Goodell defends NFL to Congress about concussions

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell would not acknowledge a connection between head injuries on the football field and later brain diseases while defending the league's policies on concussions before Congress.

Under sometimes-contentious questioning from lawmakers — and suggestions about reconsidering the league's lucrative antitrust exemption — Goodell sat at a witness table Wednesday alongside NFL Players Association head DeMaurice Smith.

Both men agreed to turn over players' medical records to the House Judiciary Committee.

Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., asked Goodell whether he thinks there's an injury-disease link. Goodell responded that the NFL isn't waiting for that debate to play out and is taking steps to make the game safer.

"I just asked you a simple question. What is the answer?" persisted Conyers.

Goodell replied by saying a medical expert could give a better answer than he could.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. — who noted that her husband played in the NFL — asked Goodell how the league was addressing the welfare of retired players during the current collective bargaining negotiations with the union.

Goodell said that it's a "priority for the owners and players to take better care of our retired players," but Waters cut him off, demanding specifics.

"We've heard from the NFL time and time again — you're always 'studying,' you're always 'trying,' you're 'hopeful,'" Waters said, pointing a finger in Goodell's direction. "I want to know what are you doing ... to deal with this problems and other problems related to injuries?"

When Goodell said that talks between owners and players are in the early stages, Waters said it is time "for Congress to take a look at your antitrust exemption" and that she thinks it should be removed.

A 1961 law grants professional sports leagues antitrust exemption for broadcasting. That has allowed the NFL to sign TV contracts totaling billions of dollars on behalf of all its teams, helping transform the league into the economic powerhouse it is today.

In addition to medical records from the NFL and its union, Conyers wants information on head injuries from the NCAA, high schools and medical researchers to better understand football's health risks.

"We need an expeditious and independent review of all the data," Conyers said, calling the problem a "life and death" issue that warrants federal scrutiny.

"I say this not simply because of the impact of these injuries on the 2,000 current players and more than 10,000 retirees associated with the NFL and their families," Conyers said. "I say it because of the effect on the millions of players at the college, high school and youth levels."

Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the panel, said that while Congress can highlight the consequences of playing football, "the NFL does not need Congress to referee this issue."

"Football, like soccer, rugby and even basketball and baseball, involves contact that can produce injuries," Smith said. "We cannot legislate the elimination of injuries from the games without eliminating the games themselves."

Gay Culverhouse, former president of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was a member of the first of two witness panels scheduled to appear. She said that NFL team doctors are not player advocates, and called for an independent neurologist to be on the sidelines for games.

"Players get to a point where they refuse to tell the team doctor that they have suffered a concussion ... (because) they know there is a backup player sitting on the bench, waiting to take their position," Culverhouse said.

"They are a disposable commodity," she added. "There is a draft coming up every April and these players fight to hold on to their jobs and they welcome shots and anything else that will keep them on the field. This is, in my mind, inhumane, and I watched it since the early '70s, and I will tell you that it has not changed."

Dr. Andrew Tucker, team physician for the Baltimore Ravens, echoed Culverhouse's assertion that players are prone to hiding information about head injuries.

Goodell said the health and welfare of all members of the "NFL family, particularly our retired players," is important to him.

"Since becoming commissioner, I can think of no single issue to which I have devoted as much time and attention," Goodell said.

As for head injuries specifically, he said medical considerations must always trump competitive ones, and that the league has established a toll-free hotline for players if they believe they're being pressured to return to the field before fully recovering from a concussion or other head injury.

"All return-to-play decisions are made by doctors and doctors only," the commissioner said. "The decision to return to the game is not made by coaches. Not by players, not by teammates."

He also pointed to changes in rules aimed at reducing contact to the head and neck, the development of improved helmets, research and education.