The Most Unsafe Workplace Watched By 75,000 Screaming Fans

I'm a blogger fellow with Brave New Films on their 16 Deaths Per Day campaign for worker safety. Join us on Facebook.



Tonight in New York City, football executives will change the lives of hundreds of young men at the NFL Draft. Young men from around the country will see their fortunes arrive with the call of their name from the podium. They will be feted with signing bonuses and performance bonuses and endorsement contracts and millions of dollars in salary. And then in the fall, we'll all trudge out to our local stadia to cheer on these same players to victory.

But what will we be watching? Actually, we'll be invited into the workplace of two football teams, a workplace as cruel and debilitating as any in the nation. Over the past several months, members of Congress have investigated the prevalence of concussions and neurological injuries arising from the game of football, and the results have been unsettling.

Are professional football players at greater risk of dementia and other neurological problems?

The question took center stage in Congress on Wednesday during hours of testimony from doctors, retired athletes and National Football League executives. A congressional committee waded through conflicting perspectives on past and current studies, and urged the use of greater precautions to help protect participants in one of America's most popular pastimes [...]

"Surely, an $8 billion a year industry can find it within its budget to make sure players are adequately protected and that any victims of long-term brain disease are fairly compensated," said Michigan Rep. John Conyers, the Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

These are "life and death issues. They go to the heart of our nation's most popular sport, and equally importantly, they affect millions of players of all ages and their families."

The New York Times has done a particularly good job of covering this issue. Through their coverage, you can see the NFL first deny, then admit the long-term effects of concussions on their employees; allow the co-chairs of their concussion committee to quit, and select new ones; set new rules on players returning from concussions (they now have to wait longer); and yet continue to deny the magnitude of the problem, rejecting the evidence that concussions and repeated contact can lead to long-term brain damage.

But that evidence is very clear. Take the case of former NFL lineman Ralph Wenzel, now living in an assisted living facility:

The five paper-clipped sheets that were slipped into a wire basket at the Van Nuys State Office Building looked no different from the other workers’ compensation claims filed by welders and cashiers. But this packet was different: it will almost certainly become a test case in considering National Football League teams’ liability for the dementia experienced by retired players.

The claim was filed by Dr. Eleanor Perfetto on behalf of her husband, Ralph Wenzel, contending that his dementia at 67 is related to his career as an N.F.L. lineman from 1966 to 1973... They estimated the case’s potential value at more than $1 million if it reaches its conclusion, probably in two or three years [...]

After watching her otherwise healthy husband begin to lose his mental faculties in his mid-50s and be placed in an assisted-living facility at 64, Dr. Perfetto has become one of the most outspoken voices in football’s dementia debate. She testified at a United States House Judiciary Committee hearing on brain injuries in October and served as a resource for other spouses of former players with dementia; in December 2008 she tried to attend a meeting between N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell and retired players but was turned away.

“Having a judge deem this is work-related would move this forward and keep it very visible,” said Dr. Perfetto, a senior director at Pfizer who holds a Ph.D. in public health from the University of North Carolina. “I think when they look at all the information it will just be undeniable.”

This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to anybody. The repetitive stress of banging heads with other large men equipped with helmets and pads is bound to take a toll on the body and the brain. Football players are well-compensated for the risks they take, but the cumulative effect of constant hitting is undeniable. And football owners and medical personnel, along with the culture inside locker rooms, keep players in danger and on the field even when they're injured. This PBS story on Hall of Famer John Mackey is simply devastating.

However, I notice a difference between how the concussion story has played in media and on Capitol Hill versus, well, every other workplace in America. When football heroes are faced with a hazardous workplace, there are multiple hearings, and massive media coverage, and serious pressure on management to fix the problem and make the workplace safer. When your manufacturing plant, or hotel, or restaurant, or other place of business, has an unsafe workplace, there are no cameras, there are no hearings, frequently there are no inspectors. This is the problem that the Protecting America's Workers Act intends to fix.

We don't have spectators at our jobs. We don't make millions of dollars. We cannot expect the kind of pressure on our bosses to fix our problems. Government must ensure safe workplaces for everyone, from the football star to the mine worker. And so we need PAWA to update the rules for worker safety and create the kinds of penalties to make employers change their behavior.

I worry about the stars who will be drafted tonight, and the hazardous work environment they will face. I also worry about the rest of the workers in America. Someone needs to look out for them, too.

Is There A Sporting Competition Today?

Before I sit down to another orgy of American football excess, I wanted to note this weird story claiming that the NFL is getting away from using military metaphors to describe the sport.

In a little-discussed shift in recent years, the NFL has moved away from depicting its games in military terms. While the league continues to embrace the military as an entity, inviting Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of Central Command, to make the Super Bowl's opening coin toss and having the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds perform a pregame flyover at Raymond James Stadium, the NFL no longer endorses using military terminology to describe its contests.

It is inappropriate, league officials say, to do so at a time when American forces are fighting two wars halfway around the globe.

"It's a matter of common sense," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said as he stood outside the stadium the other day.

The same is true at NFL Films, an arm of the league that perpetuated for decades the image of football as controlled warfare by producing movies glorifying the game's violence with phrases like "linebacker search and destroy." In recent years the company's president, Steve Sabol, ordered all allusions to war be removed from its new films.

"I don't think you will ever see those references coming back," he said. "They won't be back in our scripts, certainly not in my lifetime."

Speaking as (in all likelihood) the only person in the political blogosphere who has worked for Steve Sabol and NFL Films, I can say unequivocally that he's full of shit. He never read a script in the time I was there, let alone make changes, and I'm virtually certain that continues today. Plus the script (which Sabol is probably lying about) is immaterial and inescapable; most of the combat-like terminology is embedded into the language of football (offense, defense, blitz, ground game, long bomb, etc.) It's the way in which the games are filmed, in super slo-mo with low angles, that glorifies and mythologizes and provides the lizard brain connections to war.

On a related note, do read Marcy Wheeler's great post about an actual warrior and former Arizona Cardinal, whose death was used by the military as a propaganda tool through deliberate lies. This is Pat Tillman's Super Bowl.

Enjoy the game.

Terrible Towels

So the legend goes that the last Washington Redskin home game before the election is a predictor of the winner on Tuesday. It worked for 17 straight elections until 2004. When the Redskins win, the party in power stays in power. When the Redskins lose, the party out of power wins.

Steelers 23, Redskins 6, under 2 minutes to play.

I think form will hold.

McCain's Horrible Week

Hey, good for Barack Obama:



If you can't see it, Obama replays Phil Gramm's "nation of whiners" comment, adds in McCain's "psychological benefits" for his energy policies comment, and concludes, "America already has one Dr. Phil." Which is one Dr. Phil too many, but he's too polite to say that.

If you haven't noticed, McCain is having a week as a candidate that makes Walter Mondale look like FDR.

This is the week that should have effectively ended John McCain's efforts to become the next president of the United States. But you wouldn't know it if you watched any of the mainstream media outlets or followed political reporting in the major newspapers.

During this past week: McCain called the most import entitlement program in the U.S. a disgrace, his top economic adviser called the American people whiners, McCain released an economic plan that no one thought was serious, he flip flopped on Iraq, joked about the deaths of Iranian citizens, and denied making comments that he clearly made -- TWICE. All this and it is not even Friday! Yet watching and reading the mainstream press you would think McCain was having a pretty decent political week, I mean at least Jesse Jackson didn't say anything about him.

Go read that whole article. But let me add to it. He emailed around a YouTube of him bashing his top economic adviser Phil Gramm and saying "He doesn't speak for me," at PRECISELY THE TIME Gramm was speaking for him at the Wall Street Journal's editorial board. He said that he didn't know the significance of the Iranian threat after spending half his campaign talking up that very threat. And then there's this, the kind of story that would utterly define any Democrat immediately as an unprincipled liar for the length of the campaign.

Asked what’s the first thing that comes to his mind when he thinks of Pittsburgh , McCain, chuckled, "the Steelers. I was a mediocre high school athlete but I loved and adored the sports but the Steelers really made a huge impression on me particularly in my early years."

And then McCain told a rather moving story about his time as a P.O.W. "When I was first interrogated and really had to give some information because of the pressures, physical pressures on me, I named the starting lineup, defensive line of the Pittsburgh Steelers as my squadron mates."

"Did you really?" asked the reporter.

"Yes," McCain said.

"In your POW camp?" asked the reporter.

"Yes," McCain said.

"Could you do it today?" asked the reporter.

"No, unfortunately," McCain said.

Here's one reason he likely couldn't do it today -- the Steelers aren't the team whose defensive line McCain named for his Vietnamese tormentors. The Green Bay Packers are. At least according to every previous time McCain has told this story.

In McCain's best-selling 1999 memoir "Faith of My Fathers," McCain writes:

"Once my condition had stabilized, my interrogators resumed their work. Demands for military information were accompanied by threats to terminate my medical treatment if I did not cooperate. Eventually, I gave them my ship’s name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant. Pressed for more useful information, I gave the names of the Green Bay Packers offensive line, and said they were members of my squadron. When asked to identify future targets, I simply recited the names of a number of North Vietnamese cities that had already been bombed."

In 2005, A&E ran a movie version of "Faith of My Fathers."

And McCain discussed that precise clip on CNN.

The actor playing McCain, asked to name the men in his squadron, says: "Starr; Greg; McGee; Davis ; Adderly; Brown; Ringo; Wood."

Cut back to real life. The CNN anchor asks McCain: "For those who don't know the story, were those NFL football players?"

"That was the starting lineup of the Green Bay Packers, the first Super Bowl champions, yes," McCain responded. But it's -- it was the best I could think of at the time."

The movie actually shows this act of defiance twice.

INTERROGATOR: The names of your squadron...

MCCAIN: Starr, Gregg...McGee, Davis...Adderley, Brown, Ringo, Wood.

INTERROGATOR: Ten points, McCain.

MCCAIN: Ray Nitschke, our C.O.

OK, that would actually end a Democrat's career, permanently. I remember all the jokes about Cheese Whiz and Lambert Field with John Kerry, and Al Gore inventing the Internet or being the model for Love Story. This is far worse, actually, considering it's PART OF HIS ARGUMENT AGAINST TORTURE.

Explaining why he thinks torture can result in erroneous information, McCain wrote in Newsweek in 2005, "In my experience, abuse of prisoners often produces bad intelligence because under torture a person will say anything he thinks his captors want to hear--whether it is true or false--if he believes it will relieve his suffering. I was once physically coerced to provide my enemies with the names of the members of my flight squadron, information that had little if any value to my enemies as actionable intelligence. But I did not refuse, or repeat my insistence that I was required under the Geneva Conventions to provide my captors only with my name, rank and serial number. Instead, I gave them the names of the Green Bay Packers' offensive line, knowing that providing them false information was sufficient to suspend the abuse."

I understand that the media really like BBQ, and loves to sit in the front of the plane. But if they took the rib-colored glasses off for a second, they'd see that this guy is maybe the worst Presidential candidate of my lifetime. And they'd bother to report a little truth about his evasions, lies, and missteps.

The Horrors! Peaceable Assembly!

Jesse at Pandagon says about all that's needed to be said over Roger Simon's comments here:

They are floating the idea of changing the venue of [Barack Obama's] acceptance speech from Denver’s Pepsi Center to the much larger outdoor Invesco Field. I’m not going to indulge in the obvious comparisons. But I am disturbed by this development. 76,000 people blindly screaming “Yes, we can!” in a giant stadium is not an image I relish seeing in a free society.

There's something fun about saying you will not indulge in the obvious comparisons followed by indulging in them. But as Jesse says, that field is not used solely for Leni Reifenstahl film re-enactments and re-education camps. 75,000-plus people show up to cheer mindlessly hundreds of times every fall weekend. They call it "football." And I'll be damn happier when 75,000 people come together in support of taking steps to provide more affordable health care or ending the war in Iraq rather than cheering a play-action fake and fly route for a touchdown.

Note to conservatives - fascism does not equal "popular".

Also, Chris Dodd Is Considering Suspending His Preisdential Bid

Back when I was producing, I did an interview with Steve Grogan, formerly of the New England Patriots, and the talk turned to the 1986 Super Bowl, when Chicago crushed the Pats 46-10. He recounted a story about Raymond Berry, the deadpan coach of the Patriots. The last two points of the Super Bowl came on a safety, when Henry Waechter sacked Grogan in the end zone. Grogan came off the field and approached Berry, saying "If you want me to keep throwing the ball, Coach, I'll do it, just tell me the game plan."

"No," said Berry, "just run out the clock. I think that last safety clinched it."

Grogan stared at him for a second in a bit of disbelief, then noticed Berry cracking a knowing smile.

That's what I thought of when I read the story that Ron Paul has decided to end his Presidential campaign. I guess those last 45 primaries clinched it.

Put A Band-Aid On Your Brain And Get Back Out There!

This is really an unforgivable statement by VA Secretary James Peake.

On the topic of [post-traumatic stress disorder], Peake questioned if the condition is being overdiagnosed, considering the mental health services available to those in the armed forces.

"I worry about labeling all these kids coming back," he said. "Just because someone might need a little counseling when they get back, doesn't mean they need the PTSD label their whole lives." [...]

VA secretary Peake suggested some of the concern about post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury has been overblown.

Many of the brain injuries are serious but some of them are akin to what anyone who played football in their youth might have suffered, Peake told Guinn.

I played football as a kid. Even played in Veterans Stadium in Philly one time. Interestingly, I never woke up in a cold sweat screaming that the enemy was on my tail, nor have I ever put a gun in my mouth while crying because I couldn't take the signals my brain was sending me.

This is disgraceful. Concussions at the high school level of football and above are pretty serious, but TBI is on a whole other level. It's a severe medical condition that requires constant treatment, otherwise you get another generation of veterans living on the streets. Dismissing TBI and PTSD is symptomatic of a belief that troops are sausage, merely existing to be ground up. And that's the message from the Bush Administration since their series of wars began, and that's how McCain would "lead," too.

This guy Peake should resign.

Brett Favre Draws 75,000 For Afternoon of Pigskin-Throwing!

This photo of Obama speaking in front of 75,000 Oregonians in Portland is inspiring, but it's a photo you can see about 100 times every football weekend from September to December - and those people pay to show up!

I'm not saying that this isn't some amazing feat, or that we all must shun football games and fun, but the fact that we're all marveling over something replicated over and over again shows our priority order in this country. I HOPE we're on to something different where people will crowd around by the tens of thousands to hear someone speak. Actually we'd be headed back to the future. They had 15,000 people at the second Lincoln-Douglas debate in Freeport, Illinois, and it wasn't even amplified!

They Should Give The Eagles That Game On Principle

There are no moral victories, but that was one. And the entire city of Philadelphia just raised their net wealth by covering that 24-point spread. Fun to be home and see a ballgame for once.

This has been the obligatory monthly sports post.