Rose Law Group Reporter Gripe of the Week
By Phil Riske | Managing Editor
“Trap 7.” In football parlance, it’s a play where a defensive lineman is allowed to come into the offense’s background, where a running back deposits him into the next zip code.
Trap 7 is the only specific play I can remember after it became apparent I was too small to play football — thank God.
Let’s be honest: football, notably the NFL, is now America’s past time, not baseball. I fear football has and will continue to execute a Trap7 on the brains of those playing the sport.
Any parent of a boy who wants to play football must—and I stress must—watch or read “League of Denial,” written by ESPN reporters Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada, and produced on PBS’s “Frontline” program.
The journalists’ investigation clearly shows a link between early-onset dementia and catastrophic brain damage, known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), to deceased players from high school through professional football. The smoking gun is autopsies on more than 60 brains of football players, who literally lost their minds before dying.
Yet, the NFL to this day says the link to blows on the head and concussions to CTE has not been proven. The near $1B the league settled for in a class-action suit brought by former players was merely a way to avoid a trial and therefor discovery of what did the NFL know of the risk of brain damage and playing football and when did it know it?
Every football parent, player and fan should take the time to view “League of Denial.” It could be a life-saving two hours.
