The relationship between professional football and brain injury has been heavily in the media spotlight over the past few months. The issue has even gone to Congress. This week, the Mackey-White Traumatic Brain Injury Committee held its first meeting in Palm Beach, Florida. The committee consists of professional athletes, current and past NFL players, doctors and scientists. The committee has been formed as a forum for discussion of brain injuries in professional football, the latest research linking these injuries to football, as well as safety recommendations to prevent injuries. The committee is named after athletes John Mackey who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and Reggie White, who died at the age of 43 after his retirement from professional football.

Congressional hearings into the link between professional football and dementia and other signs of brain injury were conducted earlier this month. It was a follow up to a compete hearing conducted in October last year in Washington.  During that hearing, the NFL had received severe criticism for the manner in which it has handled the issue of brain injuries in football players.  The league has since agreed to several changes in the rules to minimize the risk of such injuries.

For California brain injury lawyers, getting the NFL to even admit that there is a high risk of brain injuries with the kind of continuous blows to the head that a professional football player receives, has been no easy task. The NFL’s Dr. Ira Casson testified before the hearing earlier this month - and continues to insist -  that there wasn’t enough evidence to determine if repeated head blows could cause long-term brain damage.  However in December last year, an NFL spokesman made a startling admission - that medical research had proved that repeated concussions can cause long-term problems.  It should hopefully, signify the beginning of better safety measures to prevent these debilitating injuries.