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

Mark Fainaru-Wada,

Steve Fainaru

4.18 · Rating details · 3,979 ratings · 489 reviews

“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 casual fan, also contradicted the opinion of a growing cadre of neuroscientists who worked in vain to convi “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 casual 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.
Comprehensively, and for the first time, award-winning ESPN investigative reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru tell the story of a public health crisis that emerged from the playing fields of our 21st century pastime. Everyone knew that football is violent and dangerous. But what the players who built the NFL into a $10 billion industry didn’t know – and what the league sought to shield from them – is that no amount of padding could protect the human brain from the force generated by modern football; that the very essence of the game could be exposing these players to brain damage.
In a fast-paced narrative that moves between the NFL trenches, America’s research labs and the boardrooms where the NFL went to war against science, League of Denial examines how the league used its power and resources to attack independent scientists and elevate its own flawed research -- a campaign with echoes of Big Tobacco’s fight to deny the connection between smoking and lung cancer. It chronicles the tragic fates of players like Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster, who was so disturbed at the time of his death he fantasized about shooting NFL executives; and former Chargers great Junior Seau, whose diseased brain became the target of an unseemly scientific battle between researchers and the NFL. Based on exclusive interviews, previously undisclosed documents and private emails, this is the story of what the NFL knew and when it knew it – questions at the heart of crisis that threatens football, from the highest levels all the way down to Pop Warner. ...more

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Hardcover, 399 pages

Published October 8th 2013 by Crown Archetype (first published January 1st 2013)

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May 09, 2015 David rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Everybody sucks. Everybody in this book just sucks. The NFL sucks. The NFL got stuck in their little damn castle, deny-deny-deny, and even when all their own doctors told them that some of their players had severe brain damage, and they finally loosen up their tight-ass wallets to give some money to the families, even then just deny deny nope no concussion problem in our league deny deny yep we are funding a helmet designed to reduce concussions (which every not-employed-by-the-NFL scientist say Everybody sucks. Everybody in this book just sucks. The NFL sucks. The NFL got stuck in their little damn castle, deny-deny-deny, and even when all their own doctors told them that some of their players had severe brain damage, and they finally loosen up their tight-ass wallets to give some money to the families, even then just deny deny nope no concussion problem in our league deny deny yep we are funding a helmet designed to reduce concussions (which every not-employed-by-the-NFL scientist says is a flawed pipe dream, BTW) but there's no concussion problem so if your son got knocked silly in a high school game that's not our problem deny deny deny. And then the people who study the brains...these assholes. Step all over themselves to prove the NFL wrong, and who cares who's toes you step on. Show Autopsy Photos of the players who's brains showed the damage? Heck yeah. (And I'm not talking the slides of the damaged brain. I'm talking photos of the deceased players, mid-autopsy, and the doctor doesn't even get why people were creeped out) Act like the worst ambulance-chasing nightmares to the families who just had a loved one die in order to make sure they secure the brain before some other research group can? Check and check. Eventually sell out to work for the company you've spent most of your career trying to convince people is harming their employees without admission or remorse? You know they did.

I know, I sound a little bitter and crazed. I get it. Look, I love football. Love it. And I've stepped over many an inconvenient fact in order to protect that love. But there has been a firestorm over the last two decades, building over the horizon, and at some point, I either have to admit that the city is burning down around me, or go down in the ashes. Every week, another report comes out that makes one question his/her fanhood. Another player knocks out his girlfriend or wife. Another player sexually assaults somebody, or beats his kids, and doesn't understand why he can't suit up on Sunday, because he's spent most of his adult life being told that because he can play a game better than 99.9% of us, he's more important. I grew up on this sport. When I was young, Sundays were about going to Grandma's for a big lunch, followed by all of us sitting around a screen to watch whatever game was on. And now...I don't hate football. I don't know that I ever could. But I do not like how it makes me feel. I do not like some of the athletes who play this sport, and how they are sheltered until they finally cross the line where people say, "Well, we can't ignore that, can we?". I hate that the small percentage of those a-holes completely overshadow the mostly decent majority of the league. And I hate that this game has become so fast, and so hard, that it is ruining player's lives, and demolishing livelihoods, and the League will not admit that it is happening despite all evidence, and will not take some of the ungodly amount of money we so easily hand over, in order to provide basic benefits to the retired players who built the empire that they sit on so high to look down on everybody. (And I'm not just talking about concussions....think about how many players need knee replacements, or have sever back or joint issues, especially from the older players who played before their salaries went to a ridiculous stratosphere) Football, right now, is not fun to watch. It's not fun to think about. It's one bad story after another, and over the last few years, I can not watch without wondering why I do pay so much attention.

And I will pay attention. Probably for the rest of my life. That's the part that makes me feel so conflicted. I think about taking the high road, let football go, but then the game's on, and.....yeah. I really do love this game. That's why I was so angry reading this book, because LoD is meticulously written, and takes a long look at everybody involved with the Concussion scandals, and it was thorough and effective. And ultimately, there is nobody that comes out well. None of the problems get solved, and nobody is really clean. And players are still getting obscene amounts of money to possibly (probably) destroy their post-football lives. And come September, I will be sitting in front of the screen, watching again. I will be trying to capture an old feeling. Don't think less of me for it. ...more

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Dec 28, 2019 Kirk rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction

I'm going to start with an anecdote that isn't in this book. Last year my local MLB team, the Oakland A's, drafted Kyler Murray, a two-sport college star. It was a risk, because his other sport was (American) football, he was sure to also be drafted by the NFL, and if he chose the latter, the A's would get nothing for their trouble. The rare college athlete to be in this position usually chooses football, for one obvious reason: big money, right away. In baseball, you first endure a few seasons I'm going to start with an anecdote that isn't in this book. Last year my local MLB team, the Oakland A's, drafted Kyler Murray, a two-sport college star. It was a risk, because his other sport was (American) football, he was sure to also be drafted by the NFL, and if he chose the latter, the A's would get nothing for their trouble. The rare college athlete to be in this position usually chooses football, for one obvious reason: big money, right away. In baseball, you first endure a few seasons in the minor leagues, where the pay compares unfavorably to an entry-level job at McDonald's. And young male sports stars not much over 20 aren't usually big on delayed gratification. So the A's rolled the dice--and ultimately lost, when Murray chose football. But in the months before he made his decision, I read an article that quoted an A's official who, while acknowledging the obvious reasons they might lose out, added, "on the other hand, he might want to remember his own name when he's 50." It was just an offhand remark, but it stuck with me. Right now the NFL is like people who deny global warming. It's the most popular American sport by far, it makes billions, in any recent calendar year most of the highest rated TV programs for the year are individual NFL games (8 out of the 10 highest ratings is not uncommon). So football isn't going away anytime soon, but a clock is now ticking. If you want a comparison, look at boxing. As recently as the '70s it was a huge sport with giants like Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Norton, written about extensively, pay-per-view telecasts raked in money. Now? It's on the fringes, sportswriters mostly ignore it, and most people couldn't name more than two or three current boxers (if that) if you paid them.

Concussions, greed, ruthless indifference, lies, are what this book documents. It starts with the saga of Mike Webster, a center for the Pittsburgh Steelers, a legend and Hall of Famer, whose life post-football became a nightmare of headaches, depression, memory loss, constant physical pain, a completely altered personality (mood swings, flying into a rage at a moment's notice), and severe cognitive decline. He lost his marriage, his home, his dignity, ended up frequently homeless or living in his truck, and finally died of a heart attack at 50. A young Nigerian pathologist, Bennet Omalu, happened to be assigned his autopsy, He was possibly the only sentient adult in the Pittsburgh area who could utter the sentence, "Who is Mike Webster?" Omalu had never watched a football game in his life. His colleagues told him, and Omalu remembered seeing some reports on TV about some local sports hero's sad decline. He also noted that the death certificate mentioned "post-concussion syndrome", though the cause of death was a heart attack. After a moment's pause, Omalu made the unusual decision to "fix the brain" (soak it in formaldehyde) for further study. No one knew it at the time, but this was a critical moment in the history of the NFL, and in Omalu's life.

Omalu diagnosed C.T.E. (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) in Mike Webster's brain, not a new disease, but never before associated with pro football, and usually only found in much older people. Eventually he found the same in several more deceased football players, and would eventually write an article for a medical journal about his findings. In the beginning he thought his discovery would be welcomed, and the NFL would value the information and move to make football safer, or at the least make the players more informed of the risks. Well, no. Think tobacco executives and cancer. The NFL waged a sustained campaign of denial, misinformation, deflection, and attacked Omalu specifically. They formed a committee, the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee, which was largely made up of doctors who were not neurologists, were employed by NFL teams, and which was headed by, wait for it, a rheumatologist. This committee submitted papers on their "research" to a medical journal called Neurosurgery; this particular medical journal's editor in chief happened to be a consultant for an NFL team. The results were what you would expect. They essentially asserted than brain damage was something that just didn't happen to football players, and that there were too many unknowns about concussions to draw any real conclusions. Again, substitute the words 'cancer' and 'cigarettes' for the words 'brain damage' and 'concussions' and you might recognize the playbook.

There's so much more in this book I could get into. There are many, many players on the medical side, some as intrepid in taking on the NFL as Omalu. (It isn't a case of just one man making a discovery; several others were looking into issues re: concussions in football at the same time.) Many of these would team up. Others were quite simply bootlickers for the NFL who willingly put any integrity in their profession aside in favor of rubber stamping the NFL's denials. And others are somewhere in between. In particular, Joe Maroon, Mark Lovell, and Kevin Guskiewicz are baffling figures who don't fit into the slot of hero or villain; they start out as some of the original dissenters from NFL orthodoxy, but over time get co-opted by accepting positions on NFL committees to study the issue and gradually come to be seen as parroting the NFL line; they are a cautionary tale of power and access corrupting. But for many readers, myself included, Omalu will be the one you root for the most, the immigrant who stumbled on a seismic discovery and got steamrolled for it. He isn't a saint, he can be too flamboyant and unfiltered for his own good, but the attacks on him will enrage you. And the rivalries between different groups of neurologists, who are essentially on the same side but let ego and ambition lead them to work against each other, will depress you. But this is a tremendous, fascinating medical story, assuredly told by the authors, journalists Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru.

The nature of NFL players is another factor in the story. They play, and love, a violent game, and their nature is not to complain about injury, stemming from both a macho mindset and the reality that if they can't suit up, they can be easily replaced. The attitude is encapsulated by Gary Plummer, a linebacker for the SF 49ers:

I had been playing football since I was eight years old, and there is nothing more revered in football than being a tough guy. I prided myself on being a tough guy. I encouraged others to be tough guys. I did some horrendously stupid things in my career--like having surgery on Tuesday and playing on Sunday twice. I would never give you specific names, but there are hundreds of guys who had more talent in one hand than I had in my entire body, but because they weren't tough, they couldn't play in the NFL. The coaches have euphemisms. They'll say, 'You know, that guy has to learn the difference between pain and injury.' Or: 'He has to learn the difference between college and professional football.' What he's saying is the guy's a pussy and he needs to get tough or he's not going to be on the team. It's a very, very clear message and literally hundreds of guys that I played with were just pussies.

The authors tell the post-career stories of many players, and the sameness to Webster's is alarming and depressing. Pain, depression, memory loss, cognitive issues, divorce, financial problems, early death. Often by suicide, and here's a thing: it became almost a pattern that players who fell into this hellscape would kill themselves with a gunshot to the chest. Sparing the brain, and sometimes with instructions for their brain to be donated for study. Meanwhile, the NFL would embrace holy grails like developing a helmet that would prevent concussions, ignoring the neurologists who told them, correctly, that this couldn't be done. One of the more tragic stories is that of Dave Duerson, a Chicago Bears defensive back who, when other players and doctors testified to Congress about concussions, also testified but in defense of the NFL, asserting ludicrously that since his dad had Alzheimers but never played football, that meant that concussions didn't cause brain damage. Duerson's post-football life fell apart in the familiar way, ending with his suicide by gunshot to the chest, and a note pleading to donate his brain for study. It was. It had C.T.E. Later it's mentioned that Duerson had a radio show, and that he did a show where he ranted for an hour against the NFL instituting new rules in an effort to make the game safer, railing that they were 'sissifying' the game. This was years after his own symptoms had caused his life to fall apart. Something struck me about the date of the radio show. I flipped back several pages to check again the date of his death. Duerson committed suicide just four months after doing that radio show.

There's a telling conversation in the book when Omalu and several colleagues convince Joe Maroon, an original dissenter but now on the MTBI Committee and towing the NFL's line, to look at slides under a microscope that show C.T.E. in an autopsied brain:

Maroon: "Where do you think this is going?"
Omalu: "To be honest, I don't know. But I think many, many more players have this disease than we have acknowledged."
Maroon: "Do you understand the impact of what you're doing?"
Omalu: "Yes."
Maroon: "Do you really understand the impact of what you're doing?"
Omalu: "Yes."
Maroon, a few minutes later: "Bennet, do you really understand the impact of what you're doing?"
Omalu: "Okay, what is the impact?"
Maroon tilted his head back. "If only 10 percent of mothers in America begin to conceive of football as a dangerous game, that is the end of football." ...more

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Oct 02, 2013 Chris rated it it was amazing

Shelves: social-science

Originally published here.

So here goes: my favorite sport is barbaric; it is destroying its players brains; Its prime pro league is doing everything it can to champion wealth above health; it may not be fixable.

The crux of League of Denial is that an increasing amount of dead football players appear to have brains riddled with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease. An unfortunate amount of those deaths were self inflicted or premature, due to the disease. Worse, it ...more

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Oct 12, 2013 Amanda rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Football fans, parents of children who want to play football and other contact sports

Unputdownable. I know that's not really a word, but that's what it is.

My boyfriend asked me to pick this up for him when I headed to the bookstore the other night, and I obliged. However, he reads one book at the time, while I am more likely to read a minimum of five, and he was still working on something else. Honestly, I didn't think the book would interest me. I'm not a football fan. I wasn't raised in an athletic household. He is a rabid fan, and I've just figured I might as well learn a few ...more

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Sep 24, 2015 Bro_Pair أعرف rated it it was amazing

The book is terrific, and, surprisingly, scarier than the much-acclaimed PBS "Frontline" documentary the authors also made. Why scarier? Well, to be frank -- the doctors who come off as heroic in the documentary are a little more....human, here, for better or worse. I hate to be cynical - but the possibility that things are a little more complicated than a David versus Goliath story compels me. The NFL's money taints everything, including even the ostensible research of CTE - the one million dol ...more

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Oct 18, 2013 Liesl rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, 2015, sports

I don't know if I can view or enjoy football to the same extent after finishing this book. I was already aware of the link that exists between this sport and brain damage, but reading in detail about how these players deteriorated so rapidly into madness was eye-opening and heartbreaking. Just about everyone involved in this ongoing investigation is awful. The doctors and scientists are doing valuable work, but are fractured over what amounts to petty grievances instead of forming a powerful uni ...more

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Mar 03, 2014 Kerry rated it it was amazing

Incredible reporting about one of the biggest issues in sports today -- head trauma and concussions. The authors, both investigative reporters for ESPN, put together a comprehensive, compelling and shocking narrative on the NFL's long denial that concussions suffered on the playing field can lead to chronic brain disease that has resulted in dementia and sometimes suicide by former professional football players. As recently as 2005, the NFL concluded in a scientific paper, "Professional football ...more

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Nov 18, 2013 Michael rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2013

"If only 10 percent of mothers in America begin to conceive of football as dangerous, that is the end of football."

I do not get as passionate about sports as I used to. I still enjoy watching them, still feel a rush whenever the Giants or Yankees do something good. But that enthusiasm has changed over time. As I've gotten older, I've begun to feel a bit strange spending so much time and effort personally investing myself in the exploits of other people, particularly multimillionaires. I have a l ...more

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Jan 27, 2016 Taylor rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Football fans, science geeks

Shelves: borrow-ed-or-ing, non-fiction, she-blinded-me-with-science, be-a-good-sport, real-people

Playing football is hurting people. That's hard for me to say, as a football fan, but it's hurting people, and there's undeniable truth that that is so.

Bennet Omalu, the subject of the recent Will Smith movie Concussion, recently compared football to cigarettes, and that comparison is apt for so many reasons, not the least of which is the industry-funded cover-up about the truth of just how dangerous they are.

I would like to think that we are very near the tipping point in the connection between Playing football is hurting people. That's hard for me to say, as a football fan, but it's hurting people, and there's undeniable truth that that is so.

Bennet Omalu, the subject of the recent Will Smith movie Concussion, recently compared football to cigarettes, and that comparison is apt for so many reasons, not the least of which is the industry-funded cover-up about the truth of just how dangerous they are.

I would like to think that we are very near the tipping point in the connection between CTE and football where even the NFL is going to have to admit how harmful it is, but we're obviously not there yet.

League of Denial illustrates this connection in a thorough, well-vetted route, from the early days of concussion studies (even the medical community did not think concussions were a big deal until the '80s or so), through to present times. The writers are ESPN writers and have no stake in any of these stories - which is important because there are so many competing interests here.

Even moving just beyond the NFL's appalling behavior to try and minimize the studies done on CTE and football, there's an unbelievable amount of infighting in the science community, to the point that you have scientists reaching out to families to ask for brains immediately after a loved one has died, because they want to beat out a rival researcher. I expected the NFL to do some ugly, dirty things - and oh boy do they - but I was rather appalled at the behavior of some of these scientists, too. At times while reading this, you have to wonder if some of this would've come to light in a much stronger way had there been more cohesion and collaboration in the field. Part of the reason I chose this book over Omalu's is because I wanted an unbiased portrayal, and a bigger picture look. I do worry that Omalu's got an agenda - which isn't to say that I necessarily disagree with it, but particularly after reading this, I do think he has one.

This isn't to say I'm trying to lay the blame on science here, it obviously lies on the NFL, which basically followed the cigarette industry handbook of how to fund studies, bury science, seduce people with money, push people around, etc. Still, you have scientists who are one minute fully behind the CTE-football connection, and who are working for NFL the next (but also a few in the opposite direction)!

If there's anything difficult about League of Denial (aside from the content, that is), it's that there are so many people involved, and it's hard to keep them all straight. I felt like I needed some kind of family tree like in the ASOIAF/Game of Thrones books.

Football is too big to die right now, but that won't always be true. The game has to evolve if it wants to continue. Whether that evolution means fewer contact practices, more practices with dummies, I don't know. Something has to change, and I think something will. To revisit the cigarette comparison, people still smoke despite incontrovertible proof that it kills you. I think that will also be true of playing football, what with it also giving people the ability to make millions (cigarettes just rely on that whole addictive thing). I don't have answers, but the longer these studies continue, the more football players are found to have CTE, the more people they're going to lose. Something needs to change. ...more

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May 28, 2015 Misha rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-bingo-2015

I couldn't put this book down. Wonderfully written. ...more

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Jun 19, 2017 Mr. Stoner rated it it was amazing

So I have read a review or two about this book after reading this book, and it really worries me because, currently, there is two styles of football being played around the country, old school (use the head and suck it up) and new school (take the head away and report concussions). While this exists, the old school players will continue to play "hard" and receive praise, but the new school players will receive praise for tackling the "new" way, but still be told to suck it up! Now what everyone So I have read a review or two about this book after reading this book, and it really worries me because, currently, there is two styles of football being played around the country, old school (use the head and suck it up) and new school (take the head away and report concussions). While this exists, the old school players will continue to play "hard" and receive praise, but the new school players will receive praise for tackling the "new" way, but still be told to suck it up! Now what everyone needs to understand is that does matter! The praise and glory are what the players seek, whether they admit it or not, the adulation of playing the rough sport as they grow up is an adrenaline rush, as is making the big tackle, block, play, or touchdown. We feed into that obsession in a way that provides the kids an adrenaline rush that they seek to replicate, drug free, I might add, and we are okay with it because they are reaching that high playing a sport that we love. We watch the sport religiously whether we admit it or not. I don't want to see it end but one can not deny the obvious, it causes concussions. BUT just as importantly, the line men are sustaining injuries standing 1 foot away from their opponent too. No big hits occurring at high speeds, but short bursts at low speeds but multiple times (50-60) per game. Whether you teach "old" or "new" techniques, you will probably sustain a concussion, especially as a lineman!
I don't have an answer as to whether or not an adult, let alone a kid should or should not play the sport, but I do believe they should be informed about that decision. The NFL legitimately hid that information from it's own players, even when they knew. Then they denied it. It kind of makes me sick. As do the doctors that chased down dead bodies to get their brains. But again I understand why they did it, when the NFL was trying to keep them quiet. Even though there is justification for what many of these people did, it doesn't make it right. Irresponsibility and blame exist and can be spread around evenly with the NFL, doctors, and even us fans! Again, no answers here, but a lot of emotions laid in turmoil for me, considering the fact that so much knowledge existed, but was so negligently reported and dismissed with the only idea to protect the league!
I have my own demons as I watch my son and friend's sons play and know how it has effected my father who played with the leather helmets in another era altogether. Let alone the fact that my concussions, (while I know not if any occurred on the football field & definitely know of 3 that occurred on the baseball field) have left me physically fine but where do I stand with this? I love watching the kids play and enjoy that sport, as they learn some valuable life lessons. However, again at what cost? My emotions are in turmoil over my part in cheering on kids that will almost certainly receive a concussion at some point, and a sport I love to watch! What is the answer? None, provide them with the facts and let them choose? I don't know?
Great book for the facts that needed to be scoured and reported, but a hell of a hard read because it involved a great deal of emotional attachment! ...more

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Jul 07, 2018 David rated it really liked it

A fairly explosive investigation of the NFL’s concussion crisis, League of Denial is comprehensive and well-researched exposé of a problem that the NFL knew about and tried to cover up.

Football is a violent sport, full of thousands on “mini-collisions” and is stands to reason that this would have an effect on the men who played. There is the heart-breaking tale of Mike Webster, Steelers Hall of Fame Center who, after enduring a career of blows to the head, had a completely altered personality an A fairly explosive investigation of the NFL’s concussion crisis, League of Denial is comprehensive and well-researched exposé of a problem that the NFL knew about and tried to cover up.

Football is a violent sport, full of thousands on “mini-collisions” and is stands to reason that this would have an effect on the men who played. There is the heart-breaking tale of Mike Webster, Steelers Hall of Fame Center who, after enduring a career of blows to the head, had a completely altered personality and could no longer function in society. There is “The Vanilla Guy” Steve Young, who swore he didn’t retie because of concussions but the evidence suggests otherwise. Linebacker Junior Seau is one of many who retired from the game and wound up killing himself, his autopsied brain showing the tell-tale signs of damage caused by concussions from playing football.

I’m giving short shrift to many of the stories in this near 400 page tome, but those three are fairly prominent.

The science for the effect that concussions have on the NFL players is still in an early stage, but the book details how the league went about silencing its detractors and casting doubt on the people who were trying to ring the alarm on the league’s problem. Bennet Omalu, the Nigerian pathologist (who was played by Will Smith in the “Concussion” movie) discovered the link between football and what he termed CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and for his trouble he was left out of the NFL’s Mild traumatic Brain Injury Committee. Then there is Ann McKee, a neuropathologist (and Packers fan) who became the unofficial spokesperson for CTE. Each put up with resistance from people making their living off the NFL who have a vested interest in denying that the crisis is caused by their game.

This book is about 5 years old and I don’t know how much has changed, but after reading this I am pretty convinced that there is simply no way to eradicate the danger that the game puts players in. And the players are the ones who suffer because even with big contracts and big money, many sacrifice their health and their bodies to earn that money.
Essential reading. My review only scratches the surface.

...more

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Jan 17, 2018 Jennifer rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Football has always been a matter of complete indifference to me, until 3 years ago when my 9 year old son said he wanted to play. For the first time, I started paying a little attention, and what I began hearing about concussions concerned me. But we signed him up. At the first parents' meeting with the coaches, all of my worries were assuaged. They assured us that they had received all of the latest information and training regarding concussions DIRECTLY from the NFL, and that there was absolu ...more

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Mar 27, 2018 Liz rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I don’t think I would consider myself a football fan, but I can enjoy the social aspect of it (going to games in college, watching games at a bar with friends, Super Bowl parties, etc). I can appreciate how important football is to others - it’s truly it’s own world, culture, and escape for some people.

Overall, I wasn’t shocked by the recent research findings or the effects of CTE on the players and their families. However, I was appalled by how much the NFL has covered it up over the years. Al ...more

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Feb 13, 2021 Barbara Humphrey rated it really liked it

This book was eye opening about the concussion issues in the NFL. Before last year with all the craziness in our country was the first year I didn't watch any NFL games. I'm surprised to say I didn't miss it at all. Back to this book -- the data and the stories of players who suffered from multiple and repeated concussions was staggering. What was shocking to me was how the teams did everything in their power to keep their players playing even when they knew they were not well enough to be in th ...more

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Jul 31, 2017 Amanda rated it really liked it

I'm a hockey fan who began to get curious about CTE when a number of guys began committing suicide or experiencing nasty side effects from concussions. That drove me to be interested in my alma mater BU's CTE program. Which then drove me to this book. Very educational, very eye-opening, and very, very sad. I hope that things can progress where these types of injuries become diminished in the game. Until then .. is it really worth it?

For anyone interested in the subject, you'll see that BU's lat ...more

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Aug 22, 2017 Scarlett Sims rated it really liked it

Shelves: leisure, non-fic, nook, sports, epidemic-disease, own

So, you probably don't need more reasons to dislike the NFL, but here is a history of the league's issues with concussions and brain damage and the effect it has had on former players. The authors draw parallels between the NFL and tobacco companies who knew how dangerous their product was and yet continued to fund studies that discredited the opposition while supporting their own position.

From reading the book, I would say the evidence is pretty damning, aside from one thing, which is that ther ...more

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Oct 10, 2013 Mac McCormick III rated it it was amazing

This is a book that was hard to put down. It also hit like a sledgehammer. It clearly shows that the National Football League didn't just ignore a problem that caused deaths in retired players, it chose to ignore that problem. Furthermore, the NFL didn't just deny that the problem existed, it campaigned against those that tried to tell it and the football community that the problem existed.

League of Denial is well written and seems to be well researched. It would be easy to write it off saying t ...more

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Dec 04, 2013 Greg Messel rated it really liked it

"League of Denial" traces the history of the battle over head injuries being suffered by NFL football players. It actually is impacting all football players. It has become a battle between scientists and those in the league who are denying the seriousness of the problem. It's a clear chronicling of the slow realization that something is going very wrong with many older football players who are now suffering dementia, personality changes and constant pain.
Two ESPN investigative reporters take us ...more

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Jan 01, 2016 Patricia rated it it was amazing

A quote from p. 318: "With former NFL stars shooting themselves in the chest to spare their brains and thousands of players suing the league...." The authors tackle the history of the discovery of the relationship between chronic traumatic encephalopathy and the concussions and repeated hits that football players experience. This book does an excellent and fact-supported job of explaining the price that football players may pay for their devotion to the sport. I found the story infuriating, poig ...more

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Nov 11, 2015 Judy D Collins rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014-releases, football, brain, brain-disorder, science, non-fiction, books-read-in-2015, audiobook, dementia, medical

Well Done! Review to follow.

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Jul 18, 2020 Marco G rated it it was amazing

Oh my God this was such an excellent book. I say that as a fan of the NFL but you don't need to be a fan to really enjoy this wonderful work. It's about how the NFL tried to cover up the connection between concussions and brain damage throughout the 90s and 2000's. It centers around Mike Webster, possibly the greatest center to ever play the game for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and many other players whose brains or sought after to study once they died. It's epic in it's scope but incredibly enjoya ...more

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Jan 04, 2018 Nile Schuett rated it really liked it

I thought this book was one of the best ones I have read in a long time. It gives the people reading an inside look into what it was like discovering what football does to the brain. The author tells the true story of what happens to football players of all ages after they're done playing the game. The story mainly talks about Mike Webster. A Hall of Fame football player that ended up going insane and killing himself. Bennet Omalu was the first man to perform the autopsy on Mike. What he ended u ...more

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Aug 12, 2018 Caleb Chumley rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 21, 2018 Kiwi28 rated it it was amazing

My first ever audiobook has held a high standard. A very interesting and detailed listen.

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Dec 19, 2017 Lake rated it liked it

this book is mainly about the NFL Comishiner, and these two reporters in an interview stile of book. The NFL is a past-time of great memories and sad parts for ever fan. The reason this book is so amazing it is a real thing, these player and especially if your a line men because they just bash their heads into each other every play. Players wake up with CTE and don't remember their kids because they played for so long. The begining of the story starts off as Terry Bradshaw a legendary Steelers q ...more

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Nov 04, 2015 Preston Smith rated it it was amazing

League of Denial by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru is such a great book that you don’t have to be an avid football fan to appreciate it. I was blown away by the information provided on topics ranging from the first case of brain damage to be associated with playing football to the NFL’s denial of the facts. I was impressed and worried by the gritty stories of the men who played the game both knowingly and unknowingly, in spite of broken bones, bulging discs, and even multiple concussions th League of Denial by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru is such a great book that you don’t have to be an avid football fan to appreciate it. I was blown away by the information provided on topics ranging from the first case of brain damage to be associated with playing football to the NFL’s denial of the facts. I was impressed and worried by the gritty stories of the men who played the game both knowingly and unknowingly, in spite of broken bones, bulging discs, and even multiple concussions that could occur during the same game. One minute you’re shaking your head in disbelief and the next you are almost in tears as you learn how severely these men suffer later in life. Some end their own lives but don’t shoot themselves in the head so their brains can be studied. As of 2012, there have been over 50 cases of death related to brain damage caused by playing football. I was saddened by this fact, but not overly surprised. I was surprised by how much effort the NFL put into covering it up.

Authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru also do an excellent job of tracking the NFL’s whereabouts during all of this commotion surrounding brain injury and death. Their research was a bit tedious and difficult to follow, but I appreciate the sheer amount of time they must have spent researching all of the facts. You had surgeons who could not speak their minds because they received money from the NFL to pay for private research. Others believed the NFL was sincerely interested in doing something to correct the problem and so they joined forces only to have their opinions marginalized if there was any correlation between football and brain damage. Companies such as Riddell made bogus claims that they produced helmets that were “41% more effective in preventing concussions.” Only to retract that statement at a later date. The NFL also created its own think tank in 1994 known as the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee. The committee would publish many papers in a less-than-credible journal called Neurosurgery. All of its papers denounced all findings of football related brain damage.

At this point, I have just about had it with the NFL. The evidence is clear and a masterful job has been done following the many paths this story travels. From slides of brain tissue to lawsuits of impropriety, we are able to glean a lot about the downside of playing professional football. Is it worth the possibility of losing your mind? Would you allow your kids to play? For that matter, would you allow your child to play soccer? Head butting is a part of the sport. There is danger to any sport, but the brain is such a crucial part of the human body, how could you willingly injure it?

Never before have I been so interested in the brain and all of its power. How could I be so naïve? After all, I am a fitness trainer and the brain is responsible for movement. This book has truly changed my perspective. I have already taken action in regards to learning more about the brain. For one, the book I read right after this was The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey. A book that teaches you less about tennis, and more about the mental side of sport. In addition to this, I enrolled in ZHealth, a system of training that focuses on the nervous system. This book changed my life and it can change yours as well.
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Oct 13, 2013 Andrew rated it really liked it

Wada and Fainaru's League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth is an essential read for anyone who cares about football in America or is interested in the intersection of sport and health. Much of the NFL’s “concussion” debate has been covered in the mainstream press, but League of Denial fills in so many of the details. Reading League of Denial provides a much richer context to discuss the issue, understand the NFL’s obfuscation of the science and appreciate the negligence N Wada and Fainaru's League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth is an essential read for anyone who cares about football in America or is interested in the intersection of sport and health. Much of the NFL’s “concussion” debate has been covered in the mainstream press, but League of Denial fills in so many of the details. Reading League of Denial provides a much richer context to discuss the issue, understand the NFL’s obfuscation of the science and appreciate the negligence NFL owners have displayed towards its workforce as well as the millions of youth that play football every year.

To wit, the NFL’s recent obsessiveness with “concussions” is a delicate bit of subterfuge that becomes more apparent by understanding the league’s approach to the issue for the last 20 years. The current NFL focus on “concussions” (which in and of itself is an amorphous term) as discrete traumatic events – counting concussions, evaluating and “treating” concussions through concussion protocols and “independent” neurological consultants – is a way to pacify the public that “concussions” are declining and divert attention from the concern that the nature of the sport itself, the years and years of repetitive head trauma (whether or not classified as “concussions”) cause the long-term debilitating brain damage evidenced in scores of former football players.

The dominant fixture that college and professional football has become in our society transforms the “concussion” story into more than just a sports story. The oft-used comparison is to cigarettes and the tobacco industry but, at least to me as a child of the 1980s, football (and sports generally) seems so much more ingrained in American culture than smoking ever could have been. Smoking was a vice that was universally accepted. Football impacts what we wear, what we watch on TV and listen to on our commutes, what we read about, what we discuss with our coworkers, friends and family, what we teach our kids, what we are proud of, what we obsess over, what we dream of becoming. And the “concussion” story does not stop with football. The concerns over head trauma have increasingly been raised in other sports, most notably soccer. (The U.S. Soccer Federation recently announced a bad on heading in youth soccer before the age of 11.)

League of Denial feels like only the beginning of a story that will take years (decades?) to play out. As we struggle to understand more about how the brain works and the impact that repetitive head trauma can have on its long-term functions, we are left with more questions than answers. Will the prevalence of long-term brain damage in football players be as prevalent as some of the researchers fear, or as isolated as the NFL hopes? What will “concussion” science mean for sports that we have come to love and treat as an integral part of our daily societal interactions? How do those of us who are parents balance the risks of playing youth sports with the fear of being reactionary or (god forbid) a “helicopter parent”? I have no idea how the “concussion” story will end, but Wada and Fainaru have written a compelling look at Act I.

Recommended for football fans, parents and Roger Goodell. ...more

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Dec 30, 2015 Paul rated it it was amazing

This book will make you hate the National Football League, and possibly football itself, forever. It relates the complicity of the NFL in denying and resisting the fact that football causes serious concussions in the huge majority of its players, causing many of them to die of depression, dementia, ALS, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) decades before they would have if they hadn't played football.

Of the 62 brains of deceased NFL players donated to a brain bank, 59 of them had CTE. This This book will make you hate the National Football League, and possibly football itself, forever. It relates the complicity of the NFL in denying and resisting the fact that football causes serious concussions in the huge majority of its players, causing many of them to die of depression, dementia, ALS, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) decades before they would have if they hadn't played football.

Of the 62 brains of deceased NFL players donated to a brain bank, 59 of them had CTE. This came not just from spectacular hits when they were knocked unconscious, but just from the daily subconcussive jolts their brains absorbed in the everyday playing or practicing of the game.

The anecdote that revolted me most was when one lineman described hitting two other mammoth linemen at the line of scrimmage with such force that his bowel evacuated into his pants. Generally, the problem was that when a player had a concussion, he should have not played for at least a week or 10 days afterwards, but was almost always sent back into the same game, where more hits severely added to the brain damage he had likely sustained the first time.

Stories of middle-aged retirees who started acting crazy, became profoundly depressed to the point of not being able to get out of bed for days, or killed themselves are legion in this book. One retiree couldn't remember the names of his children; one couldn't recognize a photo of himself from his playing days. Many of them lost considerable fortunes from their playing days because they could no longer think straight or act in their own best interests. Divorces were epidemic; a few players ended up on the street or in railroad stations because they lost their homes and families.

NFL executives strenuously denied any connection between concussive injuries and football for decades, all while quietly paying off the worst cases one by one. When the causality became too evident to be denied any longer, the NFL then beneficently donated millions of dollars for the study of brain trauma but did not allow a single exclusive study of CTE in retired or current players to be done. It also came up with the bogus concept of having Riddell develop a new, "safer" helmet that did nothing to prevent concussions, then it proposed the fraudulent concept of "heads up" football, which was supposed to be a kinder, gentler way of tackling that would eliminate head injuries.

When mothers started withholding their children from the violent sport based on what they had heard, the NFL started a huge propaganda campaign directly aimed at "football moms" that assured them football had gotten less dangerous. As of the end of the book, this was continuing to this day.

The nauseous stories of what became of these players after their careers, along with the NFL's blithe denials or minimizing of its own role in the ongoing tragedy is sickening. After reading this book, you will never look on football as a safe sport again, at whatever level.

The authors also bring up the cultural blood-lust of football fans and how all of us who follow football to any extent are complicit in the slow deaths of the participants. It is a revealing book. And the slaughter continues...

...more

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Nov 22, 2017 Walt rated it really liked it

Shelves: sports

The real inside story of how the NFL is carefully hiding the seriousness of brain injuries. The details of some of the player's physical problems are really scary. ...more

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“A man will not believe something that his livelihood depends on his not believing.” — 2 likes

“Finally, the Steelers were backed up near their own goal line when Brister called for a draw play. He handed off to Hoge, who found himself staring into a human wall. It consisted not only of Seth Joyner but also of Jerome Brown, a defensive tackle, and Reggie White, one of the most feared defensive ends in the history of the NFL. Hoge thought: I’m gonna fuck them up. I’m gonna hit them as hard as they’ve ever been hit in their life. He plunged headfirst into the wall. “When I hit, I felt like my internal organs just went out my ass,” he said. “It was like poof!” — 1 likes

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