The Future of Concussion Inc.’s Legacy Ebook Shorts

A couple of days ago I explained our fresh look in anticipation of the publication in 2026 of PACHINKO MAN: The Life and Meaning of Pro Wrestling Legend Rikidōzan. All six of my six books are now featured here, with links to options for ordering them, either directly from the author or through booksellers.

At the same time, ebooks and descriptions of them are being removed from Concussion Inc. These are not the ebook versions of my hard-copy books, which of course remain available on Amazon Kindle. The ebooks to which we refer are quickie short topical tomes published across the years. Except for the ones I’m pulling from the shelves for the reasons explained here, you can still order the ebooks on Amazon Kindle. You also can still acquire PDF copies for any one of them by remitting $3.50 to paypal@muchnick.net.

• THE CHINA SYNDROME: How Athletes and Celebrities Get Their Performance-Enhancing Drugs – How a Rogue Prosecutor Bungled Their Bust (2012) is the bestselling of our ebooks. Written in collaboration with Anthony Roberts, this tells the inside story of the prosecution of Signature Pharmacy in Florida, which sold anabolic steroids and various gray-market medications to a host of famous entertainers and athletes, as well as to ordinary people. On Amazon Kindle at https://www.amazon.com/CHINA-SYNDROME-Celebrities-Performance-Enhancing-Prosecutor-ebook/dp/B007AMQYPG.
• JUSTICE DENIED: The Untold Story of Nancy Argentino’s Death in Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka’s Motel Room (2013) is the most impactful of our ebooks. Produced in collaboration with Louise Argentino and Lorraine Salome – surviving sisters of Nancy Argentino – it was published on the 30th anniversary of her death, almost certainly at the hands of her boyfriend, WWE star wrestler Snuka. This ebook was part of the process that led to Snuka’s later tardy prosecution, which in turn was ended by the defendant’s plea of mental incompetence weeks before his death. On Amazon Kindle at https://www.amazon.com/JUSTICE-DENIED-Untold-Argentinos-Superfly-ebook/dp/B00CPTP6VM.
• DUERSON (2011) has exclusive information, including from primary-source documents, about the suicide that year of former pro football star Dave Duerson. This story was relevant not only because of the light it shed on the sport’s traumatic brain injury crisis, but also because Duerson, while himself suffering from it himself, served on the National Football League’s retirement and disability plan board, where he was a leading and increasingly unstable denier of the syndrome. On Amazon Kindle at https://www.amazon.com/DUERSON-Irvin-Muchnick-ebook/dp/B0063J5YXK.
• UPMC: Concussion Scandal Ground Zero (2012) details the complicity of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center doctors – some of them team physicians for the Pittsburgh Steelers and consultants for the NFL – in managing and containing, and even profiteering from, football’s public relations crisis surrounding awareness of the prevalence and toll of traumatic brain injuries. On Amazon Kindle at https://www.amazon.com/UPMC-Concussion-Scandal-Ground-Zero-ebook/dp/B006YYJHZK.

Three old ebooks are being pulled from the shelves.

PENN STATE IN THE POOL: The Cover-Up of the USA Swimming Youth Coach Sex Abuse Scandal (2012) contained early reporting for what would become my 2024 book UNDERWATER: The Greed-Soaked Tale of Sexual Abuse in USA Swimming and Around the Globe.

Also part of my decade-plus of reporting on swimming abuse scandals, told comprehensively in UNDERWATER, was THE GEORGE GIBNEY CHRONICLES: What the Hunt For the Most Notorious At-Large Sex Criminal in the History of Global Sports Has Told Us About the Sports Establishments and Governments on Two Continents (2nd edition, 2019).

Finally, we’re removing the short memoir GEORGE VISGER: MY LIFE IN AND OUT OF FOOTBALL (2012). George has come out with his full autobiography, Facing Giants: My 38-Year Battle, covering his survival from multiple brain surgeries and his victory in a decades-long legal fight against the NFL for disability benefits. In 2022, I profiled George for Salon at https://www.salon.com/2022/01/29/football-hero-how-george-visger-survived-the-nfl-and-traumatic-brain-injury-barely/. You can order his book Facing Giants at https://authorgeorgevisgerbookstore.com/.