I’ve shared this elsewhere, but none of us work as central characters in the NFL’s biggest regular presentation of its product. Something else worth noting from that OTL story: Read more
Dom Cosentino
domcosentino1
Dom Cosentino is a staff writer at Deadspin.
Right. So what’d he do between October 2009 (when Goodell got dragged by Congress, which placed the issue in the public’s consciousness) and December 2015 (when Costas wanted to deliver that halftime essay about the Will Smith movie)? OTL reported he mentioned concussions once in one of his halftime essays and two… Read more
What we do is not the same thing. Costas was a central character in the NFL’s biggest regular feature presentation—a job he took 12 years after first saying he had serious qualms about football’s violence. In the OTL piece, he himself drew a distinction between his role on Sunday Night Football and that of a… Read more
You’ve got a point. I guess what I can’t get past is Costas having an issue with the NFL as far back as 1993, only to return to being a central character in the league’s biggest regular production a dozen years later—a job he then continued to do for a decade before deciding he’d had enough. Read more
LOL. Now we’ve moved the goalposts from “at least acknowledging the hypocrisy” to having to make “a strong statement.” OK, fine: I could have added another line to be more explicit, granted. But we’re not directly a part of the league’s biggest source of revenue. I stand by that. Read more
He really only pushed the envelope once he literally had one NFL game left to broadcast, just as he neared retirement age. It’s admirable, yes, and I acknowledged his integrity by quoting Lipsyte. But let’s not pretend he actually risked his career here. Read more
I did in the piece, with the reference to my own cognitive dissonance, but at least acknowledging the differing degrees of hypocrisy would be nice. Read more
We don’t partner with or pay the league. Pretty big difference. Read more
When we start paying the league billions of dollars to distribute its raw (live) product, identify openly as the league’s partners, draw inflated paychecks as a result of said partnership, and hold our tongues on the league’s nefariousness until we near retirement age, you’ll totally have a point! Read more
You’re correct that these legalistic definitions have been a problem. MAF physicians are making clinical judgments, and the NFL has appealed a number of them by zeroing in on when those clinical judgments fail to hew to the settlement’s definitions. The “generally consistent” standard is supposed to account for this… Read more
Right. OK. But I’m talking about this in the context of the settlement’s definitions, which I clearly didn’t articulate well. I didn’t get into it here because this story was a lot to unpack as it is, but I’ve addressed it previously. The settlement categorizes eligible dementia claims as 1.5 Level cognitive… Read more
Alzheimer’s is more advanced. It’s much more likely for Alzheimer’s to be diagnosed on the CDR scale. Whereas those with dementia (as defined by the settlement) might have more frequent moments of clarity. Read more
I completely got Marc Spindler mixed up with Mark Stepnoski, btw. Stepnoski played for the Cowboys. Spindler played for the Lions. I’m an idiot. Read more
Fair. Read more
Yeah. I’m an idiot. It’s fixed. Thanks. Read more
Gah. You’re right. I fixed it. Thanks. Read more
It’s the shifting explanations and the general hilarity of the X-ray machine that got me. There’s long been a general hubris to the Tomlin-era Steelers, as if they think they can always will their way past bad teams or trying situations. They’ve certainly won a lot of games, but they’ve also lost a bunch they should… Read more
But they put him back in with no additional knowledge about the severity of his injury. Read more
Fair. Read more