Selected Proceedings From Concussion Symposium Published
Selected proceedings from the Sports Law Symposium sponsored by Manatt and hosted by the Santa Clara University Institute of Sports Law and Ethics on September 12, 2013, have now been published.
Included in the proceedings, beginning on page 21, is a Q&A interview with Alan Schwarz, the sports reporter and keynote speaker of the symposium, who was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his exposition of the concussion epidemic among football players.
The second article, beginning on page 25, is authored by Patrick Larimore, former UCLA football team captain, and is titled “The Investment That Really Matters in College Athletics.” In it, Larimore discusses universities’ fundamental responsibility to assess and protect the long-term health of their student-athletes.
The third article, beginning on page 29, is a summary of highlights and observations from the Aspen Institute’s 2013 “Project Play Summit.” As described in the article, the Aspen Institute’s Project Play is “a thought leadership exercise that aims to provide stakeholders – from parents to policymakers to mayors – with a framework and the tools to build healthy communities through sport activity that meets the needs of all children.”
The fourth article, beginning on page 38, is a law review article written by Stanford Law Professor William B. Gould IV which discusses the issue of preemption and the role of the labor arbitration process as it relates to tort actions filed against the NFL.
The fifth article, beginning on page 53, is entitled “Mixed Messages on Brain Injuries” and was previously published on ESPN.com. In it, the authors Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada report on the NFL’s paradoxical historical practice of awarding disability payments to certain former players for their crippling brain injuries while at the same time consistently denying any link between football and long-term brain damage.
The sixth article, beginning on page 58, is a law review article written by University of Missouri Law Professor and hockey enthusiast, Douglas E. Abrams. This article explores the sports concussion crisis as it relates to youth sports, and the role of the law and tort litigation in enhancing youth sports safety.
The final article, coauthored by Dr. Robert C. Cantu of Boston University Medical Center and Dr. Alisa Gean of UC San Francisco, begins on page 85 and was previously published in the Journal of Neurotrama. In it, Dr. Cantu and Dr. Gean provide a summary of their findings in a study on “second-impact syndrome,” a dangerous condition occurring when athletes sustain a second head injury while still symptomatic from a previous head injury.
To download or read any of the articles in the selected proceedings, please click here.