CSotD: Hollywood, MD
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Kal Kallaugher's humorous-but-thoughtful cartoon on the issue of brain injuries in football stands out from a number of bad cartoons on the topic, because it suggests that (A) he's not opposed to sports overall and (B) he was actually aware of the issue before the Will Smith movie, "Concussion," was released at Christmas. (As was Mike Luckovich three years ago.)
I haven't seen the movie, and probably won't, largely because the trailer oversimplified the response of the NFL, which was inadequate, inappropriate and negligent, but a lot more nuanced than simply issuing death threats, and, unfortunately, a lot more typical.
Obstruction and denial are more potent than death threats, but, granted, don't pack the theaters and sell the popcorn. But nowhere in the original stories on the research did Dr. Bennet Omalu report death threats, and my response to that fabrication makes me question it all.
Nothing unusual for Hollywood, either to create fiction and call it "docudrama" or to time its release for maximum impact, whether it's "Concussion" just as the playoffs begin, or "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" in the heat of the Presidential campaign.
Granted, as I've said before, I stumbled on the topic early and with serendipity: Back in 2009, I covered a middle-school's day-long study of the brain, with experts from both Dartmouth College and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center doing presentations, among them a researcher on brain injury in sports.
When Natasha Richardson died of a brain trauma a month or so later (not related to the type in football), I did a sitdown with him to talk about the research he was doing, and when I've mentioned it to people since, it turns out this guy and his company are at the forefront of it all.
That's serendipity, certainly, and I don't expect general-interest journalists (among whom I include political cartoonists) to be up on the topic, though sports writers and cartoonists certainly should be.
But I don't think it's unfair to expect anyone over the age of 12 to not accept Hollywood's version of anything as factual, nor it it unfair to expect professional commentators stepping outside their area of expertise to do balanced research, and not simply look for confirmation of what they've already decided are the facts.
My own take is that the research is leaning towards the Panel One bubble wrap solution, thanks to the aforementioned researcher, who, as in Panel Two above, has created helmets with telemetry monitors to help quantify and identify the sources of dangerous impact.
Which, by the way, is being studied not just in football but, particularly, in skiing and ice hockey, though, as he told the kids, you can also be injured heading the ball in soccer and you have to make smart decisions about the sports you play, as seen in Panel Four above. (And in a 2012 CSotD touched off by a Drew Litton cartoon about – with odd timing – Peyton Manning.)
As it happens, I kept my boys from playing football not over head trauma, not a known factor then, but because of the number of people I knew at Notre Dame with joint injuries from the sport, some who walked with a permanent limp, others who were in recurring pain, and many of whose problems would now be resolved quickly, thanks to improvements in surgical technology and sports medicine overall.
Let's hope for similar progress with this issue, but, as said, it's a complex problem.
Kal handled it well.
Speaking of powerful sports organizations and denial
Rob Rogers on the Olympic Committee's response — or lack thereof — to the Zika outbreak.
I guess the rowers and other boating athletes don't have to worry, since they're be competing in waters far too polluted to support mosquito larvae.
And Brazil should have no problem fixing things up for the Olympics, since they are rolling in money after hosting the World Cup. Well, depending on whom you ask.
But if you've just done a deal with FIFA, why not do another with the IOC? As the punchline goes, we've established what you are; now we're just dickering over the price.
However, if you can't make a boffo Hollywood movie over Zika and the Olympics, I note with some amusement the near-simultaneous release of "Race," a biopic about Jesse Owens, hero of the 1936 Summer Olympics, and "Eddie the Eagle," about the beloved underdog of the 1988 Winter Olympics.
"Race" looks like far and away the higher quality flick, though I wouldn't expect 100 percent historical accuracy from either.
Finally, let me share this
'Cause the Internet is all about sharing!
I'm glad to see that Boulet — who is considerably younger and even more considerably hipper than I am — seems to share my thoughts on the topic. Go look.
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