There is some aspect of.... I'm an adviser to the NFL Players Association. They choose to play the game. We tell them the risks. They think that's the best decision for them and their family, and that's okay. But every professional sports league has influence on youth sports, whether they underwrite it or fund it or market to it, so they need to send the right message about this issue.
That's a long-winded answer just to say that I don't think we need to ask them not to have a dangerous sport. If that's what they want to have, if that's going to bring in the revenue, that's okay. But they can't minimize this injury and they can't set the wrong example on television that's going to hurt kids. For example, when an NFL or NHL player who clearly shows concussion signs on the ice or on the field is allowed to go back into the game, and they pretend that's okay, that is the worst public health messaging you could possibly imagine. We all theoretically trust that organization to be doing the right thing by those players. We need to hold them accountable for doing the wrong thing in that situation.
That includes the media. We just launched a program, called the Concussion Legacy Foundation media project, to train broadcasters on how to cover concussions the right way, because they've never had any training. Some of them are old school, but that's because no one has ever told them otherwise. They don't appreciate what the risks are—that if you put somebody back in there, they could die on the ice from another blow to the head, or they could have their life completely derailed, which would affect their children and their family.
It's an important question. We do need to ask for more.