Log in | Forum

Head of NFL Committee on Concussions, Dr. Pellman, Steps Down

NFL

by oiler on Thursday, March 1st, 2007 at 05:45pm

The following is a quote from an October 2006 article from ESPN The Magazine’s Peter Keating that, when I read at the time, I felt was one of the most important things that ESPN has done in a very long time:

Several of the country’s preeminent neurosurgeons and neuropsychologists have grown increasingly concerned that the league is putting players at risk by following Pellman’s lead. They’ve had their doubts since the early days of his appointment to lead the committee. For one thing, Pellman is a rheumatologist by training — a specialist in the treatment of joints and muscles — not a neurologist. For another, when he started out, he often professed ignorance about the subject in question. “I would hear him say things in speeches like, ‘I don’t know much about concussions, I learn from my players,’ and, ‘We as a field don’t know much about concussions,’ and it used to bother me,” says one doctor. “We knew what to do about concussions, but he was acting like it was new ground.” Their dismay has only increased since The New York Times revealed last year that Pellman attended medical school in Guadalajara, Mexico, and does not hold a medical degree from SUNY Stony Brook, as he once claimed. “When neuropsychologists sit around telling jokes, we call him ‘Mr. Pellman,’ ” says a colleague.

Well, as the Baltimore Sun reported yesterday, Dr. Pellman has stepped down from his post and the NFL has appointed Dr. Ira Casson, a neurologist, and Dr. David Viano, a biomechanical engineer to head the committee.


I’ll just leave this by expressing hope that the level of serious work on this serious issue that impacts all athletes, at every level, will finally begin to make serious progress.

Links to explore further:

Oh, and if you don’t think the NFL isn’t trying to underplay this, consider this story and the fact that there’s no link to it that I can find today on their site’s home page.