League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth

I did not grow up in a football family.  We never watched it and when I went to high school football games, it was to hang out and chat with my friends.  I never actually ever watched a football game.  So when my son said he wanted to play football, my gut reaction was to say no.  But he wanted to play, so I said yes. I was semi-OK with it, but I hadn’t read League of Denial prior to him playing.

Now I will say, the league he is in, takes head injuries VERY seriously.  Every coach has to go through training and if a child gets injured, they immediately check for a head injury.  Sure I know that is not going to prevent the head injury from happening, but at the same time, you can get a head injury doing almost anything.

League of Denial Book

When I was asked to review the book, League of Denial:  The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru, I knew I had to.  Though part of me didn’t want to, all at the same time.  Within the first few pages, I was hooked. It was very interesting to me.

About the Book

 “Professional football players do not sustain frequent repetitive blows to the brain on a regular basis”.  So concluded the National Football League in a December 2005 scientific paper on concussions in America’s most popular sport.  That judgment, implausible even to a causal fan, also contradicted the opinion of a growing cadre of neuroscientists who worked in vain to convince the NFL that it was facing a deadly new scourge:  A chronic brain disease that was driving an alarming number of players — including some of the all-time greats — to madness.  League of Denial reveals how the NFL, over a period of nearly two decades, sought to cover up and deny mounting evidence of the connection between football and brain damage.

My Thoughts

I thought this book was very well written and it seemed to be very well researched, as well.  I found it to be very interesting and eye-opening.  But, despite all that I read, I still have no problem letting my son (9 years old) play tackle football.  I can’t keep him in a bubble and he can fall and hit his head playing outside, jumping in a bounce house or tripping and falling.  Anything can happen at anytime.  My son has played two seasons of tackle football and he has not had one single injury.  I’m sure our time is coming for him to get injured, but like I said, he can get injured doing anything.

If you would like to learn more about the authors or the book, you can visit their website here.