As fans prepare to absorb today’s Super Bowl match-up between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles, along with thousands of calories, we recall last week’s backstage glimpse at what is becoming one of the most important aspects of professional football.
The Ledger’s Roy Fuoco introduced us to Sue Stanley-Green, an associate professor and athletic training program director at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, who also doubles as a “spotter” for the National Football League diagnosing potential concussions. Stanley-Green does so for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and warranted some attention from The Ledger because she was selected to work the Pro Bowl last week in Orlando.
We guess that was light duty compared to how Stanley-Green typically spends her fall Sunday afternoons. The Pro Bowl is the NFL’s all-star game, and the elite of the sport who participate typically take great care to avoid any situation that could invite a significant injury.
Still, concussions remain a big headache for the NFL, from a medical and public relations standpoint. And it’s quite possible that one vicious hit could alter the outcome of Super Bowl LII today, based on the word of one of the folks working the game in Stanley-Green’s capacity.
As Fuoco described it, the NFL’s spotters — who must be veteran, certified athletic trainers with experience at the professional or collegiate level, yet independent of the NFL — watch a video feed of the game from the press box. Additionally they have equipment that links them to the team’s medical staff, the referee on the field and the audio broadcast of the game.
If a spotter suspects a player has suffered a head injury, he or she calls the sidelines. The player must be removed from the field and evaluated for a concussion. If doctors and trainers determine the medical protocol is positive for a concussion, the player is benched for the rest of the game.
Stanley-Green told The Ledger the job can make for an exhausting afternoon. But, she added, “I enjoy doing the spotter thing because I feel like I’m part of trying to make the game safer.”
Which is why the work of Stanley-Green and her ilk is arguably one of the most underappreciated things about pro football, at least from a fan’s perspective.
Last month the NFL reported that in 2017, including preseason games and practices, players sustained 281 concussions — the most in the six years the NFL has tracked the injuries.
The prevalence of on-field injuries coupled with the shocking number of players who have been diagnosed with CTE, the debilitating condition created by repetitive brain trauma including concussions, which can only be diagnosed after death, has drained the sport at all levels of significant support.
Now, on the NFL's biggest day, the media might contribute another hit.
Film director Josh Begley and Oscar-winning documentary producer Laura Poitras recently released a five-minute film called “Concussion Protocol” that documented the collisions that led to all 281 concussions from last year. It’s reportedly brutal — even for those who’ve been in the pits. Former NFL wide receiver Donté Stallworth told Vanity Fair: “It was gut-wrenching. My stomach was curling the whole time.”
Meanwhile, The New York Times recently released an ad about the NFL and concussions. The paper flashes on the screen its headlines chronicling over 27 years the rise and eventual suicide of superstar linebacker Junior Seau, who died at 43 and suffered from CTE, and the NFL’s evolving outlook on concussions. “The truth will not be ignored. The truth has a voice,” the ad says, as the Times apparently pats itself on the back for driving the NFL’s reaction.
Despite the self-serving nature of the ad, the Times has a point. According to CNN, former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue created the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee in 1994, whose original chairman was a doctor with no experience with brain injuries. In 2005 the league was still telling the public that putting a player back on the field after a concussion “does not involve significant risk” of a follow-up brain injury. It was not until 2016 that the NFL acknowledged a link between the game 's violence and CTE.
NBC News recently reported that the NFL’s chief medical officer was disappointed with the level of concussions in 2017. Yet DeMaurice Smith, head of players’ union, called that a “positive.” It demonstrated, Smith said, the league and the players were getting “smarter and better” about caring for players with head injuries.
The NFL deserves some credit for finally facing the evidence, and hiring people like Sue Stanley-Green to help keep players safe. Fans may not like her work in a given game, but keeping players healthy over the long haul — so we have more time to appreciate their talents and so they can have healthier lives after football — is the appropriate objective.