From the People Who Brought You nflhealthandsafety.com: The Super Bowl Player Safety Ad!

Stefan Fatsis, with whom I haven’t always agreed, has a hell of a strong post in his latest contribution to the Slate-Deadspin NFL Roundtable – a smart fan’s gasfest that I sometimes poke fun at, but not this time. See “Why Are Ray Lewis And ‘Friday Night Lights”s Peter Berg Shilling For The NFL On Player Safety?”, http://deadspin.com/5880953/why-are-ray-lewis-and-friday-night-lights-peter-berg-shilling-for-the-nfl-on-player-safety.

The money quote from Fatsis:

[T]he NFL’s chief marketing officer, Mark Waller, [tells The New York Times] player safety is “probably one of the most important topics for casual fans, particularly mothers.” I added the italics, because if mom thinks football is crazy dangerous, she’s not going to let her son play, and if enough sons don’t play, football loses popularity, and if football loses popularity-you get the picture. Mom may not be reading websites that track catastrophic football injuries, but she will be watching the Super Bowl.

I’m also amused by the news that the NFL is about to unveil yet another new safety website, this one focused on the evolution of football rules. I wonder if it will juxtapose contemporary commentary with observations by Dr. Joseph Maroon – of the Pittsburgh Steelers, World Wrestling Entertainment, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and ImPACT Applications, Inc. – on how you just need to make sure you lead with your shoulder pads when executing the flying wedge. (And maybe Dr. Joe and WWE can lend John Cena, Rey Mysterio, and others to do “don’t try this at home” public service spots.)

Irv Muchnick

Our new ebook, George Visger’s OUT OF MY HEAD: My Life In and Out of Football, is here on Amazon Kindle. UPMC: Concussion Scandal Ground Zero is here. DUERSON is here.