Concussion expert's warning gets NFL's ear

CHAPEL HILL -- When you're recognized as a national authority on sports-related concussions, you're more than a dad on the sidelines of a Pop Warner football game in Orange County.

That's life for Kevin M. Guskiewicz. The same man who has studied sports-related concussions since 1994 also had three young sons playing tackle football in Orange County last fall.

Parents regularly approached Guskiewicz, 41, to ask how he could know what he knows about concussions and still feel OK letting 10-year old Jacob, 9-year old Nathan and 7-year-old Adam play a sport that sees its share of the injuries.

"A lot of friends of ours will talk to me and say, 'Oh, you're letting your kids play football. Maybe we'll think about it,' " Guskiewicz says. "I'm very careful. My fear is encouraging them to do it and then the child ends up with an injury. I try to tell them why I encourage my own kids to do it and let them follow that lead or not."

Guskiewicz handles those queries the same way he has handled skepticism from National Football League circles about his concussions research as director for the Sports Medicine Research Laboratory and the Center for Retired Athletes in the UNC Department of Exercise and Sport Science.

Science is his weapon.

Guskiewicz's latest study of 2,552 retired NFL players found that the 595 players with a history of three or more concussions were 20 percent more likely to develop clinical depression than players who hadn't suffered a concussion.

The NFL criticized the size of the research sample -- 69 percent of the players who received a survey responded to it -- and the fact that retirees were relying on their memory of their concussions to complete the surveys.

Henry Feuer, a member of the NFL's mild traumatic brain injury committee who also consults for the Indianapolis Colts, called the findings "virtually worthless."

Guskiewicz has stood by his findings and he's starting to get heard. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has invited Guskiewicz to Chicago on Tuesday to speak to the league's mild traumatic brain injury committee, team doctors and team athletic trainers.

"We are interested in Dr. Guskiewicz's work and look forward to hearing from him at our player health and safety meeting on Tuesday in Chicago," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello.

Guskiewicz expects to be put on the spot because of his long history of contradicting how the NFL's MTBI committee interprets its own findings.

"They're trying to promote football," he says. "It is a safe sport, but we can do better."

Guskiewicz realizes his findings will be disputed, but he thinks it's crucial for the long-term effects of concussions to be debated.

"I can't imagine ignoring it," he says. "It would be irresponsible to ignore it."

Views may start to change

Guskiewicz is too much of a pragmatist to call the NFL commissioner's olive branch vindication. He does think change is near, with Goodell leading the way.

"The fact that the NFL has seemed to take a step back instead of looking the other way [is exciting]," Guskiewicz says.

Guskiewicz has been ruffling NFL feathers for years. David Perrin, Guskiewicz's mentor, says Guskiewicz's work is on the front lines challenging the NFL's long-held beliefs about concussions.

"I don't think he'll receive complimentary Super Bowl tickets from the NFL this year, but that's OK," Perrin says.

Guskiewicz, a native of Latrobe, Pa., became interested in the affects of concussions while working as a graduate assistant athletic trainer for his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers from 1990 to 1992. He saw NFL players take nasty hits to the head.