League of Denial

“There has never been anything like it in the history of sports: a public health crisis that emerged from the playing fields of our twenty-first century pastime.” 

In introducing their topic in the Prologue, the authors bring to light how unique the concussion crisis is because it has been a hidden and undetectable aspect of the sport. Although everyone was aware that football is a violent sport that can result in injuries, even catastrophic ones, no one suspected that the very essence of the sport was causing neurological changes in the players. 

“But rarely has the urge to escape—and the fear of being sent back—so completely shaped an athlete as it did Mike Webster.”

In laying out a biographical picture of Webster, the authors describe his troubled childhood of poverty and abuse. Webster’s deep commitment to succeed in the NFL was driven by the fear of having to return home. 

“Webster lived by one central tenet: Never come off the field.”

The authors describe both an example of Webster’s toughness and a reality that is alluded to a number of times: that one of the keys to succeeding in the NFL is not to get hurt and risk losing one’s job.