Phil Sheridan: One ex-player presses on for safer NFL helmets

The NFL's sudden acquisition of a conscience on the issue of concussions is the football equivalent of baseball's steroid problem.

Everyone knew years ago that the sport had a serious problem, but it took congressional hearings for the commissioner to take long overdue action.

As Roger Goodell fires off memos and issues edicts - and as star players like Brian Westbrook, DeSean Jackson, Ben Roethlisberger and Kurt Warner miss games after shots to the head - thoughts turn to a couple of safeties who were in the Eagles' 1985 training camp.

The most obvious is Andre Waters, a sweet man and fearsome hitter who committed suicide three years ago at age 44. Tests of Waters' brain showed damage from an unknown number of football-related concussions - damage that may have contributed to the depression that claimed his life. Waters' case is one of the reasons Congress was asking Goodell about concussions in the first place.

The other safety was a 10th-round draft pick out of William and Mary who never played a regular-season game for the Eagles. With Waters, Wes Hopkins and Ray Ellis on the roster, Mark Kelso never had a chance to make the team.

But he did go on to a long and distinguished career, appearing in four Super Bowls as a member of the Buffalo Bills. Kelso, who now does radio commentary on Bills games, isn't remembered as well for his 30 career interceptions as he is for wearing the ProCap helmet pad - an extra layer of protection that made him look, in his own words, like the Great Gazoo from the old Flintstones show.

"I had my first concussion in 1988," Kelso said the other day. "I had subsequent concussions, and I was diagnosed with migraine syndrome - the symptoms of a migraine as opposed to the severity of a concussion. I started wearing that extra pad in 1989, and I definitely credit it with extending my career the additional five years that I wore it. After a few games, there was no way I would have played without it."

So a full two decades before Goodell started fiddling, one of the NFL's Romans was taking proactive steps to put out the fire himself. Fifteen years after retiring, Kelso is still working to improve helmet safety.