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Overview
When post-concussion syndrome forced star NFL running back Merril Hoge into early retirement in 1994, research on football-related head injuries wasn’t a priority. At the time, football was heavily influenced by a tough guy culture, and little was known about concussions and their potentially dangerous effects.
Then the tragic death of Hoge’s ex-teammate Mike Webster in 2002 launched a wave of fear after an autopsy determined he suffered from an obscure brain disease—chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The media pounced. Concern over player safety soon became a war on football at every level, with one scientist even declaring youth football “child abuse.”
In an effort to set the record straight, Hoge and board-certified forensic neuropathologist Dr. Peter Cummings explore the hidden agendas and misinformation fueling the CTE hysteria machine. Armed with extensive research, critical insight, and expert interviews, they address some of the common myths surrounding the disease, examining significant flaws in the often-cited studies and exposing the sensationalistic reporting that dominates today’s CTE dialogue.
Compelling, accessible, and ultimately revelatory, Brainwashed exposes the biases and unsubstantiated claims crippling true scientific advancement in the area of CTE research. This is a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of youth sports and the survival of our nation’s most beloved game.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781684018659 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Mascot Books |
| Publication date: | 10/23/2018 |
| Pages: | 240 |
| Sales rank: | 330,930 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d) |
About the Author
Hoge is chairman of the board of the Highmark Caring Foundation and on the board of the Chuck Noll Foundation for Brain Injury Research. Active in concussion research and in the prevention and treatment of brain injuries, Hoge testified at a congressional hearing on football head injuries in 2009 and was appointed to the NFL Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee in 2010.
In 2018, Hoge helped launch Your Call Football and is the author of Find a Way: Three Words That Changed My Life. He lives in Fort Thomas, Kentucky.
Table of Contents
Significant Players xvii
A CTE Timeline xix
Introduction 1
Hysteria is Outrunning the Facts 4
We've Been Brainwashed 6
Dr. Peter Cummings 8
Why I Wrote This Book 10
What is CTE? 13
Myth #1 All NFL Players Are Falling Apart 17
Chapter 1 A Concussion Becomes a Mission 19
"I Can Never Clear You" 23
ESPN Saved My Life 29
Beginning to Transform Youth Football 32
The First Whispers of CTE 36
Chapter 2 The Big Picture 39
Reasonable Standard of Care 43
Dr. Joseph Maroon 46
Slow Progress in the NFL 47
Where Are All the Players Who Are Falling Apart? 50
Guys Who Take Care of Themselves Are Doing Fine 54
Football's Tough Guy Culture Has Evolved 57
Chapter 3 All Eyes on Suicide 61
Press Coverage 66
Are Players Really More Likely to Kill Themselves? 68
The Crushing Impact of Life After Football 69
Junior Seau and Aaron Hernandez 72
Confirmation Bias 74
The Real Killer: Fear of CTE 76
Myth #2 GTE is Settled Science, and Football Causes It 83
Chapter 4 Headlines 85
Sloppy Reporting, Limited Sources 89
A One-Sided View of What "Sells" 90
There Are Sane Voices in the Press 93
Chapter 5 Cherry Picking Data 97
Pressure on Academic Free Speech 101
A Pro-CTE Propaganda Tool 104
Legal Blockades 106
Issues with Peer Review 111
Todd Ewen and the End of Dose-Response 113
Chapter 6 The Triumph of Junk Science 117
Skewed Diagnostic Guidelines 122
No Replication 125
Selection Bias 127
Unreliable Interviews with Loved Ones 129
Moving the Goalposts 130
Not Controlling for Other Factors 134
Is There Even a Stage I CTE? 137
Laboratory Artifacts 139
Hasty Conclusions 140
Correlation Doesn't Equal Causation 141
Chapter 7 The Inflammation Theory of CTE 147
What Happens When You Get Hit in the Head? 151
The Link Between Obesity and CTE 154
Neurological Damage May Be Reversible 157
Understanding Changes in the Person, Not Just the Brain 159
Money, Money, Money 161
Myth #3 Youth Football Is Child Abuse 165
Chapter 8 Under Attack 167
Youth Football and Fear-Inducing Headlines 170
Faces of CTE 176
Bring Out the Lawyers 177
The Fight to Ban Tackle Football 180
Taking Down the California Ban Bill 184
These Young Men Did Not Have CTE 186
The Case of Kosta Karageorge 188
…And Jeff Winans 190
A CTE Diagnosis Mill? 191
Speaking Up Against the Pressure to Stay Silent 194
Chapter 9 Don't Ban Football, Ban Sugar 199
More Bad Science, Youth Football Edition 202
The Great Game 205
"The Funnest Thing I've Ever Done!" 207
Becoming a Leader 208
It's About Staying Active 211
The Real Childhood Threat 213
Let Kids Be Kids 217
Chapter 10 Heads Up! 221
Teaching Football the Right Way 225
Heads Up Football By the Numbers 229
We Are the Gatekeepers 231
We're Changing How Coaches Think About the Game 234
Tire Biggest Threat is Ignorance 236
If the Rules Don't Work, Change Them 239
The Future is Now 242
Chapter 11 From The Cleats to the Helmet 247
Sweetness 250
Diagnostic Advances 253
Improving Helmet Technology 255
Six Kinds of Concussions 257
A Multidisciplinary Approach to Concussion Treatment 259
Nutrition, Lifestyle, and Nonpharmacological Approaches 265
The TB12 Method 270
Teaching Kids to Live a Healthy Lifestyle 273
Jaws and Coke 274
It's About Life, Not Football 277
Things to Know About CTE and Questions to Ask About Youth Football 283
Acknowledgments 289
About the Authors 293
References 297