Head injuries have dogged the National Football League since its very early days, since even before facemasks. But, donning the proud mantle of tobacco scientists everywhere, the NFL’s experts refused to admit until just a few months ago that it wasn’t a coincidence so many former players ended up with neurological damage by the time they turned fifty. The word going around is that a few skeptical medical men in charge of the NFL’s official investigation into the matter, a team led by one Dr. Ira Casson, had been dismissing the link between concussions and cognitive difficulties. Casson seemed obviously full of crap, and after Congress hog-piled onto the issue to scold the league, the NFL finally dismissed Casson and reevaluated the evidence. It was damning. In one study, coroners discovered that twelve of thirteen former NFL players had a buildup of a plaque in their brains—a plaque—called tau, a snarl of protein that disrupts neuronal function and that has been linked to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Many of the NFL players died in their forties; another autopsy revealed the beginning of tau tangles in an 18-year-old.
Will Vancouver-born Milan Lucic make Canada’s 2010 Olympic hockey team when the roster is announced on Wednesday? Pray that the Zamboni gods will be so kind: the world wouldn’t want to be denied of what could be an epic Olympic rivalry between the 21-year-old Boston Bruins winger and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ defenseman Mike Komisarek, 27, a contender for a spot on Team U.S.A. In November 2008, when Komisarek was playing for the Montreal Canadiens, the two players exchanged such monster blows that Lucic literally dismantled Komisarek, whose shoulder popped out of its socket, forcing the Habs bruiser to the bench for more than a dozen games. Komisarek retaliated the following April by cross-checking Lucic in the face.
“Hypothetically speaking, let’s say you have a rival in the National Hockey League,” I said to Lucic when I met up with the six-foot-three-inch brawler a few weeks ago at the N.H.L. offices in New York City. “Would that carry over onto an Olympic stage if you are playing for Team Canada and your league rival is playing for, say, Team U.S.A.?”
Lucic’s toothy grin suggested he knew exactly to whom I was alluding. But then again, I could have been referring to any number of players: Lucic got into 13 fights in 2007, his rookie year, leading the Bruins in roughhousing. In his sophomore regular season, his fight card totaled 10. (By comparison, Komisarek, whom Sports Illustrated nominated one of the 12 most rugged players in N.H.L., recorded a total of six fights in the 2007 and 2008 regular seasons.)
From Sam Kean in 3 quarks daily: