Washington = The U.S. National Football League’s (NFL) top health and safety officer acknowledged there is a link between football-related head trauma and chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE.
This is the first time a senior league official has conceded football’s connection to the devastating brain disease.
The admission came during a roundtable discussion on concussions convened by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce, Jeff Miller.
Miller is the NFL’s senior Vice-President for health and safety.
He was asked by Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., if the link between football and neurodegenerative diseases such as CTE has been established.
“The answer to that question is certainly yes,’’ Miller said.
He based his assessment on the work of Dr Ann McKee, who has diagnosed CTE in the brains of 176 people, including those of 90 of 94 former NFL players.
McKee is a Boston University neuropathologist.
“The disease can only be diagnosed after death. I think the broader point, and the one that your question gets to, is what that necessarily means.
“Where do we go from here with that information,’’ Miller said, noting that little is known about the prevalence of the disease or the risk of
incurring it.
On Tuesday, the NFL released this statement: “The comments made by Jeff Miller yesterday accurately reflect the view of the NFL’’.
Critics of the NFL’s proposed one billion dollars plan to settle concussion claims called Miller’s sudden football-CTE connection admission a game changer.
The settlement is being appealed by players concerned that it excludes future cases of CTE, what they consider “the signature disease of football.’’
The deal announced by lead plaintiffs’ lawyers and the NFL in August 2013 would instead pay up to four million dollars for prior deaths involving CTE.
“Given that, the settlement’s failure to compensate present and future CTE is inexcusable,’’ lawyer Steven Molo wrote in a letter to federal appeals court in Philadelphia hearing his appeal.
The NFL’s attorneys responded later that Molo’s contention that Miller’s admission casting doubt on the fairness of the settlement “does nothing of the sort’’.
“The premise of Mr Molo’s letter and briefs is wrong,’’ the league rebuttal said.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
“Mr Molo’s letter fundamentally mischaracterises the Settlement Agreement as failing to compensate CTE, ignoring the District Court’s finding that the Settlement compensates the `serious, objectively verifiable neurocognitive and neuromuscular impairment’’.
“It should be verifiable in living players allegedly associated with CTE according to the very studies relied on by Appellants and their experts’’.
In 2009, an NFL spokesman told the New York Times that it is “quite obvious from the medical research that’s been done that concussions can lead to long-term problems.
“Pressed by Congress and in interviews, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and other league representatives have for years avoided taking a position, repeating that the league would let the medics decide.’’
The league had never expressly linked playing football to CTE.
During Super Bowl week, Dr Mitch Berger asserted that there is still no established link between football and CTE.
He is a San Francisco neurosurgeon who leads the NFL subcommittee on long-term brain injury.
Schakowsky seized on Berger’s remarks during the informal discussion, in which several brain injury experts gathered around a rectangular table to discuss the science surrounding concussions.
“The NFL is peddling a false sense of security,’’ Schakowsky said.
“Football is a high-risk sport because of the routine hits, not just diagnosable concussions.
“What the American public need now is honesty about the health risks and clearly more research.’’
She then asked McKee and Miller to answer “yes’’ or “no’’ about whether a connection between football and CTE has been established.
“I unequivocally think there’s a link between playing football and CTE,’’ McKee said.
“We’ve seen it in 90 out of 94 NFL players whose brains we’ve examined; we’ve found it in 45 out of 55 college players and six out of 26 high school players.
“No, I don’t think this represents how common this disease is in the living population.
“But the fact that over five years I’ve been able to accumulate this number of cases in football players, it cannot be rare.
“In fact, I think we are going to be surprised at how common it is.’’
Schakowsky then turned to Miller.
After acknowledging the link, he said: “But there’s also a number of questions that come with that’’. (Reuters/NAN)