather start anew.