Goodell: We're tackling issue of concussions

CHICAGO - As the overseer of America's most violent sport, it disturbs NFL commissioner Roger Goodell that many people think his league has turned a blind eye to the issue of concussions.

"The thing that troubles me most is people think we've had our head in the sand [about concussions] and we haven't," Goodell told the Daily News late last week. "We've been studying this issue for 13 years. I think we've been very responsible.

"On the other hand, we don't have all the answers. Nobody has all the answers. What we all want to do is find out how we can make the game safer for our players."

With that in mind, Goodell has gathered the league's physicians and trainers here today for a 1-day concussion symposium at the O'Hare Westin Hotel. This comes less than a month after Goodell announced new standards for concussion management that included mandatory baseline testing for all players and a "whistle-blower" system that allows anyone to anonymously report any incident in which a doctor is pressured to return a concussed player to play before he is ready.

The symposium will include presentations not only from the league's medical experts on concussions, but also from outside physicians and researchers who have disagreed with the findings of the NFL's committee on brain injury.

"There should be some very good dialogue and a variety of opinions," Goodell said. "We've invited people with all different backgrounds and different perspectives on this, including people who have been critical of us and some of our research and some of our findings.

"We want to make sure that we're having that kind of dialogue so that we can find answers. This is an area where there still aren't enough answers."

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