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NFL Players Association President Describes Concussion Education Disparity
Winston during his time playing with the Arizona Cardinals
While the heads of the NFL are typically hesitant to comment candidly on the issue of brain injuries within the sport, the president of the National Football League Players Association is quite open about his thoughts on the topic.
NFLPA president Eric Winston was a guest on a Houston radio station SportsRadio610 recently when he told the hosts of In the Loop, “I just shake my head and just realize how much further we have to go in educating everybody.”
Winston did say the league had made great strides with their efforts to educate players and noted there appear to be less helmet-to-helmet collisions in recent seasons. The problem is who are not getting educated on par with the players.
“We got to keep pushing this message out there and we got to keep educating other influential people like coaches and like [general managers], probably, and obviously that message isn’t getting to some of them,” he said. The NFLPA president also described a disconnect between what players are told about brain injuries and what coaches and general managers receive.
As Winston highlighted, education efforts are making an impact and players are already safer than they were years before. There is still quite a ways to go before we should feel comfortable about the rates however.
