Study: NFL Must Take Concussions Seriously

Nov. 23 -- When Oakland plays the Chiefs in Kansas City this weekend, Raiders' All Pro linebacker Bill Romanowski will be watching the game on television at his home in Northern California.

Romanowski is finished for the season, and perhaps forever, because of repeated concussions — at least 10 — in his 16-year pro career. He wants to play again, but after his latest concussion earlier this season, doctors told Romanowski his history makes him more susceptible and another could cause critical damage.

"It's definitely scary," said Romanowski, watching a Raiders game in his living room. "In no way would I ever want to put the rest of my life in jeopardy."

Romanowski is hardly alone. A newly released NFL study counted 900 concussions in the league between 1996 and 2001.

Concussions were a subject league officials, coaches and trainers long avoided discussing. Players, perhaps because there was no physical evidence of an injury, like a broken bone, often did not take concussions seriously.

But officials became concerned with the forced retirement in 1992 of Jets star wide receiver Al Toon, as the NFL faced an epidemic of concussions. That concern was reinforced when marquee players like Troy Aikmen and Steve Young also retired after multiple concussions.

Head-On Impact

The NFL study, published in Neurosurgery magazine, was led by Dr. Elliott Pellman, who is also the Jets' team physician.

Pellman said the injury is just as severe as any with physical evidence. And he said the best way to understand is to imagine the brain as a Jell-O mold. "If you bang that Jell-O mold," he said, you see that long after the blow "the Jell-O is just jiggling around, that's probably what's going on with a player's brain."