The NFL's brain damage

Robert Scheer on the death of Kenny Stabler:

...The headline on the New York Times obituary put the moral dilemma perfectly: "Ken Stabler a Magnetic N.F.L. Star, was Sapped of Spirit by a Disease of the Brain."

This disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, resulting from repeated head injuries, and established with scientific accuracy only through an autopsy, has now been documented in the case of more than 100 professional football players. A recent example was the Giant's safety Tyler Sash who died at the age of 27 in September.

Seven of those diagnosed are in the pro football Hall of Fame and hopefully Stabler will join them soon. But the NFL's very lucrative tax-exempt cartel long fought recognizing the danger, and unfortunately the settlement the NFL reluctantly agreed to after growing legal challenges did not cover Stabler in his decade of suffering. Stabler, and all those whose work generates the $9 billion-a-year profit for the NFL, deserved better.