League of Denial Quotes

“A man will not believe something that his livelihood depends on his not believing.”
― Mark Fainaru-Wada, League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth

“what the researchers were saying was that the essence of football—the unavoidable head banging that occurs on every play, like a woodpecker jackhammering at a tree—can unleash a cascading series of neurological events that in the end strangles your brain, leaving you unrecognizable. The”
― Mark Fainaru-Wada, League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth

“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!”
― Mark Fainaru-Wada, League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth

“The initial NFL research elicited some fascinating details about the action taking place on the field. The sheer magnitude of the violence was astonishing. The concussed athletes were being hit by full armored players moving at speeds between 17-25 miles per hour (Usain Bolt reaches a top speed of nearly 28 miles per hour). For 15 milliseconds, their heads were struck with 70g to 126g forces. A longer duration, of course, would kill anyone, but the momentum transferred in such collisions is still the equivalent of being hit in the head by a 10-pound cannonball traveling at 30 miles per hour.”
― Mark Fainaru-Wada, League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth

“With so many alternatives, how can we let our children, our loved ones, ourselves, play a game that may destroy the essence of who we are? How can we enjoy it as entertainment?”
― Mark Fainaru-Wada, League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth

“He wondered how much had really changed. Mike Webster had gone mad and died. Junior Seau had gone mad and died. How many more players were out there? The league had embraced BU’s researchers and given them money. When the NFL didn’t like the message, it cast BU aside and picked another partner and shelled out more money.”
― Mark Fainaru-Wada, League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth

“officials would acknowledge that only 317 out of more than 10,000 eligible players were receiving benefits. Brain injuries were viewed as the hardest sell.”
― Mark Fainaru-Wada, League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth

“Loud noises, bright lights, the motion of a passing car, all made him swoon.”
― Mark Fainaru-Wada, League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth

“The brain is essentially an oddly shaped sphere of Jell-O, crammed inside a box, covered in a shallow layer of cerebrospinal fluid. This gelatinous material contains a kind of electrical grid—hooked up to an EEG, the brain can power a toy train—that transmits information through the body via microscopic fibers called axons. When someone is hit in the head or stops suddenly, the brain is jolted against the skull’s jagged interior, distorting or even severing the axons and interrupting the function of the synapses, the connections between the fibers of the brain.”
― Mark Fainaru-Wada, League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth

“In some major cities today, having a pro football team is a higher priority than providing basic services. The city of Oakland and Alameda County, for example, shell out over $30 million each year to support the Raiders; by 2012, Oakland, with one of the worst crime rates in the nation, had cut 200 police officers to save money. The”
― Mark Fainaru-Wada, League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth

“Joe Gordon, the team’s longtime public relations director, said he would be right over. The Rooneys had hired Gordon in 1969, the same year they had hired Chuck Noll, in an effort to upgrade the previously dismal franchise. Gordon was a Pittsburgh native who had played varsity baseball at Pitt and whose hard-knuckle attitude fit perfectly with the brawling team. In the days preceding the 1976 AFC Championship Game against the hated Raiders, Gordon decked an Oakland TV reporter. Asked the next day if his team was ready, Noll said, “I don’t know, but Joe Gordon is.”
― Mark Fainaru-Wada, League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth