Stanford wideout/returner Chris Owusu has a sprinter's speed and a bodybuilder's physique. He also has a medical report that makes NFL teams wince.
In the misspent days of my television-watching youth in the 1950s -- this is so long ago that the remote control consisted of getting off the couch, crossing the room and turning the dial to one of the five other channels -- my favorite show was the after-school classic, The Mickey Mouse Club. (This Disney reference is only tangential to hockey, unlike Wayne Gretzky's 1984 off-the-cuff assessment of the Devils as a Mickey Mouse organization, and, of course, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, but please stick with me.) The show's best day was Wednesday, known as Anything Can Happen Day. It's a memory, like Proust's madeleine, that flooded over me like hot Zamboni water recently during a chat with Predators coach Barry Trotz.
In the NFL, controlled violence is, and always will be, an essential part of the sport. As fans, we have no problem with coaches telling players to run hard, hit hard and tackle hard, because we know that we can't take that kind of contact and tough physicality out of football.
Jamal Anderson, former NFL player, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, discuss concussions and how NFL players deal with the issue.
On Jan. 29, CNN will debut Big Hits, Broken Dreams, a documentary exploring concussions in high school football. SI.com's Ben Glicksman talked with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN chief medical correspondent and practicing neurosurgeon, about his findings and what parents, coaches and athletes need to know to try to protect themselves.
Jamal Lewis, Dorsey Levens and two other former NFL players have filed a lawsuit accusing the National Football League of misleading them and failing to protect them against on-the-field brain injuries they say caused health problems years after they retired.
Former Detroit Lion Ryan Stewart is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit alleging NFL negligence in regard to concussions.
It's football season: From Pop Warner, Young American Football League and other children's football leagues; from high school to college and the pros, football is the name of the game.
Two moments have changed Eddie Canales' life. Both occurred on the football field.
Seventy-five former professional football players are suing the National Football League, saying the league knew as early as the 1920s of the harmful effects of concussions on players' brains but concealed the information from players, coaches, trainers and others until June 2010.
SEATTLE -- Today we have a little bit on the labor-thawing NFL front, as well as the annual Father's Day book list (with an offbeat sports bio I cannot recommend highly enough), a tribute to one of the giants of the sportswriting business you may not know, how one team's prepping for the resumption of football (let us pray), some encouraging news about helmet technology, and a death in the 49er family that means half of one of the great backfields in history is gone.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains the risks of concussion for young football players, and a possible solution.
"Bull in the ring" is a drill almost as old as football.
For an injury that is largely invisible, it is no small irony that a new test to detect concussion involves the eyes.
A 25-year-old woman from Seattle, Washington, has become the fifth person to die from burns suffered when her fiance's uncle invited them to his house in Puerto Rico and allegedly set them afire.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is playing defense against brain injuries for student athletes.
Former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner talks to Dr. Sanjay Gupta about the league and players' attitudes on concussions.
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports on a young athlete who had his memory stolen by multiple concussions.
After a high school football player suffered multiple concussions on the field, his injuries affected the rest of his life.
Max Conradt was used to defensive linemen hurtling their 300-pound frames at him week after week. He was a high school quarterback, the team leader who took his licks and got back up.
When Taylor Twellman won Major League Soccer's MVP award in 2005, he threw his head at balls in the penalty box with the force of a bird smacking into a window. That's how the U.S. and New England Revolution forward scored 101 goals in eight MLS seasons -- and how his playing career took an irretrievable turn on Aug. 30, 2008.
Another week, another set of injuries that takes the talent level in the NFL -- and your fantasy league -- down just a notch.
Concussions for student-athletes not only cause headaches and impair concentration and everyday function, they can be deadly, experts testified in a congressional hearing Thursday.
"Decimated." That word actually has a specific meaning, focused on an ancient Roman punishment. Some teams feel like they've been decimated and, in the modern sense, some have. There are a lot of injuries coming with "season-ending" tags on them, but remember that "season-altering" is just as bad from a fantasy context. While losing a top pick like a Ryan Grant is bad, it could have been any of the players in the top tier. You have to remember each player is one play, one moment away from ending things. After Tom Brady's near-miss accident -- in which the person in the other car is still in serious condition -- last week, we should all realize just how close we all are. Injuries are going to happen. You just have to be prepared, draft (and now find) depth, and focus on putting up points on a consistent basis. Given how many significant injuries we've had in Week 1, I wonder if the NFL and NFLPA will take a closer look at what an 18-game schedule might do to the health of players and
With his head bowed and a barely detectable quiver in his voice, the baseball player known as the "Iron Horse" devastated the crowd at Yankee Stadium, not by hitting a home run, but by announcing that he was dying.
People who experience serious head injuries often require days -- if not weeks -- of medical care to get back on their feet. For most of them, the mental aftershocks will last long after they've checked out of the hospital.
In recent months, NFL running backs Brian Westbrook and Jamal Lewis were cut in the aftermath of concussion-laden seasons. To be sure, their age, salary and decline in play were factors. But regardless, after a year in which the relationship between concussions and player health drew the keen interest of Congress and other lawmakers, it seems improper for NFL teams to cut players who may still suffer from postconcussion symptoms.
Kurt Warner knew, as he walked to see the Arizona Cardinals team medics last Sunday morning in Nashville, that playing against the Titans was not up to them. It was up to him. His words would determine whether he'd go out on the field with his sore neck and an odd, sharp sensitivity to light.
The NFL took a small step forward from its customary stance of denial and obfuscation on the issue of brain injuries.
Throughout the 2009 NFL season, SI.com's Jeff Ritter will work with Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker LaMarr Woodley to get his thoughts and observations on the NFL and take you behind the scenes with the Steelers. Woodley is in his third season and finished with a career-best 11.5 sacks in 2008 while helping Pittsburgh win a Super Bowl title. The 6-2 Steelers host the 6-2 Bengals on Sunday.
Are professional football players at greater risk of dementia and other neurological problems?
The House Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on legal issues relating to pro football head injuries.
It's only been three years since Florida quarterback Chris Leak stood at a lectern and claimed a vicious hit from Georgia defensive tackle Jeff Owens hadn't resulted in a concussion. "I just got dinged," Leak said. "No more than that."
A commercial shoot accident may have led Michael Jackson to become addicted to painkillers. CNN's Ted Rowlands reports.
The special effects exploded too early while Michael Jackson filmed a Pepsi commercial in 1984 and his hair caught on fire, causing burns to his scalp.
A fire that claimed the lives of 44 children at a day-care center in Hermosillo, Mexico, started Friday in an air-conditioning unit in an adjacent warehouse, the attorney general of Sonora said Monday.
Skiers and snowboarders can cut the risk of brain injury dramatically by wearing helmets on the slopes, some experts say.
Here's a question to worry "soccer moms" and professional footballers alike: Can playing football lead to long-term brain injury?
Sgt. Ryan Kahlor has the same nightmare every time, a vision of walls painted in blood and fat, and men on top of houses, throwing pieces of Marines' bodies off rooftops. It's a vision he can't shake, because he lived through it while deployed to Iraq last year.
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports on a new study linking soldier concussions in Iraq to PTSD and depression.
New research suggests that post-traumatic stress disorder may be linked to concussions suffered in battle
Every step is precious now. Every movement is a gift. Every morning brings another sunrise, full of sweet promise. When Kevin Everett was a little boy growing up in Port Arthur, Texas, he would sit with his grandpa James Nico, and the older man would explain to him life's lessons. One of them was this: Don't ever be bitter. Just keep doing your best, even when things aren't looking so good.
Latin pop diva Gloria Estefan and former Citadel linebacker Marc Buoniconti have each suffered paralyzing injuries.
Singer Gloria Estefan's CNN Hero has turned his battle with paralysis into a nationwide campaign.
Trent Green does not want his final moment in the NFL to be the image of him fastened to a yellow stretcher, his body rigid beneath black straps, his hands clasped together as if in prayer.
Dan Morgan never wanted to be anybody's lab rat. Football player, husband, father, businessman: Yes, all of those things to the very fullest. But lab rat, where his every breath is extrapolated as a theoretically measurable part of some larger tableau? Not a chance he would sign on for that. His game and his life are too personal, too private, too treasured.
U.S. hospitals are increasingly shutting down their burn centers in a trend experts say could leave the nation unable to handle widespread burn casualties
Chris Nowinski's professional wrestling career didn't end with a pink slip or a celebratory sendoff, but with a swift kick to his chin.
Jesse Billauer rolls into the Beverly Hills Hotel with a blonde bombshell by his side and immediately attracts everyone's attention as soon as he opens his mouth. The tanned surfer is telling his friends to hold on to their girlfriends tight or he just might nab them up before the night is done. His friends laugh but quickly tighten their grip on their significant others. They know Billauer too well.
Iraq war veterans are coming home with injuries of a scope and magnitude the government did not predict and is now struggling to treat
SI.com: Dangerous games updated: Mon Apr 23 2007 12:42:00
The images on the large screen came one after another, each more disturbing and haunting than the other. There was Mike Webster shown naked from the waist up, lying dead on an autopsy table. There was Terry Long dead on an autopsy table with his tongue sticking out, still showing the pain of someone who had endured a prolonged death after ingesting antifreeze. Then there were simply the words of Dr. Bennet Omalu -- who didn't show pictures of Andre Waters because he shot himself -- as he described Waters' condition at his autopsy.
SI.com: One Big Headache updated: Tue Feb 06 2007 08:24:00
Harry Carson realized something was wrong when he was doing television commentary. The former Giants linebacker would be on the air, live, and he'd lose his train of thought. Carson suspected the concentration issue was connected to other symptoms he'd been experiencing -- headaches, blurred vision, a loss of his sense of smell, and sensitivity to lights and noises -- and he went to see a doctor. "I thought I had a brain tumor," he says. The problem turned out to be postconcussion syndrome. Carson, 53, now a member of the Brain Injury Association's Sports Injury Prevention Council, estimates he had between 15 and 18 concussions during his 13-year Hall of Fame career, though he never reported any of them. "Pain and hurt and being uncomfortable was ingrained in me as a player," he says. "No one knew because I kept it to myself."
The latest news on companies previously profiled by FSB.By Emily Maltby and Brandi Stewart
IN THE 2004 "NEXT LITTLE Thing" issue, FSB featured Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, a medical-device firm in Foxborough, Mass., that helps the severely disabled. The company's BrainGate devi...
In Hawaii's opening game of the college football season, running back Nate Ilaoa was knocked out of the game in the second quarter.
British surgeons hope a new procedure using stem cells from the lining of the nose will help mend severed nerves of paralyzed patients and may one day allow them to walk again.
Scientists in the U.S. have successfully used neural stem cells to regenerate damaged spinal cord tissue in mice, raising hopes that the technique could be used to treat disabilities caused by spinal cord injuries and human neurological disorders.
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