NFL concussions and the "trickle-down effect"

Two great articles this week on concussions in youth sports. Alan Schwarz in today's New York Times continues his remarkable coverage of the issue.

This quotation from Alan's piece gets to the heart of the issue. (The issue being, until the NFL takes seriously, or seriously enough, the consequences of head trauma, neither will the millions of youth leagues).

“Walking off the pain in an N.F.L. game turns into walking it off in a Little League game — the trickle-down effects on high school and college players are very real and can be fatal,” Representative Hank Johnson, Democrat of Georgia, said in the hearing.

Over at The Daily Beast, Buzz Bissinger takes on pretty much the same subject, though he argues more broadly against the macho sports culture which reaches down to high schools and, in some communities, even youth sports. There's also a nice mention in Buzz's story of Until It Hurts, specifically to reporting in the book about avoidable injuries.

Those of you who've read it know a 16-year-old pitcher in my family had one.