The Bernstein Brief: NFL Admitting To CTE Link Is Big
By Dan Bernstein--
(CBS) It was expected eventually, but not Monday.
Experts believed that at some point the NFL would have to admit the connection between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, even if to this point they hadn't in the face of public pressure and lawsuits.
At a congressional committee meeting Monday to discuss traumatic brain injury, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) pressed NFL senior vice president for health and safety Jeff Miller about the game causing the disease. As reported by the AP, she asked him "Do you think there is a link between football and degenerative brain disorders like CTE?"
He responded, "The answer to that question is certainly yes."
This is a first, and it's big. It's a notable divergence from the official position staked out by the NFL just last month, when a doctor representing the league refused to confirm the connection and actively argued that the disease couldn't be proved to be directly associated with football.
It could change legal arguments in the current cases and in those to come, and now we wait to see if and how commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL try to walk this back.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.