Jerry Jones has once again proven to be the backwards thinker the NFL needs less of.
The Cowboys owner continues to deny the parallels between CTE and football previously calling the link “absurd” while citing his old playing days and the health of his brain now.
Here’s what Jones told Sports Illustrated’s Greg Bishop and Michael McKnight in a their piece “Football in America”:
“We’re drawing conclusions so far out in front of the facts,” Jones says. “I can live with that, as long as we understand that I’ve seen milk and red meat (debated) for the last 30 years, whether they’re good for you or not.”
“I recently I had a CAT scan done at MD Anderson Cancer Center (in Houston), under an assumed name. Afterward, the radiologist said, ‘I noticed your age. The reason I came down,’ and here he called me by my assumed name; he didn’t know who I was, ‘was that you have the brain of a 40-year-old.’ My other doctors were in the room; so was my wife. I’ve got some witnesses. The point is: I was a fullback and a pulling guard (at Arkansas). I used my head all the time, and I played football a long time. And that had no impact.”
Aside from repeated blows to the head and possible long-term effects being pretty much common sense, there’s been plenty of studies linking football to CTE. The NFL’s health and safety official has already admitted the link while as of September of last year, 96 percent of deceased NFL players studied have tested positive for the traumatic brain disease.
Football is a dangerous sport, that’s no secret. But Jones and his blatant ignorance regarding the issue perfectly illustrates the NFL’s general nonchalant stance which is the most troubling aspect as a whole.
