Our Health Policy Matters

Here is one of the more intriguing headlines of Super Bowl week:  “Is the National Football League dying”? Probably not, but too many of its former players are dying young, and for reasons that may be preventable.  Many people are concerned about growing evidence of brain injury from the violence of the game. But that’s just part of the story. Linemen are too heavy. Their excessive weight is a danger to running backs now and to their own health after they hang up the cleats. Baltimore Ravens safety Bernard Pollard raised the issue when he was quoted as predicting the demise of pro football, in part because of its violence, but mostly because of the way the rule makers are responding to that violence.  “I hope I’m wrong,” he added, “but I just believe one day there’s going to be a death that takes place on the field because of the direction we’re going.”  President Obama weighed in on football safety, too, but in a less dire way.  “ I think th...

Here is one of the more intriguing headlines of Super Bowl week:  “Is the National Football League dying”? Probably not, but too many of its former players are dying young, and for reasons that may be preventable.  Many people are concerned about growing evidence of brain injury from the violence of the game. But that’s just part of the story. Linemen are too heavy. Their excessive weight is a danger to running backs now and to their own health after they hang up the cleats. Baltimore Ravens safety Bernard Pollard raised the issue when he was quoted as predicting the demise of pro football, in part because of its violence, but mostly because of the way the rule makers are responding to that violence.  “I hope I’m wrong,” he added, “but I just believe one day there’s going to be a death that takes place on the field because of the direction we’re going.”  President Obama weighed in on football safety, too, but in a less dire way.  “ I think th...

Are the 1994 AFC Champion San Diego Chargers a cursed team, or just a reflection of a growing trend toward chronic disease and early death in America? Led by running back Natrone Means and linebacker Junior Seau, the 1994 Chargers won the AFC West with a record of 11 wins and 5 losses, and beat the Miami Dolphins and Pittsburgh Steelers to reach the Super Bowl.  The 53 players on the active roster averaged 26 years of age. According to 1995 life expectancy tables , a 26 year old male could expect to live to the age 75. But when 42 year old Lew Bush – a linebacker on that Super Bowl team – died on December 9, 2011, he was the 7 th member of the team to die more than 30 years prematurely. Source:  ESPN Official 2011 Roster Information There is talk that these 1994 Chargers are cursed.  The first player to die, linebacker David Griggs, was 28 when his car slid off an expressway ramp in Ft. Lauderdale and crashed into a pole in June, 1995.   ...

Are the 1994 AFC Champion San Diego Chargers a cursed team, or just a reflection of a growing trend toward chronic disease and early death in America? Led by running back Natrone Means and linebacker Junior Seau, the 1994 Chargers won the AFC West with a record of 11 wins and 5 losses, and beat the Miami Dolphins and Pittsburgh Steelers to reach the Super Bowl.  The 53 players on the active roster averaged 26 years of age. According to 1995 life expectancy tables , a 26 year old male could expect to live to the age 75. But when 42 year old Lew Bush – a linebacker on that Super Bowl team – died on December 9, 2011, he was the 7 th member of the team to die more than 30 years prematurely. Source:  ESPN Official 2011 Roster Information There is talk that these 1994 Chargers are cursed.  The first player to die, linebacker David Griggs, was 28 when his car slid off an expressway ramp in Ft. Lauderdale and crashed into a pole in June, 1995.   ...