And Now, Let’s Hear It For ‘Vestibular Disorder’ — the Sidney Crosby Disease?

ESPN’s Outside the Lines – the network’s affirmative-action program for real journalism and intellectual integrity – has a piece at 10 a.m. Eastern time Sunday, on ESPN2, about vestibular disorders. Watch it.

Right now the hockey world is frustrated because Sidney Crosby, the face of the sport, still hasn’t shaken the aftereffects of the concussion that cost him the second half of the last National Hockey League season. The suspicion is that Crosby is among the minority, but significant, percentage of concussed athletes who sustain ongoing vertigo, dizziness, and nausea due to subtle inner-ear damage. In a nutshell, victims lose ability to focus their heads while their heads are moving.

This blog is called Concussion Inc., but that handle is no more limiting than saying “steroids” should exclude discussion of growth hormone. There are many things happening in contact sports involving young, uninformed amateur athletes, and we’re learning a lot more about some of the bad ones.

Irv Muchnick