Dave Duerson's Son and Family Appalled at Commissioner Goodell's Insensitivity
In media sessions leading up to Super Bowl 50, the Commissioner of the NFL and a member of the NFL’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee each made incredulous statements demonstrating their refusal to acknowledge the realities of brain damage as a result of the brain traumas suffered in the NFL.
On Friday, Roger Goodell responded to a question about player safety by stating, "there’s risks in life, there’s risks to sitting on a couch." The day before, Dr. Mitchel Berger, a neurosurgeon at the University of California, San Francisco and member of the NFL's committee charged with studying concussive and subconcussive brain trauma, remarkably denied a link between football and neurodegenerative disease.
The Chicago law firm Corboy & Demetrio represents numerous former NFL players and their families, including the family of 1987 NFL Man of the Year and two-time Super Bowl Champion, Dave Duerson.
Dave Duerson’s son, Tregg Duerson, stated, "Comparing the CTE risk that NFL players face with an apparently inherent risk in sitting on the couch is an insult to the men affected by CTE. These men and their families deserve better. The Commissioner and the owners should be displaying empathy, not insensitively minimizing the severity of long-term brain damage."
Corboy & Demetrio Attorney William T. Gibbs stated, "After all the books that have been written, movies that have been made and autopsies that have been conducted, it is amazing that the League of Denial continues. Repetitive head trauma is the ONLY risk factor for developing CTE. These facts are not in dispute, despite the NFL's desire to undo time and recreate history."
Corboy & Demetrio Co-founder Thomas A. Demetrio stated, “'The Commissioner's ill-advised analogy is nonsensical. He has, in effect, warned over 100 million of us that we will assume a risk if we watch tonight's game while seated on a couch. Really?”
Media Contact: Helen Lucaitis, HHL@corboydemetrio.com, 312-550-2077