In-Class Assignment 3

Feb. 29, 2016

Responsibilities to Employees—National Football League Documentary Questions

Answer each of the following questions while watching the documentary about concussions and their effects on NFL players (employees). You’ll earn a point (up to 15 points) for each question you answer correctly. This is an individual exercise.

1. The investigation discussed in this video is about two basic questions related to the NFL and its employers (the teams). What are those two questions?

What did the NFL know and when did they know it?

2. Which Pittsburgh Steeler player from the 1970s was the “first,” due to his death and subsequent autopsy, that drew extensive attention to the dangers to players in the NFL?

Webster

3. (a) According to the expert, each of the 1,000-1,500 hits per year that a player might experience in the NFL exert a force of how many g’s? (NOTE: One g is the same as the force of gravity at the earth’s surface). (b) He states each of these is roughly the same as doing what with a car?

a. 20 g’s.

b. Driving into a brick wall at 35 mph.

4. What were the three things alleged in the disability claim against the NFL in 1997?

Don’t really need three things; basic answer is that Webster claimed he had a cognitive disability and that it was caused by playing football.

5. What was the “admission” that was “buried” in the Retirement Board’s report that granted Mike Webster monthly disability payments?

The Board admitted that playing football could cause long term brain damage.

6. The NFL is by far the most popular sport in the U. S. (college football is probably second). It is very successful at marketing what, according to the documentary?

violence

7. The “second biggest cheer” in NFL games, next to those cheers for touchdowns, are for what, according to the documentary?

Big hits.

8. Mr. Steinberg, an NFL agent who was the model for the movie Jerry Maguire, observed cognitive problems in Troy Aikman and Steve Young after their concussions. Based on this and other experiences with players he represented, he concluded that the NFL “should have known” about the potential dangers of repeated head trauma, because the consequences were ______.

so serious or critical

9. The NFL committee published numerous papers in the early 2000s. What was the conclusion of all of these papers?

All these papers concluded that there was no significant safety risk to getting concussions playing football.

10. Dr. Omalu observed what disease in Mike Webster’s brain, and later in several other players’ brains? (the acronym will be fine). What was so significant about this observation?

CTE. It was so significant because it was the first medical evidence that playing football could be linked to brain disease.

11. What did the NFL doctor say to Dr. Omalu about the potential consequences of his research to NFL in particular and football in general?

That if only 10% of mothers started believing that football was too dangerous, that it could be the end of football as we know it.

12. In a 2007 message given to all NFL players, what did the NFL state to each player about repetitive head injuries?

As late as 2007, the NFL told players that a link had not been established between repetitive head injuries from football and later brain disease.